Robotics teams have good showing at State
Hey savvy news reader! Thanks for choosing local.
You are now reading
1 of 3 free articles.
BOZEMAN – The U.S. FIRST robotics competition is ferocious. First off, teams only get one shot at proving their robot reigns supreme at the regional level, and if they succeed, they advance to the national finals.
That’s where things get a little more difficult.
Students go head-to-head with more than 120 teams from the United States, Canada, Norway, Japan, Mexico, Chile and Israel. The Ronan Robotics teams ventured to their first and only competition last weekend at Montana State University in Bozeman, where the two teams battled against 36 schools from across Montana in hopes of securing a bid to the World Championships, where Ronan’s SD30 team took first last year. This year the Ronan Robotics team grew from just eight students to 21, forcing mentor Jesse Gray to split the students into two teams: the veterans and the rookies.
At the State competition, the veteran team finished in 12th place, while the newcomers clinched 22nd.
“We did okay,” Gray said. “It was good; the kids competed hard.”
To challenge students, rules and obstacles change on an annual basis, forcing teams to build new robots to complete required tasks. This year’s theme, entitled “Bowled Over!” is played on a 12-by-12-foot diamond-shaped field, where two alliances — one red and one blue — compete in matches consisting of a 30 second autonomous period followed by a two-minute driver-controlled period.
The object of the game is to score more points than your opponent’s alliance by placing racquet balls into crates and then stacking the crates. Teams must complete tasks during autonomous and driver controlled periods and score special racquetballs and 6-pound bowling balls for additional points.
After the qualifying round, the veteran team was ranked 12th. They moved to the alliance selection, where they paired with other teams, including rival Polson, to compete for hardware.
“There was one good match where we had both the veteran and rookies going against each other,” Gray said. “We ended up winning. It was kinda neat to see two rivals (Polson and Ronan) get to compete (together).”
Gray says his teams could still advance to the national championship, but that would require them to travel and win an award at the Idaho qualifier.
“It would be really expensive,” he said. “Probably not an option.”
Although the students didn’t advance to the next level, Gray says he’s proud of the hard work and effort they put into their robots.
“They’re very hard workers,” he said. “Expectations were very high, and we had a few mechanical issues, but we performed well.”
The Ronan Middle School teams, one consisting of eight boys and the other consisting of eight girls, ventured to Bozeman to compete the following day. The middle school boys finished in eighth place out of 36 teams and took first place in the Innovation Award, while the girls took 20th place and also claimed top honors for the Gracious Professionalism Award.
According to team advisor Bryan Youngren, middle school teams had different robots and obstacles than the high school, as students were required to build a completely autonomous robot, meaning the students had to program the robot to do everything on its own without being touched.
During the competition, students had to move objects from one place to another to score points.
“They performed well,” Youngren said before the tournament. “I’m very proud of ‘em. They kinda struggled with the practice round but they got it figured out and made improvements.”
Youngren says it's hard to recreate the atmosphere of the State competition in a practice setting.
“Until you get there you don’t know,” he said. “There was music playing in the stands; it was a pretty hectic atmosphere.”
