New School Robotics Team Win Awards at FIRST Robotics Regional Competition

The FIRST Robotics Regional Competition was held at the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester from March 3-5.

Out of the total 52 teams that participated, the New School of Kennebunk supported by Lockheed Martin, Pratt and Whitney along with Fairchild Semiconductor was placed fourth overall and was the first among the five schools in Maine who participated in the competition.. The theme for this year was Logo Motion. Two competing alliances consisting of three robots each had to hang plastic shapes onto a grid within a specific time of two minutes and 15 seconds. The first 15 seconds were coded into the robots, which allowed full automation totally independent of the directions given by the driver.

According to Kearney there was a lot of comradeship and support between the Maine high schools that were taking part in the competition and that they had all worked hand in hand for organizing lodging, meals and transport for their teams.

The teams were to build a robot in a time frame of six weeks based on specific parameters of function and size and hence being organized was very essential for the completion of the task. The task given this year was very challenging as it also needed a mini robot other than the main robot. The mini robot would climb a vertical pole to trigger off a sensor at the end of each match. The minibot designed and developed by the New School team had been judged the fastest and the most consistent minibot in the competition and the team won not only positive comments from the judges but also an Industrial Design Award and the Most Improved New Robot Award.