By Jeremiah Beckett
For The Cordova Times
Their hope at the Alaska Southeast regional robotics competition in late December was simply to have a working robot, but Cordova Wolverines did much better, winning the “Velocity Vortex” game, with a chance to compete in statewide competition in January.
The CHS high school students competed against 11 teams from Southeast Alaska in the ‘Velocity Vortex’ game. It begins with competition qualifiers, where each team is randomly paired with an ally team and competes against another pair of allies in a 12-foot-by 12-foot arena to complete various robotic challenges. The rounds start with a 30-second autonomous mode where the robots are programmed to complete a series of actions in the arena, after which the teams switch to driver mode for two minutes. The teams earned points by moving obstacles, scoring particle balls through a raised center hoop or ground level corner vortex, and pushing one of four color beacons to change colors that match the alliance teams color.
By the end of the qualifier matches Cordova was ranked fourth and the whole team was very excited. Moving into the finals, teams got to choose their allies. Last year’s winner from Juneau’s Thunder Mountain High School and first place holders at end of qualifiers approached Cordova to be their ally in finals, given the robots complementary capabilities and performances. Cordova accepted and the teams headed to the finals.
During the first semi-final matches our alliance had a great start, sweeping the best of three by huge margins. Juneau’s robot scored well throughout the game, with its primary capability being to shoot particle balls up through the center vortex and pushing beacons. Cordova consistently did well in the autonomous portion with scoring for moving a large ball off base, shooting particle balls in a corner vortex, and parking on the corner ramp. Cordova also had a strong ability to manage the color beacons during the game.
Moving into the final matches the teams were more evenly paired against each other with each team having solid autonomous modes plus both teams had one robot with strong particle shooters and another robot good at beacon pushing. From the beginning you could see how well matched the teams were with each team scoring points in the autonomous mode and the drivers’ game going head-to-head. The Cordova Juneau alliance took the first round by 5 points, in an epic battle over the beacons, lost the second match by 5 points, moving into a win it all final round.
During the last round each team scored well during the autonomous mode leaving the final verdict to driver game scoring. Each team had one robot scrambling to collect particle balls for shooting to the center-raised vortex while another robot worked the beacons. The battle for the beacons continued as one alliance would push a beacon to turn its color then the other alliance would push it to change the color, who would have the final push before the round ended. The buzzer rang and no team was truly certain who had won, everyone waited as the scores were tallied, and then the Cordova Juneau alliance was declared the winners.
The team has already started brainstorming how to improve the robot for state and very excited to represent Cordova next month. You can view more team pictures and watch the competition video’s on the teams Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/cordovafirst/
During December Cordova students had the opportunity to participate in three statewide events through our newly formed robotics program, Cordova FIRST. The kids had a lot of fun during these events and competed extremely well with both our CHS teams earning awards.
Our Cordova Wolverines Jr. High team also sent six students to Anchorage for competition this month and earned the coveted ‘Core Values’ award for outstanding team work and gracious professionalism which also earned them a spot for the state competition in January.
The Mt Eccles Mountaineers participated in a virtual qualifier earlier this month which was an exciting day for everyone. They improved their robot challenge scores every round and all plan to participate again next year.
This was the inaugural year for our Cordova FIRST robotics teams, provided through an after school program sponsored by the Cordova School District and run by the CHS Tech Club. FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition in Science and Technology) is an international program intended to help inspire our youth to be leaders in science and technology. http://www.firstinspires.org/ The FIRST program is the world’s leading not-for-profit STEM program for students with over 460,000 kids grades k-12 participating in the 2016-2017 season and stimulating 30M+ in scholarship opportunities this year for students.
Alaska has over 180 FIRST teams statewide and continues to grow every year. This year Cordova started four teams in FIRST; two for the Mt Eccles grades school grades 4-6 in the First Lego League (FLL), one Jr High FLL team, and one high school team for the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC). We had over 30 kids participate during the season with 25 students participating in competitions.
Jeremiah Beckett is the Tech Club Advisor at Cordova High School
