Leland & SB compete in a robotics tournament
Leland Robotics competed in two local events, first at Lake City and then Mount Pleasant, to complete the second season in program history.
The Comets came in 30th out of 37th in Lake City and 17th out of 40th in the Mount Pleasant tournament.
“Our robot did exactly what we wanted to do,” Leland robotics coach Michael Parsons said. “We broke it. We fixed it and got to business. Our drive team had a great time competing the last few weeks.”
If you’re familiar with robotics, you have two alliances, blue and red, and three robots per alliance. The competition that challenged students was designed to chase coral and algae to make the world a better place underwater.
Several game pieces represented algae and coral that a roughly 135-pound robot would rearrange.
“The students have a great time because they see robotics and teamwork. It’s not really about the robot. What challenges do you want to set out? What do you want to get done? What problems do you want to solve? And then, really, in a broader way, how do you want to impact the communities that you have?” Parsons said. “The robot is the excuse to get together and solve some fun problems, and the competition and the team is a way to get out and meet a whole bunch of people.”
The Leland robotics is comprised upper elementary, middle, and high school students. Four high schoolers and four middle schoolers make up the team, which operates with support from mentors and parent volunteers. High school teams consist of five to 35 players.
In the program’s second year, Leland knows enough to be dangerous and brings enough knowledge and skill to be helpful in alliances. The Comets are less established compared to area teams that have been around for as long as 25 years.
“(Robotics) is not just 21st century shop class, it’s also the ability to build different relationships with different schools and meet all sorts of cool people you don’t see on a regular basis,” Parsons said.
As the robotics season ends, innovation doesn’t stop, as students will take crash courses in drones and drone racing.
SB finishes in quarters
Suttons Bay also competed at the Lake City tournament and finished impressively in the quarterfinals of the first Norsemen meet.
“Our gunner position, it was his (Warren’s) first time driving the robot. And that was pretty nerve-racking. We got through our 12 qualification matches, going back and forth between winning and losing,” Suttons Bay coach Emma Grant said.
“Regarding the playoffs, Suttons Bay was selected by the fourth-seeded alliance. A separate team selects other teams to ally in some competitions.
There’s one person who is the main driver of the robot and controls the motion, then a gunner is the person who operates the elevator and operates the claw that picks up the game pieces and maneuvers.
The Suttons Bay team also includes two students Lake Leelanau St. Mary and one from Northport.
“We hope to keep improving every match. We would want to take it into a position where we can select teams. The playoffs, and we want to win an award,” Grant said. “We pride ourselves, and try to talk students through talking with the judges and being professional, and knowing how to present your robot in a way that makes sense to the judges that they could be impressed by. We worked on that this year so we’re hoping to get an award.”
