This weekend, Masuk Robotics had their first home competition of the season. The 15 Masuk teams went against 29 robots all across Connecticut and Massachusetts.
The entrance of the school was transformed into a technology and engineering facility, the hallways filled with practice courts where robots could warm up.
The cafeteria was an area for robot tune up and team recharge, where there were meals and refreshments for the competitors.
The spectators sat in the auditorium, and the stage was recast as a robot game court, along with projectors so fans could better see their teams competing, as well as the score.
To compete, the robots had to get round yellow discs into hoops; these were color coded for the different teams, like red vs blue, and each team would consist of two robots.
Before a match, teams are given 15 seconds to win an autonomous bonus. This short match is based on the robot’s code rather than the person driving it, and with this bonus, a team gets win points, which can increase your ranking, as well as an extra ten points.
From there, robots have one minute and 45 seconds to gain more points for their team through the driver’s control. With ten seconds left on the clock, robots release strings to cover tiles, which is called endgame and it is a chance for teams to gain last minute points. The robotics courts are put together with foam tiles, meaning more tiles covered with string equals more points awarded to the team.
During the six hours of competition, teams would switch around to play the robotic form of basketball. At the end, 16 of the best teams would create an alliance for the elimination rounds for a total of 32 teams fighting for finals.
Ten Masuk teams had succeeded in reaching the elimination rounds, however, only two Masuk teams made it to the semi-finals, where they lost.
The champions of the night were teams 5150D from Danbury, Connecticut, and 48425A from ROBOSheen Robotics in Massachusetts.
Despite Masuk not reaching the finals, there were other awards given for robots who have shown value.
The design award, an award for engineers who displayed superb notebook designs for robots, was given to team 4478E from Masuk, which consisted of juniors Liam Kelly, Lucas Cartagena, Emma Cusa, Ashwin Sarma, Arvin Sarma and sophomore John Iacono. The excellence award, an award for generalist robots, was given to team 4478Y, which consists of juniors Lauren Chipdey, Alexandra Hernandez, Harini Gosukonda, Ash Mert, Anthony Giordano and Safa Memon.
“I actually do feel really good about it, because this is the farthest we’ve gone in any competition so far this year, so I’m really proud of the progress we’ve made!” says senior Mayson Wallander of Masuk Team 4478K, which placed eighth overall.
Masuk Free Press 