A student robotics team from Raymond, Alberta is buzzing after competing on the world stage in Houston, Texas from April 16 to 19. Team ASAP Robotics, made up of eight Westwind School Division students from grades 7 to 12, earned their spot at the For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, or FIRST, Championship by winning the FIRST Tech Challenge Alberta championship.
The teens were among 50,000 people who flocked to the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston for the world competition. The main matches took place on an elevated stage, as fans cheered on participants.
“It was really inspiring to meet teams from around the world,” said Seth Larson, student and founding member of Team ASAP Robotics. “It was a great opportunity for me to see the different designs that some of the best teams had come up with.”
In these competitions, teams are paired with another team — called an alliance partner — to take on other competitors. Preparations for competitions begin well ahead of time, with students taking part in every aspect of the process, including designing, building, programming and then operating the robots.
Over the four-day competition, Team ASAP Robotics played 10 different matches with a new alliance partner each time. Two of those alliance partners ended matches with zero points after a robot malfunctioned and then when a game piece became lodged in a robot.
On day three, Team ASAP Robotics encountered an obstacle of their own. A screw loosened on the team’s robot, wedging into one of its linear slides. This left the robot unable to move.
“With only 30 minutes before our next match, we thought we might have to forfeit,” coach Michael Larson said. That’s when the team jumped into action, successfully taking the slide apart and replacing it moments before heading onto the playing field.
Team ASAP Robotics placed 34th out of 64 teams in its division, and 150th out of a total 256 teams.
“At the beginning of this season, it was my goal to make it to worlds,” Seth Larson recounted. “Our team really leveled up as a result of this exposure to a world stage. We’ve set some high goals for ourselves for next season.”
As for what’s next, ASAP Robotics isn’t slowing down. The team has been invited to a robotics tournament in Romania in August and hopes to make that trip a reality. ❚
