VEX Robotics creates tools that educators and mentors can use to encourage and develop the learners today into the problem solvers of the future. VRC, or the VEX Robotics Competition, is an opportunity to grow your programming and design skills through high school in a competitive environment.
VEX hopes that one day, every student will have the opportunity to experience the excitement of hands-on STEM learning and creation. Regardless of age or background, VEX wants all people to feel inspired by technology personally and see the importance of creative problem solving for a better future.
Our world faces a serious problem. It’s a problem that, without explicit and intentional action, will eventually stagnate global progress and lead to a workforce that is unmotivated and ill-equipped to solve its future problems. As the world grows more technologically complex, the challenges we face every day will continue to escalate along with it. A cell phone has more failure modes than a landline. The internals of an electric car are more difficult to comprehend than a V8 combustion engine. Unmanned drone legislation is more nuanced than defining a maximum speed limit.
Dubbed “the STEM problem”, the situation is equally simple to understand, yet difficult to solve. In many cases, the traditional methods of teaching science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) will not be enough to adequately prepare students for this complex world. This is often coupled with the unfortunate reality that by the time they reach an age capable of grasping these critical topics, students may have already determined that they are “not cool” or “boring”. Without the skills or passion necessary to approach these problems in an educated manner, you cannot possibly expect to be productive in making forward progress or even sustaining the status quo.
The VEX Robotics Competition exists to solve this problem. Through its uniquely engaging combination of teamwork, problem solving, and scientific discovery, the study of competitive robotics encompasses aspects of STEM. You’re not building VEX EDR robots because your future job will involve tightening shaft collars on a metal bar – you’re executing an engineering design and problem-solving process that resembles the same mindset used by rocket scientists, brain surgeons, and inventors around the world.
Robotics Competition Tower Takeover is not just a game that we invented because it is fun to play – it is a vehicle for teaching (and testing) teamwork, perseverance in the face of hardship, and provides a methodology to approach and solve new challenges with confidence.
Contained in this manual are the rules that shape VRC Tower Takeover. These rules are designed to simulate the constraints that will outline any real-world project. They are intended to promote creativity without punishing innovation. They are balanced to promote fair play while encouraging competition.
We encourage you to keep in mind that a VEX Robotics Competition game is more than just a set of game objects worth varying amounts of points. It is an opportunity to hone the life-long skills that will characterize the problem-solving leaders of tomorrow.
Good luck, and we’ll see you on the playing field!
Sincerely,
The VEX Robotics Game Design Committee, comprised of members from the Robotics Education & Competition Foundation, Robomatter, DWAB Technology, and VEX Robotics.