Cheney Blackhawks finishes 18th with the help of 'DeVito Power'
Josh Marsh, who was the pilot for the Circuit Breakers, brings up a gear delivered to him by the team's robot (left). Cheney's Austin Smith was the driver for his team during the Steamworks competition (right).
The Medical Lake Circuit Breakers and Cheney Blackhawks high school robotics teams had success at the March 3 FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Steamworks competition at West Valley High School.
The Circuit Breakers were ranked first out of 30 teams after winning nine of their 12 qualifying matches and earning 1,897 points. Cheney, who went 6-6 in the qualifying round, was 18th with 1,529 points.
During the playoff rounds, Medical Lake, in an alliance with Cheney and the Cyborg Ferrets, out of Anacortes, Wash., won both their quarterfinal and semifinal matches, before they lost both of their final matches to an alliance comprised of teams from Newport, Palouse and St. George's high schools. Both Cheney and Medical Lake earned District Event Finalist awards
For the Steamworks competition, alliances of three teams worked to launch an airship by collecting plastic fuel elements (balls) and tossing them into the low or high goals of man-made boilers to build steam pressure, and transporting gears to a lift at the base of an air tower. Two alliance members, taking on the role of "pilots," haul the gears up and install them on the gauge below one of the four rotors.
For the event, Medical Lake focused on delivering gears to the airship, which accounted for 1,100 of their points. Before the competition, club president Micah Jones said there was an issue with their robot, named "Myst," where a mechanism was "dragging to the right a lot."
"We compensated for that in the code and programming," he said.
Like Medical Lake, Cheney also planned on their robot, named after actor Danny DeVito, delivering gears to the airship. However, they too experienced some problems before the competition.
"We didn't have a working code for the first three matches until Team 4911 (Cyberknights from Seattle) came over and helped us," Austin Smith, one of the team's leaders, said. "But our gear herder doesn't work like we want it to, so we've been focusing on defense."
Despite the problems, Cheney was as high as eighth place in the first day of the competition, which is far better than the 2016 Stronghold event, where they finished 29th.
"We were as high as eighth place and now we're 18th," Smith said. "Just having a robot that works, we've already surpassed what we did last year."
Medical Lake also won an Innovation Control Award, which according to the FIRST website, is given to teams that demonstrate an "innovative control system or application of control components – electrical, mechanical or software – to provide unique machine functions."
Although this year's competition was more complex than previous ones, Jones said the team has far exceeded the expectations they set for themselves before the event.
"We always go into competitions with some confidence, hoping we do well," Jones said. "All of our drivers, except one are rookies. We're excited at how much everyone, including the robot, has exceeded expectations."
Medical Lake is currently sixth out of 155 teams in the Pacific Northwest District rankings while the Blackhawks are 27th. Both teams are expected to compete in the FIRST competition at Central Washington University from March 16-18.
Al Stover can be reached at al@cheneyfreepress.com.
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