Figuring It Out Together: A Freshman Robotics Team's Journey at the BEST Competition

On November 1st, the Robotics class participated in the BEST Robotics competition at Wichita State University. This year's theme, Factoids, was inspired by Artificial Intelligence (AI). Our class theme was “Figuring It Out Together” as all six students were Freshmen and new to robotics. This was also Seth Winzer's first year leading the team. He was impressed with the students' creativity as they brainstormed ways to complete the competition objectives and then worked to turn those ideas into a functioning robot. Their primary goal was to build a robot that could pick up plastic golf balls and sort them by weight. The heavier golf balls were considered “true factoids,” and the lighter ones were considered “false factoids”. The students ran out of time before they could integrate their sorter and had to go with a simpler method, allowing the students to learn the value of having a Plan B (and Plan C and Plan D). Although the simpler robot did not have all the functionality that they had hoped for, what it did do, it did well. The students enjoyed the competition, particularly driving the robot. Their score was always greater than zero, and they did not get last! The class has already begun imagining what the students will be able to build next year, with the experience they have recently earned.