Here is a little information about one of the robotic Competition that I am in and also one that is listen the robotics competition section on the site. Its called F.I.R.S.T. For Inspiration and Recognition in Science and Technology. Each year they come out with a new challenge. Once the challenge is revealed (sometime around January each year) you have 6 weeks to design build and program your own robot. Some teams get Professional help but we just get help from our Engineering teach in school. Our school has all the equipment needed to build a robot such as a computer controlled Lathe and also milli machine. We have several drill press's and many other machines. My favorite station in the lab is the Assembly line. It has 2 robotics Arm's a conveyer belts system a camera to scan all the parts made and a milli machine to make the parts. It all works together to build and assemble parts. Once you finish building the robot you must ship it away. Building the robot is ALWAYS fun but its a lot more fun at the competitions! there are like 15 regional Competitions and 1 national competition. About 300 Teams participate in the competition. Its such an outstanding experience. here are some pictures of our lab and robot. http://communities.msn.com/EngineeringAtMKHS/photos1.msnw and this one has more pics of robots we made http://mkhsrobot.freeservers.com/robot.htm