The AT&T Center was the target of a robot invasion Sunday as 35 teams of Texas middle and high school students wheeled in their creations to compete in the Alamo FIRST Tech Challenge.
“I think the robots we’re seeing are incredible,” said Andrew Schuetze, director of the event. “Of the 35 teams, 27 are rookies who have never done this before, and (the) vets are not walking away with it.”
He said the main purpose of the competition is to instill a love of science in students to encourage them to choose a scientific career.
The robots at the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Tech Challenge have to start out no larger than an 18-inch cube. They must maneuver in a 12-square-foot arena and navigate over obstacles. They must gather hockey pucks from racks, then deposit them into a goal in the center of the arena — all the while battling the other team’s robots.
Teams are paired in each round, so there are four robots in the arena, two on each team.
After three rounds, the Hang Fire team from Floresville High School was in fifth place in its division.
“We started on our robot two weeks ago,” senior Anthony Burchell said. “The robot can only be 18 inches tall, but the center of the goal is 23 inches tall, so the robot has to unfold to reach it. In the first round we lost an arm, but we’ve braced it up and in the last round it worked well.”
Ben McKeathen, a junior from Ryan High School in Denton, said the secret of his team’s robot was simplicity and the use of four driver motors, instead of two, to power the wheels. The Ryan Raiders were in first place in their division after four rounds.
“It’s fun, is the main reason I do it,” McKeathen said. “And it looks very good on your college application.”
Ethan Bender, a home-schooled student from Dallas, built his robot with a friend. It was the only robot at the competition with two baskets, one to hold his pucks to score with, and a second to steal pucks from the opposition.
“I’ve always liked building things,” he said. “I did it last year at another school and wanted to do it again on my own this year.”
In the final round, the teams form alliances of three teams, which battle in an elimination format.
After more than 10 hours, a three-team alliance led by the ETA Robo-Riders from Roosevelt High School’s Engineering and Technologies Academy won the elimination tournament, qualifying the Roosevelt team to go to the World Championships in Atlanta next month. They were assisted by the Honk Honk Blarg Blarg team of Humble and the Project Pulse team from San Antonio’s Lee STEM Academy.
A team of San Antonio home schoolers, called Skilled Metal Workers, also qualified to advance to Atlanta by winning the Inspire Award, the judges’ choice for exemplifying all components of the FIRST Tech Challenge philosophy.
