MHS Robotics Team Stands Out at N.E. Tourney

The Medford High School Robotics team performed well at the 2013 New England Regional Tournament on May 4th.

The MHS Robotics team placed fifth out of 22 teams and won a Judges Choice award for the collaboration/synchronization between their robots.

Robotics team members include Serena Do, Christopher Ellis, Simon Ospenson, Tenzing Andrugtsang, Justin Campbell, Kevin Nguyen, Binit Shrestha, Nathanael Victor, and Emma Zec.

During the preparation period, the team is required to submit online documentations over three different times. These documents include project planning, mechanical design, software design, lessons learned and survey completion. The team is also required to do an onsite presentation in front of designated judges. Topics include team knowledge, team structure and organization, team’s decision making process, description of the overall mechanical design and robot code. The MHS Robotics team earned third place in the documentation category.

Besides documentations, the team designed, engineered, and programmed two autonomous robots to score the most points possible on the game board. In the Seeding Rounds, with no opponent, the two autonomous robots navigate around obstacles to collect and place objects in specific zones. In essence, it’s similar to what Rover and Curiosity do to gather rock specimens on the surface of Mars. In the Double Elimination rounds, robots from two different teams compete on the game board simultaneously in an effort to score as many points as possible, but also to keep their opponent from scoring. The MHS Robotics team earned fifth place in both the seeding round and double elimination round.

The Medford High Robotics team received generous donations from Mide Technology in Medford and a Botball scholarship through NASA Robotic Alliance Project.

– Information and photo submitted by Barbara Chyen