For the third year in a row, Robotics advanced to State. The competition took place at the University of Indianapolis on March 9th.
Before the competition, there were a couple of things the team worked on.
“We made adjustments to the robot’s pick-up mechanism and plane launcher to make it more efficient in the robot game at State. We also worked on making adjustments to the autonomous program which is the pre-programmed period,” senior Ishani Shah said.
Everyone on the team worked on improving their robot the entire season.
“Our robot has been modified and improved throughout our whole season, but currently we have a robot that can pick up two pixels and place them where they need to go. Our robot can also shoot a paper airplane and pull itself up on a bar,” senior Ben Wehnert said.
Every year, FIRST robotics creates a game challenge for teams to compete.
“This year’s game is that our robot has to pick up pixels and place them onto the backboard creating a mosaic of three different or same color pixels. We can also shoot a paper airplane outside of the field, and it should land in one of the three different zones as well as hang our robot during end game. Our goal was to build a robot that can do as many of the challenges present,” Shah said.
Shah explained how the games work at State.
“During a competition, we have five matches and are paired with different teams. We have to come up with strategies to maximize the number of points. During a math we have two minutes and 30 seconds to compete. We have a 30 second autonomous period where our robot does the pre-programmed tasks. Then, a minute and 30 seconds to do the challenges and 30 seconds at the end to do the end game challenges. We compete against another team that is paired up, and whoever gets the most points wins the match. The teams that gets the most wins make it to the final round. Awards that we get at competition are based on performance, rank, and outreach,” Shah said.
Competition takes more than a robot.
“I’m on our engineering notebook team so I focused more on outreach opportunities, social media, and our portfolio which is one of our main focuses as it is how we are going to state,” freshman Nolan Stivers said.
Shah explains how State went for the team.
“The State Robotics competition went great. We competed against the best teams from all over the state so the competition was at another level compared to the regional level ones. The team practiced for the past three weeks and made changes that we believed would put us at a good level for state. Competing wise, the team competed the best they could through all five matches. Green Machine won the 2nd place motive award which is an award that goes to the team that demonstrates Gracious Professionalism and enthusiasm for spreading FIRST robotic through the community,” Shah said.
Besides competing with a robot, the team also participated in an interview with the competition.
“Our team members did a fantastic job in their interview, talking with the judges and showing gracious professionalism,” Mr. Chris Campbell, robotics coach, said.
