Six teams from Hawai'i high schools have taken their ball-tossing robots to Atlanta to compete in this weekend's finals of a national robotics competition.

Representing Hawai'i will be Honoka'a, McKinley, Radford, Sacred Hearts Academy, Waiakea and Waialua high schools.

Radford, Honoka'a and Waialua qualified for the nationals at the Hawai'i Regional last month, won by Radford. Waiakea, McKinley and Sacred Hearts Academy qualified at regional competitions on the Mainland.

They'll be in a field of 343 teams in the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition. The competition begins today.

This year's challenge was to build robots that race along a track as they lift balls over a set of monkey bars.

The number of Hawai'i high schools competing in FIRST Robotics increased from four teams last year to 25 this year.