After two days of fierce robotic competition, Wayne Hills Robotics team soared to 2nd place, within a few points of being crowned the overall champions. The competition included three robotic challenges and a Science & Technology Presentation for 10 North Jersey high schools.
The Oil Spill Cleanup Challenge tested students to design a robot that could collect and sort plastic golf balls from rubber flamingos. At the start, the radio-controlled robot pushed a lever to release more than 150 pieces of plastic items onto the game field. WH's robot used a conveyor belt system to separate balls to a lower storage area on board the robot and flamingos to an upper area with a rotating gate to hold and release at the correct time. The robot was then driven to each of the two floor storage receptacles for dispensing. The majority of the competition robots struggled to deliver just a handful of balls and flamingos to the correct storage bins whereas the Hills robot scored over 270 points and was awarded 1st place overall in this event.
The 2nd robotic event, the Drawing Challenge, tested the robot’s ability to draw geometric shapes into columns and rows of a vertical markerboard ranging up to a five foot height. The high scoring game landed the team in third place overall even with a score of 1075 points.
The Obstacle Course was the final robotic challenge which tested the robot operator’s ability to drive along a narrow path along the PCCC gym floor in the least amount of time. Various obstacles such as a grid of plastic golf balls blocked the robot paths and sharp turns caused many teams to be disqualified by running outside of the boundaries. Out of ten competing teams Hills Robotics earned 5th place.
The Science & Technology Presentation gave student teams the ability to showcase their robots to a panel of engineers to explain the how, what and whys of their robot. Hills Robotics won 1st place in this prestigious presentation.
Finally, the School Spirit Award, given to the school team with unwavering excitement during both days of competition, was presented to Wayne Hills seniors Aditi Chatterjee and Evelina Simala for cheering and rallying all teams during the North Jersey Robotics Competition; raising the bar for future competitions.
