Robots are set to take over the St.Denis Centre this weekend for the inaugural Windsor-Essex Great Lakes Regional First Robotics Tournament.

Teams from across Ontario, Michigan, New York, Ohio and Quebec are starting their descent upon Windsor. More than 1,500 high school students will take part in the two day competition.

Windsor has seen an increase in the popularity of robotics with 13 teams entering the competition. That’s up from four in 2013. This is the first year of many, in which Windsor will play host to the regional tournament – one of seven across Canada.

Everything is open to the public, with qualifiers taking place Friday and the finals wrapping up Saturday afternoon.