Published in the May 14, 2018 edition.
WAKEFIELD — The “We are Robo” First Tech Challenge (FTC) robotics team based out of Wakefield delivered the 13th best performance out of 256 of the best teams in the world across two regionally partitioned World Championship events held in Houston and Detroit. The team and five other Massachusetts teams participated in the Detroit Championship which spanned over four days.
The robotic competition involved random pairings of teams whereby 2 pairs of Alliance teams competed on a game field for points. The game was broken down into 2 phases: a 30-second autonomous (programmed self-directed) mode and two-minutes of driver controlled actions. This year’s activities involved stacking 6 inch sponge cubes in boxes for points and moving figurines to specific locations outside of the field. The robot had to be designed and engineered to perform these tasks quickly and efficiently to gain points.
In the qualifying rounds, the team won seven of nine matches putting up strong scores. Unfortunately, an electrical problem caused the first loss and a similar problem affected the partner alliance in the second loss. As an international tournament, We are Robo had pairings with teams from Michigan, Virginia, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Germany, and South Korea. The strength of their robot’s performance garnered a first round Alliance pick in the finals (elimination rounds). Unfortunately, electrical problems struck twice again and the team was eliminated from further advancement. During the awards ceremony, the “We are Robo” team was publicly recognized as a nominee for the Control Award for innovation related to the robot design.
The team wishes to thank all our sponsors and supporters through this year that allowed them to compete at this high-level. Graduating seniors, Preston Yee and Cole Kraus, will continue their Science and Engineering studies at UMass-Amherst and WPI respectively. They take with them knowledge, understanding, experience, and confidence of robotic engineering and programming.
