Humans are advancing rapidly with the help of technology and new developments. One of the biggest developments is robots, which some people even say will take over the world one day. Robots are doing more and more for people every day, some even performing surgeries. However, the robots at Cannon Falls High School have a long way to go before ever performing surgery.
Cannon Falls High School’s Robotics Team Bomb Botz, or Team 6217 has just had their first competition of the year, traveling up to Duluth, MN from Thursday, February 27 to Saturday, March 1. Each year they attend the Lake Superior Regional at the Duluth Convention Center. Nearly all kids on the team will attend with few exceptions. This means older members who have gone before, get to show the younger students around and help them experience their first competition. Eighth-grader Henry Flodeen went for his first time this year. “It was a pretty cool event. It was a lot of work but definitely worth it. It was fun and I definitely want to go again next year. “
The team left for Duluth near 6 AM on Thursday, February 27. They took a bus up to Duluth driven by the team’s favorite unofficial member, Bob. They stayed in the Holiday Inn and Suites, having team dinners each night. They left Duluth late Saturday night and returned home near 9 PM. The first day the Bomb Botz arrived in Duluth, they played in practice matches, preparing for the qualification matches. The second day was filled with qualification matches that determined a team’s rank in the competition. On the last day of the competition, the rest of the matches take place along with finals, which determine the winners of the regional.
As far as how matches work, they can be complicated at first glance. Each match will have six different teams, with three on a blue alliance and the other three on a red alliance. The red alliance and blue alliance work against each other to try and score as many points as possible. At the end of qualification matches, the top eight ranked teams will get to choose two other teams for their alliance in the semi-finals and finals. Whichever alliance wins the semi-finals and finals is crowned the winner of the regional for the year.
Duluth can be stressful, as it’s the first competition for most teams. Because of this many teams will find they are ill-prepared for the competition. Mentor Jasmine Scholefield gives her opinion on how the team performed this year. “I think the competition snuck up on us but we did good with what we had. We had a new pit this year, but I think the team worked well together to repair the robot after matches.”
The Bomb Botz had a second competition in St. Paul from Thursday, March 27th to Saturday, March 29th. This is the first year they went to St. Paul as they usually go to Iowa State College for their second competition. The team had set goals for what they hoped to achieve before going to St. Paul. When asked what he hoped the team would achieve before going to St. Paul, senior Thomas Coyle said, “My main goal for our upcoming competition is to get a more consistent autonomous working. Doing so would allow us to stand out from our competition more and increase our chances of winning the competition. I am hoping to see a change in our elevator system that will allow us to score more quickly and be a more robust robot.” The team has achieved a lot so far this season and they hope to achieve even more before going to St. Paul. The team’s biggest goal this year is to get back to the World Championship in Houston, Texas. Hopefully, after St. Paul, they will qualify for the championship and get to return to Houston.
