NORWICH – The Chenango County FIRST TR-X 145 Robotics Team recently held their 2011 kick-off at the Norwich Senior High School. Through a live feed provided by NASA, originating from Manchester, NH, at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 8, the team learned of the new challenge for 2011 along with other teams nationwide.

Inventor Dean Kamen and will.i.am of The Black Eyed Peas launched the FIRST® Robotics Competition (FRC®) 20th anniversary season with the a new robotics game called “LOGO MOTION™.”

FIRST teams received a kit of Parts made up of motors, batteries, a control system, a PC and a mix of automation components – but no instructions. Working with mentors, students have six weeks to design, build, program and test their robots to meet the season’s engineering challenge. Once these young inventors create a robot, their teams participate in competitions that measure the effectiveness of each robot, the power of collaboration and the determination of students.

In the FRC “LOGO MOTION” robotics game, two alliances of three teams will compete on a 27-by-54-foot field with poles, attempting to earn points by hanging as many triangle, circle and square logo pieces as possible. Bonus points will be earned for each robot that can hang and assemble logo pieces to form the FIRST logo.