FIRSTbase: The Autodesk Source for FIRST Robotics Competition Teams

Students participating in the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition gain firsthand experience with Autodesk Inventor, Autodesk 3ds Max, 3D modeling, animation techniques, and rendering capabilities. Last year I featured the winner of the robotics competition on this blog entry: See winning Cybersonics robotics entry without installing additional software. I used Project Freewheel to show you the winning entry. This was considered such a winning idea that the FIRSTbase pages themselves now allow you to view this year's entries as JPG, DWF (Autodesk Design Review), ZIP (source files), or Project Freewheel (just your browser):

2008 Autodesk Inventor Design Competition Viewer

Check it out. As I am from Arizona, I have a special place in my heart for the Arizona Regional entry. Thanks to Product Designer, Peter Maxfield, for the heads up on this one.