FIRST Robotics

FIRST Robotics is an international competition where high school students compete to build robots to complete a task. Each year, a new task is presented and the build season starts. For more information about FIRST go to http://www.usfirst.org/.

Autodesk participates in many ways. All teams have access to many Autodesk design software titles for free. Autodesk also sponsors the Award for Excellence in Design and the Award for Excellence in 3D Animation. Many Autodesk employees also donate their time to mentor local FIRST Robotics teams. To learn more about Autodesk participation in FIRST go to http://Autodesk.com/FIRST.  

In previous years, I was a judge for the Autodesk design competition. I was amazed at the detail and ability of the models submitted. The students had really embraced digital prototyping and Autodesk software.

For the 2011 season, I was a mentor for FIRST Team 503 in Novi. I was there to help with their use of Inventor and Vault. Yes, they were voluntarily using Vault to manage their data and allow the various teams to access the files as needed. Their chassis was designed using many of the components from the “kit of parts” that each FIRST team is provided. The task for this year’s competition was to lift different shaped innertubes onto a scoring board. To perform this task, FIRST Team 503 designed the Spatuclaw. Images of the actual robot and the Inventor model are below.

It was fun to watch these young engineers work together to present designs and solve design challenges. The students divided into groups according to knowledge and interests. This is where Vault helped them organize and manage design changes. I was also very impressed with the knowledge share between FIRST teams. In this case, the Novi High School team mentored another local school who was participating for the first time. Team 503 also submitted for both Autodesk design awards. More about Team 503: http://www.frogforce503.org/

Over the next few months, I plan to add videos, tutorials, and other documentation to this wiki page. I will focus on Inventor for the most part, but may introduce other Autodesk products if it seems relevant. This content is intended to help FIRST robotics participants and anyone else who is just starting to use Inventor. To start things off, I’m going to lean on Rob Cohee and some great videos he has created. These videos are excellent for the first time you sit down with Inventor. Enjoy!

Link to playlist: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?p=PL428287FEFDCCAE1D