A team of high school engineers called the Spartatroniks from Orcutt Academy High School created a robot that has the ability to rebound like Dwight Howard and score like Kobe Bryant. And, unlike Lebron, Leonidas has already won a championship.
The Spartatroniks took home first place from the Los Angeles Regional FIRST Robotics Competition in Long Beach on March 17. The Spartatroniks partnered with teams from Dos Pueblos High School in Santa Barbara and another school from Las Vegas to win the tournament.
Each team was given the components necessary to build a robot that could scoop basketballs up from the court and shoot them into basketball hoops. It was up to the students to design the robot and engineer it to perform the task. No blueprints were provided; it was up to each of the 66 teams to use their creativity to come up with a design.
The Spartatroniks also had the help of some qualified assistants from the community.
“One of the big things about FIRST is that the students build a relationship between other students and business professionals like engineers and mechanics,” explained Ty Fredriks, the team’s faculty advisor.
The Spartatroniks partnered up with professors from UCSB and several mentors from Vandenberg Air Force, Fredriks said.
The 66 participating teams were given the rules of the game, called “Rebound Rumble” on Jan. 7. This gave them six weeks to research the game, design the robot, manufacture it, and finally test it. At the end of the six weeks, the robot was put in a giant plastic bag and locked up, as required by the tournament rules.
Until April 4, Leonidas sits in a secured room wrapped in plastic, not allowed to be touched. At this time, the team will meet with its robot in Madera for another tournament and will be able to make tweaks. Then, on April 25, the team will be traveling to St. Louis, Mo. for the FIRST Robotic World Championship.
According to Fredriks, the team needs to raise $30,000 to take everyone to Missouri. The cost to register in the tournament is $5,000 and the rest will go toward traveling expenses.
The team is having a barbecue fundraiser at the JCPenney parking lot on April 14 to help pay for the trip.
Visit the team’s website, spartatroniks.com, to make donations or for more information.
This article appears in Mar 29 – Apr 5, 2012.