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Business Notes continued
later it is the largest robotic competition of its kind in the world.
AutomationDirect loves supporting FIRSTTM because of the incredible impact it has in getting young minds engaged in learning skills they can use to build a bright future for themselves.
Each year FIRSTTM announces a new challenge. The high school students then have six weeks to create a 120-pound robot that can effectively accomplish that challenge which looks a lot like
a 3v3 sporting event. Six robots at a time on a playing field about the size of a basketball court. The challenge might be shooting balls into a goal, over- coming obstacles, hanging, balancing, etc.
Game Animation
The entire world waits with great anticipation each year for the announcement of the new challenge the first week in January and it is AutomationDirect that produces the animation of the game that everyone is waiting to see!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= gmiYWTmFRVE)
The annual game animation is a huge task that takes several months to complete and over 2000 hours of computer time to render the final animation.
This year’s competition is inspired by Star Wars Force for Change which is a Star Wars-themed charity program run by Lucas Film and the Walt Disney Company that collects donations to fund solutions for world problems.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= bPY9Mfj7eRU)
Virtual Reality Simulation of the Competition Field
Go to The FIRSTTM Robotics competition has grown Article
from that original 28 teams into a worldwide phe- nomenon with around 4000 competition teams. That’s great, but it poses a new problem. In the early days FIRSTTM would setup example competi- tion fields around the country for teams to examine. It’s incredibly important for teams to be able to walk around the field and get a feel for the challenges before they start designing their robots. But today, with 140 official kickoff locations (and a bunch of unofficial locations) around the world it has become impossible to create that many example fields for teams to experience.
AutomationDirect to the rescue! In addition
to producing the annual game animation, AutomationDirect also produces a Virtual Reality sim- ulation of the competition field so any team any- where in the world can put on a VR headset and lit- erally walk around the field and interact with the vari- ous obstacles. They can also stand in their respective driver stations to see what the field looks like when they are running a competition. This is a fantastic use for Virtual Reality and is the wave of the future.
Go here to learn more about the virtual reality
Editor's Note
New Product Focus
- Headless C-more Remote HMI without attached display
- Continuous Flexing Profinet Cable
- ProductivityOpen Arduino-compatible Controller
- Hammond Industrial Enclosures
Tech Thread
Productivity®Open - Maker In, Industrial Out
Business Notes
Cover Story
Does Your PLC Talk JSON?
What's New
User Solutions
Roller Coaster Overhaul
Student Spotlight
Industrial Automation with a Mission
Break Room
Brain Teasers
Business Notes www.automationnotebook.com | Issue 43
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