Local robotics team headed to the world championship
The 40-member Los Gatos High School Robotics Team, the Iron Claw, is headed to Houston next month for the FIRST Robotics Championship, where they’ll compete against hundreds of other teams for the world robotics title. Regional robotics competitions are currently underway worldwide for students in grades 9-12.
The Iron Claw recently won the San Francisco Regional — the team’s firstever win — and earned the spot in Houston.
“Teams had six weeks to build human-sized robots that weigh 120 pounds,” Iron Claw co-captain Ryan Draper said. “After that we literally put the robot in a box until it’s time to compete.”
The 2018 competition requires robots to pickup and move milk crate-sized cubes.
“The objective is to put the cubes on ground level and on elevated structures that are like seesaws and earn points,” team member Jake Caligiuri said. “Whoever has the most points wins.”
During the first 15 minutes of a match, the robots are autonomous and run on pre-programmed instructions. Then, team members take control and drive the robots to their goal.
The Iron Claw’s robot has squishy wheels to help it grab the cubes and an elevator to lift the cubes up nearly seven feet, Ryan said.
The teens will have an opportunity to practice in early April, when they attend another regional competition in Fresno.
“You can only work on your robot during competitions, so this gives us a chance to improve and get more driver experience,” Ryan said.
Twenty-five of the Iron Claw’s most experienced members will be going to Houston for the championship, which is April 1821. The trip is expected to cost between $35,000 and $40,000, so team members are reaching out to sponsors for support.
They got it from the Department of Defense, which is paying the team’s registration fees in Houston. San Francisco-based Atlas Technology Group is also on board as a sponsor.
But the teens don’t expect sponsors to cover everything, so they’re asking for help from the community with an online fundraising campaign at www. gofundme.com/send-lghsrobotics-to-championship.
“We have to transport members by plane and pay for lodging,” team member Justin Quan said. “Another component is transporting the robot equipment, including a NASCAR type of pit.”
Fundraising and community outreach are competition requirements, along with designing a team brand, so there’s quite a bit of work involved in the competition. Maybe that’s why it’s become known as the “hardest fun you’ll ever have.”
FIRST, by the way, is the acronym “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.”