This is Robotics’ year!
Lexi Floom (11) and Aparajitha Adiraju (11) together with their robot.
The robotics team has been performing at their highest for the past couple of years. To maintain their success, the team spends countless hours working on robots for only a handful of competitions.
“This year teams and/or individuals have taken 1st place at 6 competitions,” said robotics coach Mr. Jay Walgren. “We entered 4 ‘LEGO’ teams in seven competitions and nine individual competitors in one non-LEGO competition.”
There are two different teams in the club; the varsity team and the LEGO team.
“For the LEGO team, we typically have one to two weeks to build a robot,” said Lexi Floom (11). “Practices are on Fridays after school for a few hours, and my team and I have to come in during our free periods or before school if we need more time. On varsity, they have the whole season to build their robots, which they can work on at practice or take home.”
This is Floom’s second year on the robotics team and so far, she loves it. She has met some of her best friends and she gets to show her passion in her work.
Since there are so many chances to build robots, each competition has different criteria, which can range from having the robot move around to having it build something.
“This year, some of the things we built were a sumo robot that had to push another team’s robot out of a circle, a robot that had to drive over a ramp and high five another team’s robot, and a palo-transfer robot that delivered foam blocks to another school’s robot,” Floom said.
Certain competitions, such as the For Inspiration and Recognition or Science and Technology (FIRST) Robotics Competition, require participating teams to have a set guide of rules.
Some of the requirements for a successful robotics club according to FIRST are, “two Mentors, 10 or more high school students, a suitable meeting place, a suitable space to design and build, a standard kit of parts and a common set of rules issued by FIRST, a community sponsor that will help fund efforts, and the desire to learn, explore, strategize, build comradery, share ideas and talents, make new friends, be accepted, and have fun.”
If the team fails to meet any of the requirements, they are not able to take part in the competition;even if they have nine high school students,they wouldn’t be able to compete.
There are other competitions that don’t require as many standards, which makes it easier to be a part of them. Some competitions are specific for a certain skill set, and there are others that it really doesn’t matter what their skills are because it will be based on how well the robot works. Such competitions include the ones supported by Abbott Laboratories, which are the ones that the school competes in.
“Robotics is a good way to test out basic physics on a small scale and learn how to use a computer program,” said Alec Mollenhauer (11).
The hard working students have won countless awards throughout the years. VHHS is proud to say we have a successful robotics team.
