By Geoff Mince
Special to Leader
Seventeen robotics teams from across Michigan came together at Oxford High School over the President’s Day weekend to test their latest robots and learn strategies from one another.
The teams are preparing for the 2015 competition season sponsored by FIRST Robotics. FIRST is a world-wide organization that seeks to inspire students to pursue careers in science and technology.
The weekend’s ‘Week 0? event was hosted by Oxford’s Robotics Team, Team TORC. It was the third consecutive year the team has hosted such an event. Teams collaborate with one another to finish their robots before the February 17 deadline.
According to TORC Mentor Kim Shumaker, the purpose of the event is to provide assistance to teams in completing their robots and practicing on a field with other robots prior to competition.
‘Oxford’s team really enjoys helping and proving support to other teams,? said Shumaker.
At the event opening, teacher and sponsor Phil Kimmel welcomed the teams and offered them full use of Oxford’s fabrication lab and the support of all TORC team leaders and mentors. Teams attending the event in past years have found it helpful. Of the eight teams that attended last year’s event a total of 13 team awards were won by those teams including a World Championship qualifier.
Each of the teams had six weeks in which to build their robots to compete in this year’s competition called ‘Recycle Rush.? The game is a recycling-themed game played by two Alliances of three robots each. Robots score points by stacking totes on scoring platforms and capping those stacks with recycling containers. Competition begins in March.
TORC member Tony Sands is part of the Oxford team’s Fabrication group. ‘This event is all about readiness,? said Sands. ‘We get the opportunity to make sure our robot works as designed and test it in actual situations.?