When a robotics team performs well enough at a state-level competition to advance to a world championship, there often isn’t a lot of makeover done to the machine that helped them get there.
But the ATEMS students in Robotics Team 9871B don’t adhere to the “if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it” philosophy. After reaching the Final Four of the state competition in March, the team found they needed a robot that could do even more at the upcoming world championships. Rather than enhancing their existing robot, Team 9871B got busy building a new machine from the ground up.
“Of course, they didn’t ask permission about building a new robot,” said Larry Haney, who teaches engineering at ATEMS and coaches robotics teams with Tracy Long, Andy Hope, and Allison Stanley. However, as senior team captain Timothy Villarreal explained, “we’d rather ask for forgiveness than permission.”
The first Team 9871B machine that reached the Region 2 state tournament semifinals required six months to build and refine. Now the nine team members have just a few weeks to create, program, and test a new robot for the world championship competition starting on May 5 at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas.
The reason for the new build, Villarreal explained, is to get more payload on their robot, giving them a better chance to win. During competitions, robots must pick up 3-inch rings and drop them on 1-foot goals arranged in different formations. Other challenges include lifting the goals and balancing on teetering ramps. Villarreal and fellow senior captain John Stai hope their new robot will be able to carry more rings and goals.
“We just figured that instead of taking this one apart down to the ground and adjusting it, we would start over and build a new one,” Villarreal said. “We felt like if we were going to go as far as we can in this competition, we needed a robot that could lift and carry more than our previous robot.”
Despite being classified as a 2A school in robotics, teams from ATEMS regularly find success against Class 5A and 6A schools at the state and world championship levels.
“We had three teams in Granbury for the Region 2 state tournament and all three did better than any of our teams have ever done,” Haney said. “All three teams reached the playoff and one reached the semifinals, which was a high enough ranking in the world to receive the invitation to go to the VEX world championships.”
“These kids have taken everything they’ve learned from engineering and IT, physics and science classes and put it all together here,” Long said. “It’s been fun to watch it all come together.”
The other members of Team 9871B are Raiden Pucilowski, Rylan Dean, Javier Butz, Ethan Dole, Tyler Hudson, Jamiya Redwine, and Jessica Ovalle.
Another group from ATEMS, Team 9871G, won the Design Award at the state championship meet – the first state-level award for any ATEMS robotics team. While not competing at the world championships this year, Team 9871G continues to work on perfecting their craft in the new robotics lab at The LIFT. The members of Team 9871G include Brynn Bradshaw, Adrian Duebner, Calynn Wheeler, Abby Shumate, Isabella Robinson, Belle Jones, Kali DaRonche, Kierstyn Bell, and Isabella Bracamonte-Harell.
