The FIRST robotics competition game was announced on 10 January 2004, and the Falcon Engineering and Robotics (FEAR) team is busy designing and building our robot. We have six weeks to complete the robot and ship it to the regional competition. This year, FIRST has expanded to over 23,000 students on 930 teams in almost every state in the union as well as from Brazil, Canada, Great Britain, and Mexico. The kit, which is meant to provide a level starting point for all teams, included motors, sensors, shafts, bearings, an enhanced multi-channel radio control system and a 12V battery power supply. Your generous donation helped pay for this kit.

This year's game is called, "First Frenzy: Raising the Bar." Each game lasts for only two minutes. Each team is paired with another team, and the two-team alliance then competes against another pair of teams. The objective is to score points in a variety of ways that include negotiating IR beacons during the Autonomous Period, herding small balls to Ball Corrals, capping goals with large balls, moving mobile goals, climbing steps and attempting to hang from the Pull-Up Bar. The game begins with a 15-second Autonomous period where the robots attempt to release the small scoring balls. If the robot fails to release the balls during this period, then the balls we be automatically released after one minute. Human players attempt to toss the small balls collected in the coral into the mobile scoring goal. The team has to coordinate with their partner team and make critical decisions quickly near the end of the game to maximize points. Cooperation is imperative. The final score is obtained by counting the number of small balls in the goals, doubling the small-ball points for goals that are capped with the large ball, and adding 50 points for any robot that is hanging from the bar at the end of the game. All robots have an emergency kill switch that disables the robot if the judges believe it has become unsafe. Once disabled, the robot cannot be enabled until after the game has been completed.

For more information on our team, please visit our website at: http://www.fearfoundation.com/.