The Team Department of Microwave Repair toiled its hours in the robotics lab every day to create one robot. The ultimate bot that would go on to win the excellence award at one of the largest region competitions in Florida. The name of this amazing automaton is Bravo.
Charters’ very own robotics team went to South Florida’s Vex Robotics Competition with their new holiday bot, the Jingle Bot. With 47 other teams to compete against, Team Department of Microwave Repair (consisting of Senior Matthew Estevez, Senior Jonathan Kim, Senior Nikhil Sangamkar, Senior Aidan Cobb, Senior Nathan Pothuganti, Senior Eduardo Steinmann-Petrasso, Senior Aakash Suresh, Junior Mia Fu, and Freshman Umer Qureshi) won the excellence award, which is held in the highest regard as said by team captain, Matthew Estevez. “Excellence award is viewed as best in all categories.”
South Florida’s Jingle Bot Robotics Competition is a competition near Christmas time where the top South Florida teams go head to head. 48 teams are chosen to face off against each other for different awards and the chance to go to states. In robotics, winning this is a big deal. Winning would mean beating all of South Florida’s teams and the opportunity to compete against top Florida schools from all over the state for a chance to go to the international competition, VEX Worlds, in Dallas.
The steps needed in order to compete are simple. First, the teams must design and build a robot that is able to perform the many tasks necessary to win. For example, the robots must be able to grab the triballs (commonly called acorns) on the field. The field is a 12 by 12 square platform with two goals on opposite sides. In the middle, there is a barrier designed to complicate any bots from crossing to the other side. The bot must then throw the acorns scattered on the course to the goal on its opposite side to get points. Towards the left and right side of the barrier, there are two bars a couple feet off the floor. The robots must then grab onto it and basically do a pull-up. The higher the robot goes up, the more points the team gets. While there are many other arenas, this one is the most commonly used amongst the teams.
To make a robot that can perform all those feats, Charter’s team members had to work around the clock in the robotics lab. Matthew Estevez recalled how they would go to the robotics lab after school and during any free time they had to perfect Bravo. “We would be here in the lab almost 2 hours every day working on it.”
All the hard work paid off in the end because The Department of Microwave Repair is officially heading to states to compete against elite schools with their newly named robot Scorpion. Charter’s robotics team will officially be heading to compete against Florida’s top schools for a chance to get to nationals. For many of the team’s members, it is their last year, making this win quite profound.
