For the last two months the OSA robotics team has been competing in the UC Berkeley Pioneer’s in Engineering competition. The final event on May 25th wrapped up the competition for the year, but OSA was happy to bring home the robot that was months in the making.
Final competition at Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley For the last two months the OSA robotics team has been competing in the UC Berkeley Pioneer’s in Engineering competition. The weekend of May 25th and 26th wrapped up the competition, and as one of the competitors, I am eager to share my experience. At the beginning of the competition we were presented with a theme, this year it was, “Fast Food Frenzy”. Basically our robot had to collect small plastic food items from a spinning turntable in the center of the “arena” and place them on small wooden tables. In addition to this, at the start of the game the wooden tables were flipped upside down, so our robot also had to be able to flip the table upright. It may seem like a simple task, but when it comes to robotics this is a big coding feat.
We had one of the smallest teams and we were also one of the only new teams to join the competition this year. Our robot specialized in flipping tables, a task that many teams chose to ignore—they figured they’d leave that up to their alliance. An alliance is formed between teams on the final competition day, they are your partner in crime in the arena and are supposed to always have your back. We did have a mechanism to collect food, but table flipping was our biggest attribute, one that fifth-best ranked team ACLC wanted to use to their advantage when they picked us to be their allies on the field.
The winner of the final competition was Albany high school, a school with many years of experience under their belts, but considering this was OSA’s first year, and really our first experience with the robotics world, we were proud of ourselves, especially when one of the judges said, “I think you guys were the best rookie team this year”. Our robot now proudly sits in Ms. Kindblad’s room right next to one of the wooden tables that was actually on the field, and students are more then encouraged to ask any of us who participated in the competition about how it works.
Macie Cooper and Julia S. were our resident coders, with several years of coding under their belts, they were in many ways the backbone of the team. Michael Mueller, Sara Cooper, Kayley Woods and I were the builders, meaning we constructed the robot and brainstormed how to make our robot as most efficient as possible. That being said, Kayley was also our Driver and I was her coach, and together we brainstormed the best ways to play the game and ultimately win matches. It was crazy to think that some of us never had even met each other before this competition, but we left all feeling like pretty close friends.
We had one of the smallest teams and we were also one of the only new teams to join the competition this year. Our robot specialized in flipping tables, a task that many teams chose to ignore—they figured they’d leave that up to their alliance. An alliance is formed between teams on the final competition day, they are your partner in crime in the arena and are supposed to always have your back. We did have a mechanism to collect food, but table flipping was our biggest attribute, one that fifth-best ranked team ACLC wanted to use to their advantage when they picked us to be their allies on the field.
The winner of the final competition was Albany high school, a school with many years of experience under their belts, but considering this was OSA’s first year, and really our first experience with the robotics world, we were proud of ourselves, especially when one of the judges said, “I think you guys were the best rookie team this year”. Our robot now proudly sits in Ms. Kindblad’s room right next to one of the wooden tables that was actually on the field, and students are more then encouraged to ask any of us who participated in the competition about how it works.
Macie Cooper and Julia S. were our resident coders, with several years of coding under their belts, they were in many ways the backbone of the team. Michael Mueller, Sara Cooper, Kayley Woods and I were the builders, meaning we constructed the robot and brainstormed how to make our robot as most efficient as possible. That being said, Kayley was also our Driver and I was her coach, and together we brainstormed the best ways to play the game and ultimately win matches. It was crazy to think that some of us never had even met each other before this competition, but we left all feeling like pretty close friends.
