Feb 28 2011
Team Ubotic is a 17-member squad of young roboticists representing the Union High School. They have been working 8 hours every day, confident about qualifying for the international FIRST robotics competition with their robot “Ubot”. The qualifying round is set for March 17-19 in the city of Oklahoma.
For the international competition, 48 teams have already signed up and more than 52,000 high school students are expected to enter the competition. With an average of 25 members in a team, each team can consist of up to a 100 students.
Teams from Victory Christian School, Tulsa Technology Center, Bixby, Booker T. Washington, Broken Arrow, Sapulpa, Memorial high schools and Team Biotic have suffered a setback due to the snowstorm in February. For Team Ubotic, the tension is mounting since they have not procured the motors for the robotic arms mostly due to the weather.
Ubot is being worked upon in a garage at Broken Arrow. The 17-member team has formed four groups- programming, electronics, manipulator and drive train. The team is likely to add the motors just minutes prior to the regional competition at Oklahoma City. At the qualifiers, the Ubot has to move and using its arms, it has to pick up tubes and hang them on a scoring peg.
In case things do not go as planned, the team might get another chance at the qualifiers at Dallas in April.