FROBOTICS
MAKES
HISTORY
BY TAKING
ON THE
WORLDS
T
he Franklin Regional Senior High
School (FRSH) Robotics team,
commonly known as FRobotics,
recently qualified for their first
FIRST Robotics world championship
competition. The 40-member team has been
working hard all season to build a robot fit
for this year’s game with the theme Destination: Deep Space.
The theme is in honor of the 50th anniversary of the US moon
landing.
FRobotics is an after school club, which works to raise
money during the year for the FIRST (For Inspiration and
Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics competition
fees. The team works in their mentor’s garage to build their
robot and plan their strategy for the competition season. The
team also participates in off-season competitions, conducts
outreach to Franklin Regional Middle School students who
are interested in robotics, and holds mock games so they can
cultivate their skills. The team is comprised of scouting leads,
wiring sub team, drivers, administrative leads, and coaches. The
FR team competes against not only other school district teams,
but ones from colleges and universities too.
“We are a very unique team, in the sense that we work out
of our mentor’s basement and aren’t funded by any college or
organization,” said Courtney Sheridan, a junior at FRSH and
the current president of FRobotics. “Worlds has always been a
dream for our team.”
Starting in early winter, the entire team, comprised of 45
students, conducts a “mock season” so that new members
can become familiar with the competition process. Starting in
January, the team begins building their new robot. The build
takes approximately six weeks to complete.
Every team member contributes to either the construction,
programming, or handling of the robot. Other main team
members include: Trevor McLeigh, wiring lead, CJ Ciecierski,
drive captain, Daniel Kline, scouting lead, and Tina
Henninger, lift controller.
The FRobotics team, known in the competition as Team
4150, took their robot named Curiosity to Detroit for the World
competition on April 24-27, 2019. The team named their robot
after the vehicle that is currently exploring the surface of Mars
for NASA.
The team also visited other FR schools to share their robot
and love of FRobotics with younger students.
FIRST is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit public charity that designs
accessible, innovative programs that inspire young people
to pursue education and career opportunities in science,
engineering, technology, and math, while building self-
confidence, knowledge, and life skills.
36
MURRYSVILLE
Supported by a strong network of sponsors and volunteers,
FIRST provides four programs: FIRST Robotics Competition
(grades 9-12) FIRST Tech Challenge (grades 7-12); FIRST LEGO®
League (grades 4-8; and FIRST LEGO® League Junior (grades K-3).
Each year, FIRST presents the teams with a challenge
specific to their program level. As examples at the FIRST
Robotics Competition level, the challenges have included
throwing basketballs and balancing robots on bridges
(2012); and throwing Frisbee-like discs and climbing a tube
pyramid (2013). During some of the competition the robots
are remote-control assisted. These timed competitions
include periods when the robots have to operate entirely on
their own. Founded by inventor Dean Kamen 25 years ago in
Manchester, NH, FIRST has grown to reach over 400,000 youth
in the US and internationally.
Every year, FIRST Robotics releases a new game in which the
students will need to follow in order to build their robot. This
comes with a challenge, because there are many regulations
to follow and a rule book comprised of about 130 pages.
In Destination: Deep Space, presented By The Boeing
Company, FIRST joins two competing alliances collecting
samples on Planet Primus. Unpredictable terrain and
weather patterns make remote robot operation essential
to their mission on the planet. The alliances must gather as
many cargo pods as possible and prepare their spaceships
before the next sandstorm arrives. A sandstorm limits driver
visibility, so the robots independently follow preprogrammed
instructions or are operated by human drivers, via video from
their stations. Alliances score points by: employing robots
from the Habitat (HAB), preparing rockets and a cargo ship
with hatch panels, and loading cargo pods into their rockets
and cargo ship.
When the sandstorm clears, and human operators take
control of their robots, the alliances continue to score points
by: repairing rockets and the cargo ship with hatch panels,
loading more cargo pods, and returning the robot safely to the
alliance HAB.
The alliance with the highest score at the end of the
match wins. Working 1169 hours in the workshop, the team
members were able to create a robot that secured a spot
at worlds. President and drive coach Courtney Sheridan,
a junior at FRSH, is very excited to take on what the world
competition has to offer.