Washington hosts robotics competition

WASHINGTON — A total of 13 teams from around the state came to the Washington County Fairgrounds last weekend for a robotics competition, formally called a “First Tech Challenge robotics meet.”

Such competitions change objectives every year. At this tournament, the games involved strategically stacking cones onto markers around an arena, a task each robot was specifically designed to do.

Jim Pitcher, Coach Mentor of Washington 4-H’s team, called Eaglebots, said hosting the event was its own team-building exercise.

“It’s for the love of the sport,” he said. “We host one because it helps build team and parent cooperation. It’s part of developing our team, it’s just as much important to get the parents involved and aware of what their kid’s doing.”

Participants design and build their own robots each year, doing everything from managing the batteries to installing gears to programming code for the units to move. Some teams order custom parts for their creations, others do what they can with salvaged equipment.

Pitcher said the activity built participants’ professional skills.

“These kids aren’t students, they’re team members, and it’s really a very important concept,” he said. “We work as an engineering team just like Collins Aerospace, John Deere, any company who has an engineering team. We have a problem to solve, we build a robot to solve that problem.”

The challenges require teams to work together in 2-on-2 matchups, working in temporary, assigned alliances. However, their partner team in one round may be their competition in the next.

Participants called the idea “gracious professionalism,” and said it kept competitors ambitious, but respectful.

“Some other teams, we’re not as closely acquainted with them as others” Eaglebots member Eli Conrad said. “But we can still work with them like any other team.”

Those alliances work together, in an effort to play off one another’s strengths and weaknesses. Doing so requires not just collaboration, but adaptation for every round.

“We don’t typically have new stuff, so you can see with the other teams, they’ve got bigger, more expensive carts,” said Gwen Piette, a member of Highland’s robotics club, called the Finger Titans. “You’ll see how other teams get innovative, and work around that.”

Additionally, Piette said competitors were eager to help one another, even when they weren’t directly aligned.

“One time, we had a motor break off, and a whole bunch of teams came together like, ‘Do you need a motor, do you need help to fix this?’” she said. “It’s like one big community.”

Participants said the robotics work was rewarding, with a clear demonstration of their labor on display at every competition.

"There’s nothing else like it,“ Eaglebots member and Coach Isabelle Krueger said. ”All your blood sweat and tears go in, and it moves, and it breathes, it’s amazing.“

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com