Collegiate Aerial Robotics Demonstration
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The Collegiate Aerial Robotics Demonstration (CARD) is a robotics competition for college and university students inspired by
FIRST First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...
. The inaugural event was held at the 2011 FIRST Championship in
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.


History

The possibility of a college-level FIRST competition has been discussed for many years. At the 2010 FIRST Championship in
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, a group of college students and faculty were invited to a discussion in which FIRST Founders
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and
Woodie Flowers Woodie Claude Flowers (November 18, 1943 – October 11, 2019) was a professor of mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His specialty areas were engineering design and product development; he held the Pappalardo Pr ...
and Editor-in-chief of
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Chris Anderson Chris Anderson may refer to: Sports * Chris Anderson (baseball) (born 1992), American baseball player * Chris Anderson (cheese roller), 22-time winner of annual cheese rolling * Chris Anderson (footballer, born 1925) (1925–1986), Scottish footb ...
proposed the idea of a college-level FIRST program. Chris Anderson suggested the inclusion of aerial robots in the college level program and demonstrated a robotic
quadcopter A quadcopter or quadrotor is a type of helicopter with four rotors. Although quadrotor helicopters and convertiplanes have long been flown experimentally, the configuration remained a curiosity until the arrival of the modern UAV or drone. T ...
(a Parrot AR.Drone) and an RC blimp. As a result of the meeting, a planning committee was formed to design and promote a college-level program, chaired by Dr. Karina J. Powell and Dr. Christopher L. Jones. In December 2010, a kickoff video was released giving an overview of the program. Further documents and team updates have established and clarified the demonstration competition and game rules. The possibility of having a full college-level FIRST competition is still being discussed.


Games


2011

There are two games played on fields equivalent to the FRC standard size (54 feet by 27 feet). For both games there were two competing alliances, each with two teams each composed of one air vehicle and one ground vehicle. The first game, All Your Base, involves a 3 by 3 grid of 4'6" tall rectangular bases. Ground robots capture bases by shooting projectiles (tennis balls) through openings on one or two sides of the base. Aerial robots capture bases by picking up a virtual payload from their starting location and then landing on top of the base. Teams score bonus points by capturing three bases in a row. The second game is The Best Trajectory. Ground robots score points by shooting projectiles across a large trapezoidal barrier placed at midfield into mobile goals on the other side. Aerial robots can retrieve foam cube "payloads" from the top of the barrier and drop them into the goals to multiply the score of that goal. Drivers will not be able to see past the barrier. Teams may use their aerial robots to relay targeting data from the other side of the barrier. This game was never played at the 2011 demonstration in order to maintain the learning curve for teams playing All Your Base, as the result of a collective team and planning committee decision. A third game design, named FIRST Flight, was removed from the schedule for the inaugural competition and was replaced with a practice course for the aerial robots.


2012

CARD and FIRST severed their relationship after the 2011 season. However, the schools and organizations involved in CARD are working toward setting up a separate competition to continue this program. The 2012 game, whose tournament was to be held at the
Milwaukee School of Engineering The Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) is a private university in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The campus is in the List of neighborhoods of Milwaukee, East Town neighborhood of downtown Milwaukee. The school's enrollment of 2,820 includes 224 g ...
, involved robots trying to score in a series of towers. If an alliance scores at a rapid rate, they will have an additional tower available for them to score in for a short period of time. Due to circumstances beyond the teams control, the 2012 competition was postponed.


2013

For the 2013 season, the
Milwaukee School of Engineering The Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) is a private university in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The campus is in the List of neighborhoods of Milwaukee, East Town neighborhood of downtown Milwaukee. The school's enrollment of 2,820 includes 224 g ...
hosted the competition on April 5 and 6.
Milwaukee School of Engineering The Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) is a private university in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The campus is in the List of neighborhoods of Milwaukee, East Town neighborhood of downtown Milwaukee. The school's enrollment of 2,820 includes 224 g ...
,
University of Wisconsin-Platteville A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...
, and
Virginia Tech Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also has educational facilities in six re ...
competed. Oakland University had to drop out at the last minute due to a fatal crash to their quadcopter.


Colleges/universities involved


Teams


Other Involvement

*
Worcester Polytechnic Institute Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) is a Private university, private research university in Worcester, Massachusetts. Founded in 1865 in Worcester, WPI was one of the United States' first engineering and technology universities and now has 14 ac ...
* Baker College


See also

*
International Aerial Robotics Competition The International Aerial Robotics Competition (IARC) began in 1991 on the campus of the Georgia Institute of Technology and is the longest running university-based robotics competition in the world. Since 1991, collegiate teams with the backing ...


References


External links


Official CARD webpageDaily Tribune news article regarding CARD
{{FIRST For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology 2011 in robotics Recurring events established in 2011 Student robotics competitions