The Orcutt Academy Robotics Team scored an invitation to the FIRST World Championship robotics competition in Houston, Texas, scheduled for April 19 through 22.
The robotics team comprises nearly 40 members and about a dozen volunteer mentors, according to a press release. Participants are responsible for everything from promoting the team to building the robots, which compete in a series of matches lasting 2 1/2 minutes.
In mid-March, the Orcutt Academy Robotics Team—also known as FIRST 3512 Spartatroniks—had the highest-ranked robot at its first competition of the year at Ventura Community College, earning the team the Regional Finalist Award and the Quality Award.
The team’s winnings secured its members an invitation to Houston, where competing teams’ robots are required to move large gears and Wiffle balls to various locations on a basketball court-sized field, at which point the robots can boost their scores by climbing a rope.
But the team estimates it’ll cost about $40,000 to get all of its members to Houston for the world championships, according to the release.
“All of our design, preparation, and planning showed this weekend,” faculty advisor Ty Fredriks said of the Ventura competition in the news release. “Now that we have proved ourselves on the competition field, we will need to prove that we can raise the funds necessary to go to the world competition.”
Otherwise, Fredriks said, the team may have to downsize for the Houston trip.
This article appears in Apr 13-20, 2017.
