Dexter High School Robotics Team with five DHS students and five adult mentors took part in the FIRST Robotic Competition conducted at the Skyline High School in Ann Arbor. A total of 40 teams participated in the competition with a huge crowd of 1000 people in the audience.
The Dreadbot (left robot) gets ready to compete at the weekend tournament in Ann Arbor.
The teams had to design robots that would pick up inner tubes and hang them from hooks fixed at different heights either by themselves during the first 30 seconds or when they were being driven during the balance two minutes. After the match, a minibot would climb a vertical pole and gain points for the team.
According to Jonathan Coffer, who was one of the adult mentors on the DHS team, real competition was a lot more different from the practice runs. The team would also be attending another meet in Livonia the next week.
The Dexter team had some problems early on in the match when the robot was found to have a defective claw. Further, during the match, the robot arm was not able to reach the high hooks. But the minibot performed well at the end of the game for the very first time.. The components for the Dexter Dreadbot robot were sponsored by Hackney Ace Hardware and Lowe’s along with the standard kit, which included batteries, a computer, software and other components from FIRST Robotics. Further, an amount of $6000 was given to the team for miscellaneous parts and registration expenses in the tournament. The robot is made up of 150 parts and weighs 130 pounds.
The Chelsea High School team had given a lot of help and encouragement to the Dexter team in building the robot. Bryson mentioned that the Chelsea team had acted like big brothers.