RAPID ROBOTICS

by Jasmine Yang design by Ajay Singireddy Students might not anticipate that in some sports, the work is not actually done during the competition One example is robotics, where students prepare for competitions, one of which is being hosted by Columbus North at

Columbus East High School on March 18.

Four different sub-teams make up the team with a programming team, a build team, a design team and an operations team. The day of the competition is packed with various mini competitions until they get to the main playoff event that they have been utilizing the first two months to work towards Senior Rishi Rao has done 1. Kickoff day: robotics all The FRC Game four years is released and it of high marks the start of school and the competition season describes what a typical practice looks like. “We show up to the shop and the whole team meets in one place so we can go over our goals for the practice. After we discuss the things that need to be done that day, we each split up into our own sub-teams,” Rao said. “After that, we each work on our part and communicate with each other as needed.”

Senior Jiaxuan Wang has been involved in robotics for about three years and describes what the schedule usually looks like during the robotics season. “Typical meetings are three hours long. In the off season they’re only once or twice a week, and in the build season, it’s full throttle,” Wang said. “We do four out of five weekdays for three hours, plus six hours on Saturday.”

No matter what activity students do, they usually have a favorite part that always makes participating worth it. Sophomore Keegan Harris describes his favorite part of robotics. “I’d say it’s the problem solving. It’s like a puzzle, you’re trying to solve a challenge and you have to think of creative solutions to go about solving them using basic logic and stuff like that,” Harris said. Wang’s favorite part strays away from the logistics behind robotics and is more about the end product. “My favorite part is being able to have this amazing finished robot that can play this game that’s fairly complex. Also, the competitions are extremely fun,” Wang said. “It’s almost like a football game. The crowd goes wild. Honestly just seeing the game play out there, it’s amazing, and the competitions are just a blast to be at.”

2. Build Season: The team begins analyzing the game, prototyping, and building the robot

3. Robot Reveal: The team invites the community to the shop to present the finished robot

6. FIRST Championships: Teams from 30 different countries compete to win the championship

4. District Competition: We go to two events in which we compete to qualify us for the State Championships

5. State Championships: Teams compete for a spot in the worldwide FIRST championship

photo by Bladen Petro Students work on the competition robot during the 2022 build season. The competition will take place on March 18 at Columbus East High School.