A local team will test their robot-building skills at a global competition this week in Detroit. The Winter Soldiers are fourteen middle and high school students from Bettendorf and Pleasant Valley. The organization "FIRST Tech Challenge" is the host. The Winter Soldiers are one of 128 teams who will bring their robots to perform tasks to win a game.
Varun Vedula is a junior at P-V and says their robot's name is the Falcon. The design is unique because it's stationary instead of mobile.
Five years ago, he grew out of Lego League. So Vedula and his mom founded the Winter Soldiers. She's a lead IT analyst at John Deere, and co-workers help her coach the team.
Eighth grade rookie, Rithvik Vanga, says the teams share information about their robots with each other, and they have to work with other teams to show they can collaborate.
Falcon and the Winter Solders left Tuesday morning and will spend four days in Detroit.
The FIRST Robotics Einstein Round Robin Tournament will be held on Saturday.
FIRST is an acronym - "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology."