FARMINGTON — Blue Crew, a robotics team from Mt. Blue High School, did well when it competed Feb. 16 at Week 0 in New Hampshire.
Blue Crew is a team from Mt. Blue High school in Farmington that competes in FIRST Robotics Competition Destination: Deep Space events. Members are seen during Week 0 with the robot they have built and programmed this year. (Courtesy photo)
The Blue Crew participates in the FIRST Robotics Competition program. FRC promotes science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Teams learned of this year’s game in early January then spent six weeks building and programming a robot capable of completing the various tasks performed during the game.
The game this year is Destination: Deep Space. This year’s theme came from a conversation with astronaut Buzz Aldrin. Putting a man on the moon motivated a generation. The 50th anniversary of the moon landing is this year.
Blue Crew mentor Joel Pike said the only FRC preseason competition was held in Merrimack, New Hampshire. Known as Week 0, 24 teams competed from the Northeast.
“We were in 3rd place at the end of the four qualification matches but lost in semifinals,” Pike said.
During a match at the Week 0 pre-season competition in New Hampshire, the robot built by Blue Crew, a team from Farmington, Maine, is seen attempting one of the game’s missions. (Courtesy photo)
The Blue Crew’s first official competition will be March 15-17 in Reading, Massachusetts. The next will be April 4-6 in Lewiston, Maine. The team hopes to qualify for New England’s and World’s.
“This is by far the best constructed and most complex robot the team has ever built. It is based on a “West Coast” style drive system and has 10 pneumatic pistons controlled by eight solenoids. It can reach over 7 -1/2 feet in the air.
“There was a lot of interest by the other teams at Week 0, with many complements on how good the robot was built and performed. We also had R2-Blue2 there and it was interviewed as part of the worldwide broadcast of the week 0 event,” Pike said.
pharnden@sunmediagroup.net
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