By Alok Ganguly
Public Relations

After school in room 221 of Westford Academy, there is a bustling group of bright minds dedicated to robotics. The team competed at the state level on March 8th and was very successful, bringing home a multitude of awards. However, while the team is proud of their accomplishments, they have already begun to focus on the future, and are planning for next year’s competition, as well as a summer camp for younger minds interested in robotics as well.

The team had to build a robot designed to do well in a specific challenge that they learned about in September. After hearing about the challenge, members of the club met almost every day of the week to plan, build, and program the robots.

“It is a massive amount of dedication,” said junior Vikrant Rao, one of the leaders of the club, who has been a member since his freshman year.

This year, the challenge was complex. In a 12 foot by 12 foot square, a hundred blocks were scattered through the field, and the competitors had to design a robot that could pick up several blocks and place them in a few crates located in the center of the square. Not only were the robots given points based on their speed and being able to put the blocks into the crates, but they were also given points based on where they actually placed the blocks, making accuracy a high priority.

At the beginning of the event, the robot is autonomous for 30 seconds, where it must move around by itself, and it’s users are not allowed to touch the robot or its controller. For the next two minutes, the students are allowed to take control of their robot and complete the challenges to the best of their ability.

This year, the team split into two and constructed two different robots. One team built a robot they nicknamed 7876 which had a primary focus on completing the main challenge. The other team constructed one bot named 3565, which was more focused on completing some of the sub-challenges also part of the competition, which could be completed for additional points. The robot had 30 seconds to raise a flag and spin it.

“Our robot did it in less than 2 seconds,” said Rao.

Prior to being able to compete at the state level, the teams had to compete in multiple scrimmages and qualifying rounds throughout the year. Each time that the team visited a scrimmage, they would be able to test out specific types of movement that their robots were capable of, to deem what sort of modifications were both efficient and effective. This way, they could adapt their creations, while being inspired by some of the qualities of robots from other teams.

The teams were very successful at States this year, winning the special Connect Award for the first time in the club’s existence, an award given to robotics teams that connect with their community. The Connect Award recognized that the Westford community and school were instrumental to the club’s success at the competition.

The club remains focused on teaching people who are interested in robotics how to craft their own creations. The students also manage a summer clinic for two weeks after the end of school, where they teach kids in elementary school about the basics of robotics.

These outreach efforts to the greater Westford community are an integral part in keeping the robotics club a powerful competitor in state and national competitions. The club is always on the prowl for recruiting potential members.

“I want to let people know that if they have a sport or some other commitment for a season and that deters them from joining the club because they won’t be dedicated, that they should still come and join because they would still be able to participate for a while and could really help. We are always looking for more people that are interested in the subject, and who would like to learn more about it,” added Rao.