The Landroids robotics team from the Livingston Robotics Club has secured a invitation to the World Championship this spring by winning the highest honor at the Delaware Diamond State Championship tournament on Saturday.

In winning the Inspire Award on Saturday, the Landroids became the first New Jersey FIRST Tech Challenge Team to earn an invitation to the FTC World Championship, which will be held in April in St. Louis. 

In addition to the Inspire Award, The Landroids also ranked fifth in robot competition out of 33 teams from Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Maryland and Rhode Island, and was nominated for both the Innovate and Think Awards, said Surasit Nithikasem, spokesman for the non-profit Livingston Robotics Club.

Teams compete in FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) State Championship tournaments from January through March.  In the high school division of FTC competition, teams may compete in neighboring states to increase their chances of advancing to the world level. At each championship event, only two teams received invitations -- the Inspire Award winner and the Winning Alliance Captain. And no team can win more than one Inspire Award.

More than a dozen States across US have already chosen their top two award winners for the 100 spots at the FTC World Championship -- the Olympics for Robotics.

Team Landroids has consistently won first-place awards at national and international science and robotics competitions in the last three seasons, Nithikasem said.

“Behind the trophies and limelight, there are many hours of sweat and labor invested by the members and the coaches,” Nithikasem said.

As an independent team that is part of a non-profit organization, the Landroids has only enough parts to build one robot and start each season slowly, he said, focusing on learning the fundamentals in material fabrication, robot construction, electronics and prototype board design, RobotC programming and Pro-E rendering.

“The team has set the bar high and aimed for a particular game mission that no one else is attempting: detecting and dispensing the magnet baton out of 100 batons stacked around the field,” he said.