Robotics Education & Competition Foundation
Inspiring students, one robot at a time.

FUTURE Foundation Robot Construction Challenge

The FUTURE Foundation exists to advance robotics and technology through education.

Build a VEX robot to deliver trophies to award winners at robotics tournament awards presentations. Think of your robot as the helper that makes presenting trophies a fun and exciting part of the awards ceremonies. It is up to you to figure out how this would work, but it should be useful, creative and interesting.

The producers of the VEX Robotics World Championship may buy the winning robot in the FUTURE Foundation Robot Construction Challenge, for the cost of materials, and the robot may be used to present trophies at the 2014 World Championship!

 

Prizes

  • 1st: Future Foundation Robot Construction Award: $750 VEXrobotics.com gift certificate and automatic team qualification for the 2014 VRC World Championship (if part of a registered VRC team)
  • 2nd: $500 VEXrobotics.com gift certificate
  • 3rd: $250 VEXrobotics.com gift certificate

Requirements

Eligibility

  • This contest is open to registered 2014 VEX Robotics Competition or VEX U teams.
  • Designs submitted in previous Online Challenges are not eligible for submission this year.
Requirements
  • Build a VEX robot to deliver trophies to the winners at robotics tournaments.
  • The person or group who builds the winning robot has to be willing to sell it to the producers of the VEX Robotics World Championship (for the cost of materials), and that robot may be used to present trophies at the 2014 VEX Robotics World Championship!
  • The robot needs to be able to deliver any standard VEX Robotics Competition trophy, including the World Championship trophies. The smallest VEX Robotics Competition Trophy is 10" tall, 2.5" deep, and 7" wide (25cm, 6.3cm, 17.5cm) and weighs 19oz (.5kg). The largest is 18" tall, 3.5" deep, 8.5" wide (46cm, 8.9cm, 22cm), and weighs 73oz. (2.1kg).
  • Create a video of the robot in action posted to YouTube, not more than 3 minutes long. After your 180 seconds of video demonstrating the robot, you should have up to 15 seconds of credits. The credits must be at the end, not the beginning of the video.
  • The robot should be made of VEX components, with the use of non-VEX components allowed for decorations or for video, sound, cameras, or similar elements not provided by VEX.
Judging

Judges will select ten finalists from the submitted entries, and will take community voting results into account in making their choices. The finalist submissions will then be judged by additional selected professionals whose scores will be combined with the preliminary-round judges’ scores to determine the winner of the FUTURE Foundation Robot Construction Challenge.

Evaluation
  • Additional Information
    • Wouldn’t your school like a trophy robot? It would be good for your robot to handle a variety of trophies (sports, band, theater, honor society, etc.) so that it gets lots of use.
    • The robot may be teleoperated ("driver control").
    • The robot can be any size or shape – this is not a VRC robot. Also, if your “decorative” elements require non-VEX batteries, that is acceptable. Keep in mind the safety rules, though: no high voltage on the robot, and make sure it is not going to be a risk to the people in the awards ceremony!
    • The working robot must be built from VEX parts, but do not forget that you can add cameras, speakers, decorations – just about anything to make your robot look and work great.
  • Evaluation
    • The judges will be looking for a robot that does a great job of delivering trophies and helping with the awards process.
    • The robot can deliver both VEX World Championship-size and -weight trophies, AND can deliver other robotics, sports, and academic trophies will get a plus in judging.
    • The robot is well made and functional, and safe in use.
    • The robot completes its task in a creative, fun, interesting way.
    • The video clearly shows the robot in action, and how it performs its task.
    • The video is well made with good video, editing, use of sound, and music.

Deadline Information

Current time:
Fri, Feb 14, 2025 9:19 AM CST

Opens:

Tue, Sep 17, 2013 7:00 PM CDT

Closes:

Tue, Jan 14, 2014 12:00 PM CST

Voting Ends:

Fri, Jan 31, 2014 6:00 AM CST