ESCANABA — Students from across the Upper Peninsula and some from Lower Michigan are converging on Escanaba this weekend for the FIRST in Michigan district robotics competition.

Forty robotics teams are scheduled to participate in the event, which officially kicks off with opening ceremonies at 10:30 a.m. Friday. Many of the teams will be at the school early, as pits will be open and robots will be inspected beginning at 5 p.m. Thursday.

This year’s competition game is called CHARGED UP, and is based on the concept of energy storage and supplying a grid with power. In two periods — one where a team’s robot moves autonomously and one where the robots are controlled by human operators — teams will work cooperatively in sets of three to move cones and blocks into their “grids” to charge up their community and engage robots with a “charging station” platform. A total of six teams will participate in each match, with the alliance of three teams that scored the most points through placing items and engaging with the charging station being named the winner.

While the schedule could shift some due to the flow of matches, qualification matches are scheduled to take place Friday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2 to 7 p.m. More qualifies will be held Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and playoff matches will run from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Awards will be presented from 5 to 6:30 p.m., after all play has concluded.