I have become a robotics junkie.  Full disclosure: I am a robotics junkie because my grandson, Nicholas Perez, a senior at Dos Pueblos High School in Goleta, is a world class driver on his world class high school robotics team.  His team has won all of its matches today by large margins in the two day  World Championship Robotics Competition in St. Louis, Missouri. He and his 1717  team and supporters are stars and are treated as such during the competition.  Some 402 teams  are competing in the national tournament, illustrating the point that robotics is coming up fast  behind football and basketball as popular sports in hundreds of high schools all over the country.  

The students make their own robots and then maintain and drive and orchestrate them to make baskets with basketballs and perch on platforms and do all kinds of crowd-pleasing things.  It's all  fascinating to watch. I urge you to join in by viewing this link and going to the Newton field  and clicking on the "feed" line. Keep an eye out for 1717 and its next match at 3:50 PST.  Final matches tomorrow (Saturday) at l0 am. PST.  The announcer said this morning that "this robot rarely misses a shot." B3, a former high school football and basketball player who admits he could never build nor drive a robot

http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/robotics/