GISH hosts its first robotics competition, Feb. 4

By Jase Jones, Reporter

         The robotics club at GISH has three competitive teams. These teams work on their robots after school during the week to prepare for competitions.

         There are different objectives the robots, built by students, have to complete. First, the robots have to fit into parameters set by the competition. Only certain types of parts can be used and they can only be altered in specific ways. The robots also have to be a specific size depending on the chassis being used.

         The robot’s goal is to score more points than the opposite team. Points are scored by launching a frisbee into the goal. The robots have to be able to pick up the discs off of the ground, and then launch them accurately to make it into the goal. There is also a penalty for missed discs, if one misses the goal and falls into the marked area under it, a point is awarded to the other team. 

         To be able to pick the discs up the robot has to have a system to grab them and load them into where they are shot out. This team used a conveyor belt type design. It has small teeth on a belt that rolls and pulls discs up with it. From there the discs are dropped to where they are fired by a band that is pulled back to adjust the power.

         There are also rollers on the edge of the arena that have two colors, one color on each side. The robots are built with some kind of device to be able to flip this roller to the team’s color, this is another way they can earn points. This team used an arm with a wheel to flip the roller.

         The competition was held last Saturday, Feb. 4. One of our GISH teams made it into the quarterfinals of the competition. This tournament was extra special, as it was the first ever GISH hosted event.