Robotics Club students from W.T. Clarke High School participated in the 2013 Long Island Regional FIRST Robotics Competition at the David S. Mack Sports & Exhibition Complex at Hofstra University. This annual national program challenges students to build a 130-pound robot during a six-week timeframe, using a standard “kit of parts” and common set of rules.
For this year’s theme, “Ultimate Ascent,” the robotics students designed and built a robot which can shoot Frisbees and climb a metal pyramid. The robot uses two motors to shoot each Frisbee out from the robot and a pneumatic system to climb the bottom rung of the metal pyramid. For the first 15 minutes of the competition, “the autonomous period”, the robot was able to shoot Frisbees automatically without being controlled by the driver. For the remainder of the last two minutes and 15 seconds, a driver operated the robot.
Adviser Mike Conners explained that for the first few rounds of the competition, the team was having difficulty during the autonomous period and attained the 33rd place position out of fifty teams. “However, we turned it around the second day and were able to secure 16th place by the end of the competition,” Mr. Conners said.
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