After last year’s FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition was canceled due to COVID-19, Westerville’s Wild Warbots had to put its robot building and preparation on hold.
In the fall, the team struggled with recruitment and was unable to meet in person. The coaches, Andrew Testaguzza and Alex Polling, held virtual meetings to keep the team members from all three high schools connected.
When the team found out that the 2020-2021 FIRST Robotics season was being extended, allowing them to use the robots they built in the spring of 2020, the students jumped at the opportunity to compete.
The team began meeting with COVID-19 protections in place to work on their robot.
“We knew that the students had been so limited by the pandemic and we wanted to give them the opportunity to get together to finish what they started with last year's design and robot,” says Stephanie Labbe. “It was a little bit of normal life, even with all of our safety protocols.”
Despite graduating – and therefore losing – six seniors from the previous year and meeting three fewer times per week, the Warbots team was able to complete their robot ahead of schedule.
The virtual 2021 FIRST Robotics Competition features challenges in which robots are required to complete three of five tasks such as completing a route as quickly as possible or shooting as many balls through various ports within a time frame.
The Warbots recorded four of the tasks and turned them in for the competition this month.
While the team awaits its results, it has begun planning for next year and is resuming its recruitment and training work.
No matter the results of the competition, the team is proud to have been able to participate in the competition with an extraordinary robot.
“I’m glad we were able to have some opportunity to do it because this is the best robot we’ve built since I’ve been here,” says Brendan Smucker, a senior at Westerville North High School. “It was good to compete with it. There were a lot of things we were able to do that were improvements from previous years.”
Sarah Grace Smith is an editorial assistant. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
