Schools
Seaholm and Groves Robotics Club Recharging After Detroit Competition
Automation Nation finished seed 20 at the FIRST Robotics Detroit District Competition.
Automation Nation took their 115.5-pound robot to the FIRST Robotics Detroit District Competition on Friday and Saturday at the Matthaei Athletic Facility, Wayne State University, picking up a 5-6 record and placing out of the finals round.
It was the first competition of the year for this group of 36 and robotics enthusiasts. According to lead mentor Bernie Simms, of Automation Nation, things are going well in the combined robotics program's first year.
“It’s a very exciting time in Birmingham, because we’re bringing those schools together and the students are working together,” Simms said.
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Seaholm and Groves students built the robot in just six weeks and were a bit disappointed with programming problems the machine had at the event. According to mentor and Chrysler engineer Bill Phillips, the robot was sometimes unable to move at all. Still, Phillips noted, the team stayed mostly upbeat through the competition and focused much of their strategy on blocking their opponents.
In all, 39 teams participated in the competition's Logo Motion game. For each qualifying round, robots were matched up three to a team or “alliance”. Points were scored when robots picked up inflatable tubes with their robotic arms and placed them on raised pegs.
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Tubes were in the shapes of triangles, circles and squares — components of the FIRST logo — and teams were awarded points according to how many logos they could create. Teams were also given the chance to score points at the end of each round, by racing a minibot up a pole. The Automation Nation won five qualifying rounds and lost six, and did not make it into the quarterfinals.
“This year, we built a good robot but so far we’ve struggled to program it, so it can be kind of stressful to get it to work,” Reid Turnbull, 16-year-old junior at Seaholm, said. “Physically it is built pretty well, but I think we could've done a lot better overall.”
The group is now gearing up for their next competition, which starts April 1 in Troy.
