Congratulations to our three Frontier Challenge semi-finalists!
Our Semifinalists
The three teams competing for the top Frontier Summer Robotics Challenge award, whom we’re calling Team Vu, Team E&A 
and Team Trinity Dragons , submitted three very different conceptual designs, of which we’re only giving you tantalizingly vague images from their design submissions.
One utilizes an interactive selection method, another employs a pair of tag team bots, and the third one takes the NASA ISS humanoid robot as its model. All three teams are comprised of high school student designers and builders affiliated with local VEX and FIRST teams.
The Challenge
Now it’s game on, as each team works to make their designs a reality by the end of September. Each of the semi-finalist teams receives $500 to apply towards their full robot build and can schedule use of the AMRoC Fab Lab workshop and resources as needed. Final products will be showcased at a Skills Challenge Demo Day event at AMRoC Fab Lab in September, where completed mechanisms will be put through their paces, including:
- Interacting with guests
- Selecting and distributing a variety of swag to guests
- Speed test – how fast it collects and distributes swag
And will be judged by:
- Ability to hand swag to guests smoothly and quickly
- Degree of autonomous vs. manual capability
- Degree of interaction with guests
- Ability and speed needed to detect guests
- Mechanism’s overall appearance
Guest Judge Sam McAmis of Team Gruff
The winning mechanism will be the one judged the most consistent, 
reliable, and entertaining by a panel of judges from Frontier and guest judge, Sam McAmis of Team Gruff, of Battlebots fame.
When Sam isn’t teaching at River Ridge High School in Pasco, and coaching the Royal Robotics FIRST Robotics Competition team, he’s building his own big robots. Gruff has made a name for itself on the local National Robotics League circuit for many years, and last year took on some big names in the Battlebots arena. We’re grateful that Sam is bringing his considerable experience with robotics to the Frontier Challenge, to help judge the final builds.
The Winning team will be awarded $2000 for the purchase of their robot by Frontier for use at events, and the team will be recognized by Frontier at high profile events.
We’ll be sharing photos and stories throughout the next few weeks as we cheer these great teams on to the Frontier Challenge finish line!
The Frontier Robotics Challenge is a collaborative project of AMRoC Fab Lab, Frontier and First Step Marketing.