Upper School Robotics Teams Report on Season

At a special Morning Ex, members of Parker’s FTC Robotics teams reported on their progress thus far and revealed what lies ahead this year.

Upper School Robotics team members took turns presenting different aspects of this year’s season. In addition to introducing the league they compete within, students explained the details associated with this year’s game and the strategy they devised to help ensure they scored the most points in competition before sharing video bursts of a sample match. Presenters discussed the steps involved in developing each year’s robot and demonstrated aspects of the design, construction and coding of this year’s build. 

The students showed the benefits of computer-aided design in rapid prototyping and spoke about the wide range of equipment—such as laser cutters, 3D printers and a CNC machine—they used to manufacture the parts they needed to assemble the robot for testing and refinement. Programming, the final step in the process, involves an autonomous component at the start of matches, when the robot attempts to score based on a predetermined set of functions, as well as mapping the controllers for the driver-controlled portion of matches. Team members were proud to share that the robot’s autonomous program was ranked 8th overall in the world following their first league meet of the season.  

With 10 matches at the first two meets, the veteran Parker team is undefeated and ranked number 1 in the Chicago League with the rookie team close behind in 2nd place after narrowly losing to the veterans in one match. The freshman team did, however, achieve the league’s high score in another of their matches. The two teams will attend their third meet on Saturday, January 18 at Solorio High School, and league meets culminate on Saturday, February 8, when Parker hosts the League Qualifier, which determines the top teams moving on to the state tournament.

Students also presented on the numerous outreach opportunities that are also part of being on a robotics team. These include developing sponsorship and strategic relationships with corporations such as Google and Rev Robotics, being able to do a virtual meeting with the Head of Robotics at Fermilab, hosting the FLL tournament at Parker for MS students from across the Chicago area and helping FLL teams to get started at other schools.

The presentation concluded with students competing on stage in a “car soccer” game, in which opposing robots attempted to push a soccer ball to the opposite team’s side of the playing area. 

Enjoy photos from the Morning Ex here.