Battle of the robots

MT. PLEASANT - The Mt. Pleasant high school robotics team has taken a different form this year after all robotics competitions were moved online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

After a short break and a reorganization, the team is back and is set to compete Thursday in the Vex Robotics Competition League.

In the fall, the normal robotics team decided that they did not want to participate in virtual robotics competitions due to the complexity of the requirements along with the normal complexity of the robot building.

After the team decided not to do virtual competitions, Dale Shultz, the robotics adviser, set out to find another way to compete in a robotics competition this year. With the switch happening in the middle of the year, it took a while for them to prepare for the competitions.

Shultz decided to make the robotics competition part of his first-hour automation class where students were already learning about circuits, simple machines, DC motors, industrial robots and now robot building for competition.

Student Evan Stuecker said the class was not what he thought it was going to be, but he's had fun learning about robotics and the competitions.

'I thought it was an automotive class, and he [Parker Gallerick] needed a filler, but once he said robots I was OK with it, and it was even better,” Stuecker said. 'We've never done it any other way so how would we now, if you didn't tell us. It's been good and fun.”

The three students in the class have never participated in robotics before. There have been challenges for them to get acquainted with the rules and workings of a robotics competition, but Shultz said the vex program was easier to adapt to and build than their traditional competition.

'Well it will be a virtual competition, it's our first, and we're not sure what's going to happen. We're going to drive around the best we can and try to score some points,” Shultz said. 'There is a different robot design that to me is a lot easier to work with, so we're happy about that.”

Normally the robotics team competes in the First Tech Challenge that has numerous machine requirements that make it more difficult to build, program and adapt. This year they decided to compete in the Vex Robotics Competition League that has virtual competitions, but since they are competing as part of a class it is more suitable for their program.

The litany of changes and differences has thrown the robotics program for a loop, but they expect that it will be a good year, even with all of the difficulties in the way.

'It's going good, like I said this bot is easier to work with so we made progress fairly quickly on getting the bot working, and now we're working on the ring for the competition,” Shultz said. 'The year has gone a lot better than I expected, it's obviously been a lot different, but it's been OK.”

With everything different, students don't know exactly how everything will work out but they are confident it will be a good time in the process.

'We have no idea. We'll do this competition and maybe a few others just to see what's going on, and there's sort of a skill shoot out where you compete under different rules, but we'll see,” Shultz said.

The robotics team is set to compete Thursday in the Vex competition, they will be competing virtually to see who can score the most points, with it being their first competition they are skeptical about their chances, but are looking forward to the competition, according to Shultz.