As the new FIRST Robotics Competitions are starting up in early november, the robotics team has set their goals for this year. “This year we want to go to super regionals,” Swain said. “This year our goal is also to get our own robotics ring and to look at starting a competition that we host here.”
By FEAR CHURCHWELL – Web Master
With the first robotics competition of the season approaching in early Nov., the team is focused on creating a robot that is functional for the competition, as well as trying to raise funds to build a competition ring along with the new school renovations.
As the robotics season approaches, the robotics team not only focuses on competing in other school’s competitions, but creating a competition of their own in the future.
“This year our goal is also to get our own robotics ring and to look at starting a competition that we host here,” science department teacher and robotics team adviser Scott Swain said. “We want to host a competition mainly because we think it is a good outreach for this area. A lot of people have to drive all the way to Atlanta.”
Hosting a robotics competition requires a 12 foot by 12 foot robotics ring. The engineers are planning to build in a space in the new physics room. The goal is to design a robot ring that does not interfere with classroom space.
“The engineers that are building this school are fully aware of (the ring),” Swain said. “(The competition ring) can either be lowered or tilt up as we need it. If you host a competition you automatically go to state. We would rather go to state because our robot won, but we do want to host a competition mainly because we think it is a good outreach for this area.”
Although, hosting a competition gives the hosting team an automatic spot in the state competition, the main focus of the robotics team remains to create a robot that will perform effectively in competition.
“Assuming we make it to state, we have until February to make the perfect robot,” senior and Robotics designer Tomislav Žabčić-Matić said. “If we happen to pass state, then there is Super Regionals, and we have more time to improve (the robot), but by then it is mostly going to be programming improvements rather than technical.”
