Moorestown FIRST Robotics has only been around for about three years, but the teams of the Moorestown Robotics Club have all done well for themselves. Three of the five Moorestown teams won spots at the FIRST Lego League Qualifier Tournament to advance to the state championship, which was held at Delaware State University on Feb. 14. Those teams were the RoboQuakers placing fourth, the Ghost Peppers placing fifth and the RoboLearners placing eighth.
Only one team advanced to the FLL World Championship in St. Louis, but it was not any of the Moorestown teams. However, the RoboLearners won first place award for Best Mechanical Design of their robot.
Overall, the teams did well with the RoboLearners coming in third place, Ghost Peppers coming in ninth and RoboQuakers coming in 15th out of 36 teams. The RoboLearners also won the Innovative Solution Project Award at the qualifier, which recognizes a team’s solution that is exceptionally well-considered and creative, with good potential to solve the problem researched.
“The team loved it; I loved it, too. It was really a team effort. The kids were extremely happy and thrilled to go to the state competition. Also, it was kind of cool that we won for both our project and our robot, earning an award in both areas,” Coach Chris Schaffer said.
“I was surprised when we won the project award. I thought there would be better ideas than ours. But I wasn’t as surprised about the mechanical design award; the judges really liked our robot. They were just amazed,” RoboLearner member Grace Mumma said.
The RoboLearners were made up of coaches Chris Schaffer and James Mumma and members Evan Schaffer, J.J. Mumma, Adam Connor, Grace Mumma, Annabelle Jin and Dominick Ruccolo.
FIRST Lego League introduces young people, ages 9 to 14, to the fun and excitement of science and technology while building self-confidence, knowledge and valuable employment and life skills. FLL challenges kids to think like scientists and engineers. Alongside adult mentors, FLL teams solve problems using engineering concepts, presentation techniques and robots.
Members of the RoboLearners all got involved in robotics for different reasons. Evan loved building Legos and programming robots while hanging out with his friends; J.J. felt it was a perfect combination for him, loving to build things and computers; Adam liked programming; Annabelle wanted more exposure to mechanical things; and Grace joined because of her brother. Despite the different reasons, they all came to love it.
From September, the team had four months to build, program and improve their robot until the first competition. They would prepare the robot, run missions and evolve their robot from trial and error. Their robot had two large wheels in the front and smaller wheels in the back to move, wheels on the sides so it wouldn’t get stuck, and a forklift in the front.
“The forklift was added in the front because it could be used for every single mission we were going to do; we didn’t have to take off the forklift and put a different attachment back on,” Evan said.
The team also had to come up with a side project, which they called HEARcules.
The project was an app that could translate what a teacher is saying into reading technology for the deaf.
They would be able to use Google glasses to get real-time sign language translation.
“We wanted to integrate the deaf person into the classroom. Sometimes, they can be separated, and that would make it hard for their social skills to evolve,” J.J. said.
At the competitions, teams were scored on three categories in this year’s theme “Learning Unleashed.” Teams had to demonstrate FLL Core Values, invent a product or solution that improves learning and design a robot that autonomously completed up to 15 FLL-defined missions on a game mat.
The team members, mostly made up of members new to robotics, were surprised and overjoyed they had made it to the state competition.
At the competition itself, they were nervous because they really wanted to win. However, they weren’t upset. Receiving third place as well as awards for both their robot as well as their project is a great achievement, the members said.
“Even though we didn’t win, we were in third place and I really liked that,” Evan said.
Members of the Robolearners definitely wish to continue to do robotics and encourage others to do it as well. Not only do you learn about science, technology, teamwork, problem solving and more, but you also meet new people and create new friendships.
“I will continue. I like robotics; even though sometimes things can be hard, robotics is my thing. It is a lot of program and computer working that you can’t do that at home. It also helps me meet new people, like Annabelle. I never knew her this before year. I like robotics for those reasons,” Grace said.
“I like the teamwork factor, and I would like to move on and nail my teamwork,” Adam said.
Coaches Schaffer and Mumma also wanted to let parents know that Moorestown Robotics is looking for coaches, as a lot are not continuing to coach next year.
“In Moorestown, we have a ton of kids interested, but not enough adults. If adults are interested, that would be great, and we definitely need the help,” Schaffer said.
For more information on this year’s world challenge or the Moorestown Robotics Club, please visit www.firstlegoleague.org/challenge/2014fllworldclass or www.moorestownrobotics.com. If you are interested in coaching, visit the Moorestown Robotics website and click on “Want to be a coach? Click Here!”
