This year’s Robotics club has been working hard on their robot for this season’s competition. The Robotics members are given a six week time period to construct a robot. During that time, they will be designing, testing, prototyping and building the robot that will be sent to regionals in Duluth.

The requirements for this year’s robot is it has to be less than 120 lbs, and it needs to be capable of picking up milk crates as well as climbing. The team has had a lot of challenges that they have had to overcome. Junior Caleb Kess, the building leader for Robotics, said, “Every year we get a new competition/game that we have to build a robot for. Each year the tasks that we need to accomplish changes.” Each member of the Robotics club has their own job that is essential to the success of the team and accomplishing their required tasks. Kess said, “We have the four basic teams – building, business, programming and electrical. Each person specializes in a specific area.”

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Programmers work with a new vision-tracking camera

The team has lost some of their leadership, and experienced members. Kess said, “This year we have lost a lot of leadership and experience without any notice. It has been a struggle to relearn things that others specialized in.” With the losses of many members, they had to fill in for the people that had left.

The members of Robotics started their robot on Saturday, Jan. 6. Mrs. Val Rose is the Robotics coach/adviser, and she has been helping the club through their build season and competition season. Rose said, “We have been building since Jan. 6. We are halfway through the building season. On Tuesday, Feb. 20 at 10:59 p.m. we must “bag and tag” the robot. That means that we can not longer work on our competition robot.” Robotics will be having their annual community event, and it will be on Feb. 20 in the Options area. Everyone is welcome to come to the event.

The leaders and robot drivers will be heading to Duluth on Wednesday, Mar. 7. Later that night, the club will load the tools and equipment needed for the competition. Mrs.Rose also said, “On Mar. 9, the robot will be inspected, weighed and the pit will be set up, which will be where we will be evaluated by the judges. That afternoon, we have the opportunity to practice on the oficial field and test the robot.”

 The rest of the team will be heading up to Duluth after school on Thursday, Mar. 9. The competition will officially begin on Mar. 10, and the competition will continue until the Top 10 teams are left. Each team will pick two other teams to make an alliance. The winners of the final competition will represent the Northern Lights Regional (Duluth) Division at the world competition in Detroit, Michigan.