New Industrial Robotics and UAV Drone Competitions Launched for Wisconsin SkillsUSA
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Wisconsin SkillsUSA has launched two new competitions for the 2022-2023 season: industrial robotics and UAV drones. These competitions will take place at the statewide conference in Madison on April 25-26, 2023. Participants in the UAV drones competition will have the opportunity to advance to the SkillsUSA National Championships in Atlanta, Georgia in June.

SkillsUSA’s vision is to produce the most highly-skilled workforce in the world. They partner with K-12 through post-secondary institutions, along with thousands of business and community partners, to deliver training and development to students for skilled careers. For over 50 years, the organization has held competitions in every U.S. state and nationally to test students’ knowledge and skills in over 130 job categories – especially those covered by Career and Technical Education courses.

The skilled workforce is evolving, and SkillsUSA has adapted its competition offerings to keep pace. These two new competitions will introduce modern technologies prevalent in today’s high-tech workforce. Schools who embrace these technologies and prepare teams for competition are also preparing those students for exciting career opportunities.

NEW! UAV Drone Competition will be offered at the Wisconsin SkillsUSA State Competition

2023 will mark the inaugural statewide UAV Drone Competition!  This is a national-bound contest (currently in a demo-phase) where teams will be competing at the statewide conference in Madison for a chance to compete at the National Championships in Atlanta, GA.

This career competition is designed to develop skills in problem solving, mechanical engineering, electronics engineering, programming and piloting. Participants and instructors will find new levels of passion and enthusiasm for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), Robotics, Drones, and STEM based careers. Both the UAV Robotics Contest and the Applied Learning Contest will make up a portion of the total points earned by each team.

Skills and Knowledge Performance

Task 1: Manual Flight Skills

Task 2: sUAS Maintenance Troubleshooting and Repair

Task 3: FAA Knowledge Test

Task 4: Autonomous Flight

A registered SkillsUSA advisor will have access to the detailed competition standards and regulations.  Additionally, virtual and onsite training sessions will be available leading up to the state conference in April.

The MINDS-i UAV drones platform will be used for the competition. Learn more / Get access to the kit.

NEW! Industrial Robotics Competition will be offered at Wisconsin the SkillsUSA State Competition

New this year, SkillsUSA chapters from across Wisconsin will be able to compete in the first SkillsUSA Statewide Industrial Robotics Competition! This is not a National bound competition at this time, but teams looking to grow a program prepared to compete nationally will benefit from a head start in this state competition.

Robotics competitions are growing rapidly across the country, and this career competition will provide an opportunity for students to showcase their skills using an authentic industrial robot platform.

Team Robotics CompetitionIndustrial Robotics Challenge

The competition challenge will require students to design, program, and implement and automated material-handling solution to a proposed task on a FANUC LRMate 6-axis robot.  The specific challenge will be designed to allow teams to be creative in their programming, and each team will be judged by a panel of experts on their ability to complete the objective, program planning, efficiency, teamwork, and general robotics knowledge.

For this new career competition there will be a high school and technical college division, and it is strongly recommended that all competitors are familiar with the competencies covered in the FANUC HandlingTool Operations and Programming course materials.  Please note that this competition is open to all SkillsUSA Wisconsin Chapters and it is not required for your program to have your own robot in order to compete.  Stay tuned for additional information and detailed competition standards.

If you are interested in FANUC robotics for your program: Learn more / Get access to FANUC education robots.

Interested in participating in these competitions?

We can help your program get the necessary equipment, curriculum and resources to prepare a team to compete in the Wisconsin SkillsUSA competition. Fill out the form below, let us know which competition you’re interested in, and we’ll be happy to help!

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