DarBots place fifth at state competition

Two of Darlington’s Upper School robotics teams competed at the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) State Championship at Southern Polytechnic State University on Feb. 26, with DarBots I placing fifth of 25 teams.

“We are very proud of both of our rookie teams for performing well against some very tough competitors,” said Owen Kinney, robotics instructor and DarBots adviser. “The 25 teams competing at state represented the best of the 150 teams competing in Georgia, plus a few teams from Mississippi and Alabama. Each of our students brought an impressive skill set to the competition, including designers, builders, programmers and logisticians. We expect several of them will not only represent Darlington again next year, but will also help mentor the next cohort of robotics students.”

DarBots I, made up of Erik Griffiths, Ted Summer, Andrew Safigan, Shiqi Wu, Vickie Cui and Wanni Liao, qualified for state based on their performance at the regional tournament hosted by Darlington in early February. At the regional event, they were part of the second place alliance and also received The Rockwell Collins Design Award, a top engineering award.

DarBots II, made up of Mark Huang, Stephen Shi, Cameron Phillips, Josh Carter, Jack Stevens, Chad Collins and Sara Jessica Crawford, also gave a solid performance, though they did not place in the state competition.

“They worked very hard leading up to the competition but ran into some technical difficulties at the event and did not end up in the Top 10,” Kinney said.

Even with the robotics season officially over, Kinney and the DarBots have not slowed down. Together, he and the students have designed a new project inspired by the U.S. soldiers and engineers that develop counter strategies against IED’s in Afghanistan.

“The purpose of the assignment is to put the students through a simulation in which a fictional IED found on campus must be removed from a building and detonated at a safe distance,” Kinney explained. “We are planning to have a public version of the simulation for our entire school to watch later in the year. Our three squads, comprised of four students each, are in the robot design phase right now, and they are thinking creatively about how to stream live video from their robot to a remote location. Some students are leaning toward mounting an iPhone 4 on their robot, but no field tests have been run at this point. The next few weeks should be a blast!”