ON TOP OF THE WORLD: Ronan Robotics team earns first overall at world championship
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ST. LOUIS – The Ronan Robotics team proved last weekend that they are the best in the world. Coach Jesse Gray still can’t believe what happened as his students were awarded world champions at the FIRST Championships at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis, Mo. on April 30.
“This is absolutely fantastic,” Gray said. “I am so proud of what we accomplished.”
This was the team’s first appearance at the championships, as they received the highest qualifying score posted in the nation this year, after building the most advanced robot at the high school level in the world.
Gray says the reason their machine is so innovative is because the robot is designed to plow over platforms, while other robots have to reach out and lower these obstacles to drive over them.
“Our robot was 100 percent different than all the others,” Troy McMillin said, who was the main driver of the robot. “We kept the machine simple mechanically, so that it would be easy to maneuver around the course quickly.”
Teams battled in a 12-foot-by-12-foot field of obstacles that robots must maneuver through while performing various tasks. One of the more important tasks was to collect as many batons as possible from dispensers. Student Thane Tobol was the main programmer for the robot, and also controlled the dispensing of batons.
“It was really stressful,” Tobol said, “the anticipation killed me.”
McMillin says that the original goal for the team was to just make it to the national competition. Upon arrival, the team was ranked fourth, but was bumped to first place after breezing through semi-finals.
“All of a sudden we were ranked first,” McMillin said. “We just kept winning.”
Teams are paired randomly together to compete with each other, and against another alliance of two teams.
Each match begins with a 40 second autonomous period, which is when the robots operate on their own, followed by a two minute period where the robots are driven and run by dual remote controls.
In February, the team was awarded with the Inspire Award after a stellar performance at the state competition in Bozeman, which secured the team a spot at the national championship. The award took into account not only match results, but evaluations by the judges’ through interviews conducted with the teams, and also through evaluations of their engineering notebook.
At the championship, Ronan competed against 128 teams from the United States, Canada, Norway, Japan, Mexico, Chile and Israel.
To take first place overall, the team first competed in seven qualifying matches, followed by divisional semi-finals, and finals. SD30 Robotics was in the Edison division, and faced off against the Franklin division for the world championship.
In the final competition, Ronan won their first match 119-50, as they took their opponent by surprise.
“They didn’t know what hit ‘em,” McMillian said.
The second round was a different story as the opposing team brought their defense this time. Ronan prevailed, however, winning 43-29.
The students are still in disbelief of their accomplishment.
“It feels weird,” Tobol said.
“For a small town to achieve so much against larger schools around the world is incredible,” fundraising leader and team scout Hunter Shima said.
According to Gray, the innovative design of their robot was the difference maker for the victory.
“Other robots couldn’t keep up with us, Gray said, “it’s a fast machine.”
Gray says he is excited for the future of the robotics program after achieving such a large goal.
