BREWER, Maine — One of the robots that students in Brewer High School’s after-school robotics team constructed for a recent competition has measuring tapes for its arms. Named Windsor, the robot helped Brewer more than measure up.
The Brewer team, named Orange Chaos, earned eighth-place in their division in the competition that included 600 teams from around the world at the FIRST Robotics Competition last month in St. Louis, Missouri. The medieval-themed competition featured teams of three robots engaging in battles involving model castles from the days of knights and damsels.
“The goal is to be able to breach defenses,” Vicky Bennett, a parent volunteer, said Thursday. “[The robots] have to climb over, push through a gate, move and go over obstacles to get to the opponent’s tower.”
Once at the tower, the three robots move or shoot “boulders” into holes in the structure, with more points given for upper level boulder deposits. Toward the end of the competition, Windsor was called into action.
“During the last 20 seconds, they have to scale the tower,” Bennett said. “The team devised a climbing mechanism using measuring tapes with hooks on the end to pull themselves up.”
Orange Chaos is a team of 16 Brewer High students who got together after school to build Windsor and the other two robots from basic kits that they program to make move and modify for competition. The Brewer team, led by engineer and community volunteer Everett Bennett and Steven Jacobs as well as other parent volunteers, earned the invitation to the 2016 FIRST Stronghold Challenge Championships, held in St. Louis on April 27-30 after finishing fifth out of 181 New England teams at district championships held in Hartford, Connecticut.
FIRST stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, and it is a competition to give students hands-on training that is fun.
The FIRST Robotics Competition was founded in 1989 by Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway, and was initially held in Manchester, New Hampshire. The Brewer team is one of 26 in Maine.
At the national event, 600 teams from around the world were divided among eight playing fields. After two days of competition, the Brewer team earned enough points to be ranked eighth out of 75 teams in their division. They then were selected by team 4003 from Michigan to join them in the playoffs. They won both of the quarterfinals matches, progressed to semifinals, and obtained 1 win and 2 losses, disqualifying them.
Team members include: Collin Averill, Drew Bennett, Cassidy Cheung, Jacob Cote, Paul Fortier, Kendra Hansen, Caleb Keebler, Evan Kelly, Daniel Loftin, Evan McCoy, Alex Oakstone,
Alex Reardon, Brent Roberts, Ethan Tardy, Zoe Vittum and Nate Wilcox.
At Monday’s school board meeting, Superintendent Cheli Towle said the entire school should be proud of Orange Chaos.
“Overall, they did exceedingly well,” she said. “They represented Brewer very well.”
The robotics team is heading to another competition in Worcester, Massachusetts, on May 20-22.