The FIRST Robotics team from Lake Orion High School picked up a pair of prestigious awards during regional competitions, and now is headed to Atlanta for the Championship event.
The Championship will be held at the Georgia Dome over three days, April 27-29.
The team, sponsored by DaimlerChrysler and Brose, recently competed at the Great Lakes Regional at Eastern Michigan University, the Detroit Regional at Wayne State University, and the West Michigan Regional at Grand Valley State University.
At the Great Lakes Regional, the team won the General Motors Industrial Technology Award.
At the West Michigan Regional, the team won the AutoDesk Animation Award. This regional, held March 30-April 1, was the final tune-up before Atlanta. The team made it to the quarter-finals.
The team has been working hard on the first 10 seconds of the competition, known as the autonomous mode, where the goal is to score as many points as possible by shooting balls into one of three scoring targets.
Whichever team scores more during the autonomous mode has control over the rest of the game, making it a huge priority.
‘That’s what everyone is working on,? said senior Justin Tucker.
At home, the team uses a robot they constructed strictly for practice, as competition rules prohibit them from working with their competing robot.
The team is also proud of what they’ve been able to accomplish given their relatively small team size.
Senior Jessica Warda noted that some teams have upwards of 50 members, while the LOHS team has only 23.
But there are some benefits to being a smaller team.
‘Everyone on our team has had an opportunity to work on our robot,? Warda said, noting other teams aren’t always structured like that.