The competition season is well underway for a series of local high school teams.
No, it’s not soccer or softball. It’s robotics season.
Four Peninsula-based teams are prepping for competitions this weekend, the first test of the robots they’ve built from scratch since January.
Phoebus’ team of 24 students, the Phantom Mentalists, has spent the past several weeks doing everything: rigging machinery to pick up a rubber ball, sewing bumpers with the team number, drawing out designs on the computer.
“It’s like a sport thing, except a sport thing is just your body. Now you’ve got to make that thing work,” said coach, teacher and mechanical engineer Donald Williams. “It’s engineering, it’s manufacturing. … If they can design and build that, there’s welding, there’s electrical, there’s programming, there’s everything in there, so no matter where you work, this has all those skills.”
The matches, in which a group of robots from randomized teams compete against another group, are put on by FIRST Robotics Competition, an international organization. On the Peninsula, Phoebus, Menchville and Heritage high schools and New Horizons Regional Education Center field teams.
The exact challenge — the task that the team’s robot is supposed to complete — was unknown this year until Jan. 5. The team then had a set amount of time and regimented access to when and how it could work on its robot.
Some parts or designs can be reused from the year before, but that, too, is regulated.
Robots have to fall within specific design parameters — height, width, weight — and must cost under $4,000.
That’s still a hefty price tag, and each team usually works with sponsors to help accomplish its goal.
International sensor manufacturer TE Connectivity is one of those corporate-level donors, giving teams parts and scholarship money. Its Hampton office also works with Phoebus’ team, with engineer technician Charlene Odom serving as a mentor to the group.
She was on hand as the team showed off the robot to the Daily Press. They discovered a part wasn’t performing quite right, but the strict regulations of when and how it can be worked on meant they had to wait until the following week to make repairs.
“At least we’ve seen this happen so we know what to fix,” Odom told the team. She said she was inspired to help out after serving as a judge at a competition a few years ago.
Other local organizations help teams, as well. Community Knights has given thousands of dollars to teams as part of its grant-giving program. Newport News Shipbuilding sponsored an event last fall for local teams to have an informal competition.
Community Knights also helped fund a new Peninsula STEM Gym, where local teams can practice their science, technology, engineering and math skills.
Nate Laverdure, head coach of Menchville’s team, Triple Helix, said the concept of having a bigger space to practice first was mentioned last spring. It opened in November, with a Community Knights grant funding the first few months of rent and some furniture.
He described participating in FIRST as “super expensive,” something that is “possible because of relatively giant sponsorship by a few major partnerships, government and corporate partners.”
His and other local teams are prepping for competitions this weekend in either Haymarket or Richmond. The robots will get bruised and battered as they move across the competition floor.
Some team members will operate the robots, others will be on hand as the pit crew, ready to fix parts on the fly. The rest will make up a robust cheering section. “Most people think of a robotics competition, just a bunch of teenagers competing with robots,” said junior Solomon Sledge, now in his third year on the team.
“It’s actually a lot more different. It’s a lot like a high school sporting event. There’s a lot of screaming teenagers, it’s loud, the atmosphere is really great.”
