As part of its mission to encourage students to study math, science and engineering, NASA is sponsoring the finals of a robot basketball tournament for high school teams across the United States from April 27-29 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. Some 1,133 high school robotics teams entered the FIRST (Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) 2006 challenge called "Aim High."
Each team was given identical kits and six weeks to design and build robots for regional basketball competitions to qualify for the finals. See coverage from the San Francisco regional matches.
For "Aim High," robots from two to three team alliances have 40 balls to launch into one of three goals. The robots are pre-programmed and use special vision systems for the first 10 seconds and can be run by remote control thereafter. Watch a competition from Manchester, N.H.
Check back on Monday for the results.
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