From March 14 to 16, the La Canada High School (LCHS) Engineering Club participated in this year’s FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) robotics competition at Long Beach Arena. With their basketball-shooting robot KHAN, the team competed against 76 other high school teams, mainly from the Southern California area.
Every January, the competition organization FIRST broadcasts an international telecast that announces the year’s competition theme. This year’s competition is called rebound rumble. From January 9, the team spent 6 weeks planning and building their robot. Although the team was able to complete the construction smoothly, the team felt pressed for time.
“Six weeks is not a lot of time considering the amount of things that have to be built and tested,” explained Andrew Weiler, club vice president and one of KHAN’s drivers during the competition.
The competition consisted of nine rounds in total. The participating teams are randomly placed into three-team groups that compete against different three-team groups each round. After the nine rounds, the scores for each group are calculated, and the top 24 teams are then selected to move on to the elimination round.
The team considered this game as a practice tournament and did not expect to win, but sadly, the final score did not reach desired expectations; the team came second to last place. This was mainly due to several technical problems the team suffered throughout the game. The chain for the drive system failed, which made the robot immobile during the first round. Thankfully, the team was able to install chain tensioners that allowed the robot to remain mobile for the rest of the match. Also, two pneumatics leaks in the arm of the robot made it difficult to shoot the basketballs accurately throughout the game.
Although the team is disappointed in its defeat, it is still hopeful for its second opportunity. During the week of spring break, the team will be competing in the same event in Medera County in the Central Valley.
“This second competition, I know we will do better,” commented Andrew Weiler. “We have a definite strength for playing defense and we have a proven mechanism that allows us to score on the bridge.”
