Robotics goes to states

Feb 23, 2019

All year Rachael has been attending Robotics club at her high school, 1 or 2 afternoons a week. Her boyfriend Josh is in the club and it was a fun way to spend more time with him. While they did most of the programming and technical aspects, Rachael was happy to assist wherever needed. The team was pretty good and during the local match they qualified to go to the State Tournament because they performed well in the skills competition.

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The day of the State Competition was a packed schedule for us. Rachael joined her team early in the morning and rode over to Dundalk high. After morning activites for Bridget and Megan, and getting ready for a baby shower later in the day, Johanna, Bridget and I drove over to the tournament to cheer on the CHS Steel Comet Robotics Team.

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We walked into a cafeteria full with 60 teams from all over Maryland, each with their own table packed with tools, battery packs and components. Johanna was exhilarated and drawn to the teams practicing in the test fields. We made a long loop around the teams until we spotted Rachael and her team. Rachael had her overalls on with each pocket full of tools and parts they might need. 

We got to watch one of their matches. Four robots compete in a field, 2 robots on each blue and red teams. The match starts with an automated time period where they score points by taking certain actions (flipping disks to the team color, hitting targets, and getting to certain positions of the field). After the automated pre-programmed time portion, the driving portion starts and for the remainder of the time the robots are controlled by the team driver and skills are completed to continue scoring points while undoing points the other team scores. It ends with robots attempting to get onto platforms to score final points at the buzzer.

When it was time for their match they were scrambling to get something fixed. They weren't in the arena and the ref announced that they might forfeit. But in they ran with their robot just in time. I had no idea how they were doing when I watched the match, but it was fun. Bridget and Johanna eagerly tried to figure out the game as we watched. The match ended and the CHS was all smiles. Rachael threw her arm up, they had won!

Originally we were going to bring Rachael home with us because we had a bridal shower to go to, but Rachael decided to stay with her team. I got updates via text while we were at the shower. The higher ranked teams get to invite other teams to compete and CHS was in good position.  The CHS team won their division and was going to the final match. They didn't win the final match but Winning the division qualifies the team for the world tournament. They were so excited.

Next stop VEX Robotics World Championship  in Kentucky.