By Victoria Walker
Staff Writer

Earlier this year, when WA introduced its first stress relieving showcase day, many students were surprised to see that one of the afternoon entertainment options was a Robotics Team presentation. What did this mean exactly? The idea of a school wide ping pong tournament is pretty self-explanatory, and WATA goes all out in advertising their events, but no one was really sure what to expect from Robotics.

The thirty or so students who attended the first block presentation were treated to an explanation of the ongoings of the Robotics Team, learned how competitions work, and had the chance to watch the robot and team members in action. Team advisor and WA teacher Bill Bowen ran the presentation, talking extensively about and praising the team for their work ethic.

Early in September, the year’s challenge is announced, letting students know the different tasks their robots need to be able to accomplish. In the fall, robotics teams from all over New England come to Massachusetts to compete against each other in various challenges, using entirely unique and completely hand-built robots.

There are various different rounds of competition that take place on different days, and while the earliest are generally the least populated and therefore easiest to score well in, this early start can mean sacrificing some time that could have been spend perfecting ones model. During competitions, robots move around in a set space, completing tasks such as hanging up colored rings. In order to make this process easier, the teams work throughout the season to add specialized parts to their machines.

“We ran into a variety of challenges. One, as you can see, moving [the robot] around makes it difficult to place rings on pegs. So what the kids created was a system that allowed the robot to move from one side the to the other side,” said Bowen, demonstrating how the long extending arm of the WA team’s current model moved from side to side in a hola dance motion. “So that if we weren’t lined up perfectly, we could just move the robot and move one of the wrists.”

Such innovative ideas are what makes a robot and its team successful. Looking at the WA team’s current robot, at first all one really sees is a compact box of metal, about a foot wide.

As team members pick up their remote controls and flick “on”, however, the machine expands, stretching out its long metallic arm and flexing its wrist into position to place a ring. The robot is able to move around on tank treads, extend its arm to reach objects placed on high planes, and make small adjustments of its positioning without a huge hassle.

“Your first year in, basically it’s, you know, ‘put these two nuts and bolts together’, and you tighten them up with screwdrivers and washers and wrenches and that’s it. This whole thing went together one little piece after anther little piece,” said Bowen. “There wasn’t a kit, there wasn’t anything that told us ‘these pieces go together this way’. We created this entire robot ourselves.”

In order to accomplish this feat, the team meets every Wednesday. As competitions draw closer, they often increase their meeting times to include Tuesdays and Thursdays, and Fridays and Saturdays if needed. Teachers in the science department where meetings take place know that if there is s meeting scheduled, the students will show up right after the bell. Robotics Team is not just another club with occasional get togethers and few mandatory meetings. Membership requires dedication and is, according to Bowen, the equivalent of a sport in terms of commitment.

“Robotics Team is the equivalent of a varsity level sport, although Robotics Team lasts through the whole year and your varsity spot only lasts one season which is nine or ten weeks,” said Bowen.

Despite all of this, or maybe because of it, the team manages of have a great time, develop their technical skills and even excel in competitions. Their current robot is successful enough, and threatening enough to other teams, that competitors often go out of their way to block Westford’s robot and try to sabotage its operations.

While WA does not agree with this tactic, unfortunately it caused the team not to make states this season. Even while dealing with such challenges, this year the WA team still received a score of 411 points, one of the highest scoring rounds in Massachusetts this year.
While all of this may sound challenging and feasible only for students with an inborn knack for mechanical engineering and programming, this is really not the case. Most of the students who join the Robotics Team have little to no experience with robots and learn on the go. The team also provides opportunity for students to branch into other areas, such as filmmaking, videotaping and web design for promotional purposes.

“The more people we get and the broader variety of people in the team, the better we are,” said Bowen. “We need people who think and address things differently, that look at the challenges differently. The greater the range of people we have, the better it is for all of us.”

As the school year draws to a close and students start up their count downs to summer, the Robotics Team is having their last few meetings of the season. Happy with the base of their robot, including the tank treads and four motor system, the team plans on keeping that mostly intact. The rest of the robot, however, is destined to soon be unscrewed into its original bits and parts of scrap metal. The 2013-2014 school year could bring any number of new additions to the updated robot. Only time can tell exactly how new members, fresh ideas and a different challenge will shape next year’s robot.