Groton Dunstable Robotics Team
2016 Competitions to be Held in March
By Ginger Vollmar, Publicity for the
GDRHS Robotics Team
The Groton Dunstable High School Robotics team, fondly known
as "The Robotomies", will be participating in the 2016 FIRST Robotics
“FIRST Stronghold” competitions in March. The team has been working hard and
meeting almost daily for the last six weeks to design, build, program and test
their robot.
After the 2016 challenge was announced, the team spent time
working on a design and trying to decide which aspects of the challenge to
focus on. A major decision had to be made about whether to use treads or
pneumatic wheels on the drive train of the robot. They used a grid weighting
system to make the decision but in the end the cost of buying treads and the
time needed to ship and manufacture them eliminated treads as a possibility.
The other major components of the design are the swing arm and the articulating
arm (which is double jointed), which are to be used for maneuvering through
defenses on the “field of battle” which is the team’s main strategy for scoring
points in the competition.
The first competition will be held at WPI’s Harrington
Auditorium on March 12th – 13th (100 Institute Rd., Worcester, MA. Saturday
8:00 – 6:00 and Sunday 8:00 – 6:00).
The 2nd competition will be held at the Providence Career
and Technology Academy on March 25th – 26th (41 Fricker St. Providence, RI.
Friday 8:00 – 6:00 and Saturday 8:00 – 6:00).
The competitions are very exciting events and we hope to get
more spectators to come out and cheer on the team this year. You can come for
part of the day or the entire day. The actual schedule for the days of the
competition is not known ahead of time but our team will have a number of
matches during each of the days.
You can visit our web site at team1277.org for more
information about the Robotomies or like us on Facebook at “GD Team 1277”.
All funding for the Robotics team is privately raised. The
Robotomies are thrilled to have gotten more sponsors this year.
We would like
to thank all of our current sponsors who provide funding for the entrance fees
for the FIRST competitions and for materials.
Thank you to: Justin J. Maynard
Memorial STEM Innovation Scholarship; The Department of Defense STEM Program;
The Society for American Military Engineers; Raytheon; Ted & Connie Lapres
Fund; Mercury Systems; Groton Board of Trade; IBM Northeast Community Grant
Program; GE Oil & Gas; Solidworks; the Webber Restaurant Group; Harris
Corporation; MJR Engineering Co.; the Hughson Family; and the Adams Family.
Additional
sponsorships are always welcomed and appreciated.
If you have questions or would like to help support the
Robotics team, please contact Mr. Mark Rocheleau at mrocheleau@gdrsd.org
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