ISBN-10: 1592533663
ISBN-13: 978-1592533664
May 2007
$39.99
$55.00 Canadian
£25.00
hardcover
600 color photos
272 Pages
Size (in): 8-7/8 x 10-3/8
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FIRST Robots: Aim High
30 Profiles of Winning Robot Designs
Vince Wilczynski & Stephanie Slezycki
Personal robots are about as advanced today as personal computers were on the eve of the first IBM PC in the early 1980s. They are still the domain of hobbyists who cobble them together from scratch or from kits, join local clubs to swap code and stage contests, and whose labor of love is setting the stage for a technological revolution. This book will deconstruct the 30 regional winning robot designs from the FIRST Robotics Competition in 2006. The FIRST Robotics Competition (held annually and co-founded by Dean Kamen and Woodie Flowers) is a multinational competition that teams professionals and young people to solve an engineering design problem in an intense and competitive way. In 2005 the competition reached close to 25,000 people on close to 1,000 teams in 30 competitions. Teams came from Brazil, Canada, Ecuador, Israel, Mexico, the U.K., and almost every U.S. state. The competitions are high-tech spectator sporting events that have gained a loyal following because of the high caliber work featured. Each team is paired with a mentor from such companies as Apple, Motorola, or NASA (NASA has sponsored 200 teams in 8 years).
This book looks at 30 different robot designs all based on the same chassis, and provides in-depth information on the inspiration and the technology that went into building each of them. Each robot is featured in 6-8 pages providing readers with a solid understanding of how the robot was conceived and built. There are sketches, interim drawings, and process shots for each robot.
Click here for details on FIRST robotics competitions
Here's a link to a NASA website with some robot videos
This link is to a FIRST team-to-team web forum.
Vince Wilczynski, Ph.D., directs the Mechanical Engineering major at a New England institution of higher education. He has incorporated robotics and homeland security projects into the Mechanical Engineering curriculum, with many student projects winning national engineering awards. He serves as the Vice President of Public Awareness for the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, is a member of the Executive Advisory Board of the FIRST Robotics Foundation, and is a Fellow with the American Council on Education. Before embarking on a teaching career, he served as a shipboard engineer, and as a staff engineer and staff Naval Architect. Professor Wilczynski was named the 2001 Baccalaureate Colleges Professor the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, the only national award which recognizes outstanding college teaching. He received the 2005 ASME Church Medal for outstanding contributions in mechanical engineering education, including his service as the National Director of the FIRST Robotics Competition.
Stephanie Slezycki is studying Mechanical Engineering in her senior year at the University of Connecticut. She began her involvement in FIRST in 1999 as a member of Team 236, at Lyme/Old Lyme High School. After graduating high school, she worked with Team 246 out of Boston for two years. She completed engineering internships at both General Dynamics Electric Boat and the Coast Guard Academy. Her senior design project at the University of Connecticut involved the design, construction, and integration of a unitized regenerative fuel cell with incorporated hydrogen storage and inductive charging. Upon graduating, Stephanie hopes to continue her involvement in FIRST while working in the engineering field.
Foreword by Dean Kamen, Founder, FIRST
Afterword by Woodie Flowers, Co-Founder, FIRST Robotics Competition
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