Robotics Team competes this week at WPI

Groton Dunstable Robotics Team 2017 Competitions to be Held in March

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 2017 FIRST Robotics “FIRST Steamworks” 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 2017 challenge was announced, the team spent time working on a design and trying to decide which aspects of the challenge to focus on. With a good number of experienced seniors who work well independently, the team broke into groups to work on separate pieces of the robot: the base and drive train, the ball shooter, the rope climber, the gear holder, the ball hopper and the programming of the robot. The team just finished their work by the stop build date of February 21st. We are all looking forward to the competitions to see how well the robot performs.

The first competition will be held at WPI’s Harrington Auditorium on March 9th – 10th (100 Institute Rd., Worcester, MA. Thursday 8:00 – 8:00 and Friday 8:00 – 6:00). The 2nd competition will be held at Bryant University on March 25th – 26th (1150 Douglas Pike, Smithfield, RI. Saturday 8:00 – 8:00 and Sunday 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 www.robotomies.com 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 Society for American Military Engineers; Raytheon; Ted & Connie Lapres Fund; Mercury Systems; IBM Northeast Community Grant Program; GE Oil & Gas; Solidworks; MJR Engineering Co.; Hollingsworth & Vose; L-3 Advanced Systems; Harris Corporation; Groton Dunstable Education Foundation (GDEF); the Hughson Family; the Adams Family; the Breton Family; the Battles Family; the Orlando Family; and the DiFranco 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.