Michigan’s top robotics teams battled at Eastern Michigan University Thursday through Saturday, April 1-3, for the right to advance to the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Championship April 15-17 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.
The three-team alliance of the “Las Guerrillas” from Bloomfield Hills International Academy (Team 469), the “Bionic Barons” from Bloomfield Hills Andover and Bloomfield Hills Lahser (Team 2834), and the “NC Gears” from the Newaygo County Regional Educational Service Agency (Team 1918) won the Michigan FIRST Robotics Championship.
Robotics teams throughout the
Over the past month, teams competed at districts at
Sixty-five of the 140 teams from throughout the state qualified to bring their robots to
Top-seeded teams picked two other teams as partners to form an “alliance” to do battle in a game of “Breakaway.” Think of the game as a futurist game of soccer played with some very advanced robots.
Two alliances of three teams each compete on a 27' x 54' field with bumps attempting to earn points by putting soccer balls in their goals. Each goal earns one point. The playing field also has obstacles -- steep bumps about a foot tall that divide the field into three zones. There's also a tower in the middle of each bump with a tunnel through it. Robots must be able either to scale the bump or pass through the tunnel.
The competition begins with a 15-second autonomous mode in which the robots are pre-programmed to carry out their tasks. After that, they are radio operated by student “drivers.” In the final 20 seconds of the competition, robots can earn two bonus points for suspending themselves from one of the two towers, and three bonus points by suspending themselves from other robots on the same team that are hanging from the towers.
Earlier this year, FIRST teams were shown the “Breakaway” playing field and received a kit of parts made up of motors, batteries, a control system, a computer, and a mix of automation components – but no instructions. Working with mentors, students had six weeks to design, build, program, and test their robots to meet the season’s engineering challenge.
“FIRST is about giving kids the opportunity to build skill sets like analytical thinking to then develop what they may or may not use to build a robot; but they might use these skills to become a scientist, engineer, or inventor,” said Dean Kamen, FIRST Founder, as he explained how what students learn from FIRST is very different from other sports. “Ten years from today, one of these students is going to be out in the world having done something extraordinary for a major, global problem.”
After two and a half days of competition, the field had been narrowed to 12 teams of four alliances for the Saturday afternoon semifinals. All matches were best two out of three games.
In the first semifinal, the top-seeded alliance of “Las Guerrillas” (Team 469), the “Bionic Barons” (Team 2834), and the “NC Gears” (Team 1918) eliminated the fifth-seeded alliance of the “More Martians” from Goodrich (Team 70), “The Foley Freeze” from Madison Heights Bishop Foley (Team 910), and “The Oxford RoboCats” from Oxford (Team 2137). The top seeds won 12-10, 20-0 to advance to the final.
In the other semifinal, the second-seeded alliance of “The HOT Team” from Huron Valley Schools (Team 67), the “ThunderChickens” from Utica Community Schools (Team 217), and “The Syntax Errors” from Waterford Mott (Team 2612) beat the third-seeded alliance of the “Killer Bees” from Pontiac Notre Dame Prep (Team 33), “The Monsters” from Walled Lake Schools (Team 308), and “The Fighting Pi” from the Macomb Academy of Arts and Sciences (Team 1718). The second seeds edged the third seeds 15-13 and 10-8 to move on.
The final was incredibly close. The top-seeded alliance of Team 469, Team 2834, and Team 1918 took the red side of the field. The second-seeded alliance of Team 67, Team 217, and Team 2612 played from the blue side of the field.
The two teams needed four games to decide the winner. The first game was an exciting 18-18 tie. Red won the second game 15-13, but Blue earned a 13-8 win in the third game to force a fourth game. With the score tied 12-12 with time running out, Red scored two goals to gain the 14-12 victory and the state title.
The most prestigious awards of the day, the Regional Chairman’s Awards, went to “Team RUSH” from
The Engineering Inspiration Award was awarded to “WO-BOT” from
The Rookie All-Star Awards went to the “Red Arrows” from Lowell (Team 3234) and “Friday” from Grand Rapids Forest Hills Schools.
Winners of the three above awards also earn spots in the
Other award winners presented at the competition included:
FIRST Robotics Teacher of Year: Lori Gleason, a physics teacher at
Imagery Award: The “SCI-MA-TECH Raptors” from SCI-MA-TECH at
Innovation in Control Award: The “Martians” from Goodrich (Team 494)
Creativity Award: “The Army of Sum” from
Engineering Excellence Award:
The “Las Guerrillas” from
Entrepreneurship Award: “The Fighting Pi” from the
Judges Award: The “Tenacious Technicians” from
Website Award: The “Bionic
Barons” from Bloomfield Hills
Woodie Flowers Award: Alvin Carroll from
Industrial
Design: “The Syntax Errors” from
Quality Award: The “Robostangs” from Northville (Team 548)
Gracious Professionalism
Award: The “Gator-Bots” from
Team Spirit Award: “Code Red Robotics/Stray Dogs” from
Rookie Inspiration Award: The “Crusaders” from
Industrial Safety Award: “Advanced
Power” from
“Coopertition” Award: The “NC Gears” from the
FIRST Dean's List Finalist Award: Tim Bello (Team 503); Beth Hadley (Team 548), Kevin Kline (Team 1718), Zack Medow (Team 247), Tom Pawlicki (Team 503); Alyssa White (Team 280)
The FIRST Robotics Competition is an annual competition
that helps students discover excitement of science, engineering, and technology and the rewards a career in STEM can bring. More than
45,000 high-school students on over 1,800 teams from the
