School’s Robot Falls Short in Competition

For the second time in as many years, Chatsworth High School students came up short of their expectations at a national student engineering competition at Walt Disney World’s Epcot Center in Orlando, Fla.

“Robo Charlie II,” a 6-foot robot with an 11-foot vertical arm designed and built by a team of 18 Chatsworth High students, was eliminated Saturday in a sixth-round loss to the eventual champion, Kokomo (Ind.) High School, in the seventh annual FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) competition.

A win over Kokomo would have advanced Chatsworth to the quarterfinal round. The situation was reminiscent of last year’s competition, said Wendy Wooten, Chatsworth faculty advisor.

“Although we ended up about the same place as last year, our machine this year was an order of magnitude better,” Wooten said.

Despite the somewhat disappointing showing, Chatsworth senior Joey Russo, 18, said the teamwork aspect is what he’ll remember most about the competition.

“There was a time when one of our wheels broke and we had 15 minutes to make the repairs. All our team members pulled together, working as one, and we got the thing back together in time for the next competition,” Russo said.

About 10,000 students from more than 200 schools across the country participated in the competition Thursday through Saturday.

Each team competed in six two-minute preliminary rounds, with the top 16 schools advancing to the quarterfinals.

The robots earned points by placing balls on three parallel rails of varying height, the highest placed 8 feet above the gymnasium-size floor, Wooten said. To make matters more interesting, the robots could knock competitors’ balls off the rails, she said.

Kokomo defeated Middletown (R.I.) High School in the finals.