WEST LAFAYETTE — No one said all robotics teams were created equal, but in the quest for technological dominance, there are a few points of etiquette.

Teams at the FIRST robotics competition in West Lafayette Friday were more than willing to give each other a bit of help, where help could be spared.

With teams lining up for heats every 30 minutes or so, there wasn’t much time to stop by the other pits. Even so, as the teams in need became apparent, techno-minded adults and teenagers began circulating outside their own pit areas.

Western’s Panthertech team was having a tough time early in the two-day competition, with a robot that simply refused to move.

Mentor Joe Reel worked with the students to try to write a computer code to patch the problem, but next heat out, the No. 292 machine refused to budge again. Back to the drawing board.

Over at Taylor’s Robo Titans team, the No. 1760 machine dropped drive chains on two consecutive heats. But that was minor compared to the problems the team faced coming up on the hard deadline for having its machine competition ready.

Every year, FIRST officials embargo the details of the specific game to be played by the robots, to give each team exactly six weeks to prepare.

At the end of the preparation period, each team must ship off their machine via FedEx (a FIRST sponsor), regardless of whether the machine actually works.

Taylor’s team worked feverishly to make the deadline, and for a few glorious moments on shipping day, it looked as if their machine worked. Then, it broke down again.

Never despair, because Alan Anderson, a longtime mentor for the pioneering Kokomo Technokats team, helped the Robo Titans discover their electric motor wasn’t properly grounded, and was sending current through the frame of the machine, Taylor senior Ben Akers explained.

“Typically, it’s the mentor support that makes the difference,” said Mark Koors, a Technokats mentor and co-founder of the AndyMark robotics supply company.

A quick look around the Purdue Armory Friday was enough to learn some teams have numerous corporate sponsors footing the robotics bill, while other teams are still getting established. Some have a team of adult engineers; some have a few mechanically inclined moms and dads.

“The net result is that on the first day of the competition, you can see some robots are basket cases, and some aren’t,” Koors said. “But everybody jumps in and helps, and before long, all of the robots are competing. It’s just an amazing phenomenon.”

FIRST was founded in 1989 by Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway Human Transporter, and in 1992 the inaugural FIRST competition was held with 28 teams. Now, 15 years later, it has grown to over 1,000 teams.

At the Boilermaker Regional Friday, more than 50 teams competed in what amounted to a robot soccer game, with their machines designed to trap and shoot actual soccer balls into several 4-feet by 3-feet goal spaces. Six teams, divided equally into “red” and “blue” sides, competed in each heat.

The Technokats, which have been around since the competition started in 1992, proudly wore No. 45 on their machine. Teams with the lowest numbers have been around the longest.

The team looked dominant Friday, scoring all seven of its side’s goals in one heat.

The team engineered a spinning rod to spin several silicone cogs, which in turn acted like a Bissell sweeper. The spinning cogs trapped the ball up against a rod, allowing the team’s drivers to basically carry the ball into the goals. It worked like a charm.

Kokomo’s generous sponsors funded a trip to a friendly competition in Muncie shortly before the Boilermaker event, where the team was able to engineer its ball-trapping capability, team business lead Elizabeth Davis explained.

Delphi Electronics & Safety has always been a mainstay sponsor for the Technokats, which, along with the contributions of mentors and students over the years, is a big reason why the team will act as cosponsor of the upcoming Indiana Robotics Invitational meet.

Chris Fultz, an engineer with Rolls-Royce in Indianapolis, and a mentor for Perry Meridian High School’s No. 234 entry, had fond memories of a winning partnership “with The 45” at a Washington D.C. meet last year.

With teams paying $5,000 each for a kit of parts and an entry into one competition, cultivating sponsors is simply part of team membership, FIRST competitors agree.

“All of the [Perry Meridian Cyber Blue team] kids are required to get community sponsors,” said Fultz, who even talked his family doctor into becoming a sponsor. “It gets the kids out in the community, talking about the team.”

Elizabeth Davis, a senior who has applied to Indiana University, Stanford and Amherst, said preparing for competitions and lining up sponsors is a year-round occupation.

“It’s always nice to have more sponsors, but we really have a strong relationship with all of our sponsors right now,” she said.

• Scott Smith is a Tribune staff writer. He can be reached at 765-454-8569, or at scott.smith@kokomotribune.com