LIHUE — Hawaii Technology Academy’s Kauai robotics team landed second place in the Rover Ruckus Division of the FIRST Launch robotics state tournament earlier this month.
LIHUE — Hawaii Technology Academy’s Kauai robotics team landed second place in the Rover Ruckus Division of the FIRST Launch robotics state tournament earlier this month.
Altogether, the HTA team earned 20 wins and 799 qualifying points to earn their spot in this year’s state tournament, presented by Qualcomm.
It took some smart engineering and a team of five students, ranging from grades 8 through 11, to pull it off.
“Senior Ben Paulson wrote a flawless autonomous at the state competition that includes the use of vision software,” explained Traci Sullivan, director of HTA Kauai. “This means the robot sees objects and identifies a specific object to move off the field to earn points.”
Robot drivers on the team included Sienna Temme, Eve Parker and Veda Parker. HTA’s engineers include Luke Sullivan and Grady Paulson.
HTA Robotics is an extracurricular club at HTA, Hawaii’s largest statewide public charter school, serving students in grades K-12. Each team in the club consists of two driver operators, a coach and a robotic rover. The robotic rover must be built from specific materials and fit within an 18-inch sizing tool.
The game is played on a 12-foot square playing field with a foam-tiled floor and 1-foot-high walls. The FIRST Launch competition brought together 33 teams from around Hawaii. For 30 years, FIRST’s programs introduce students to coding, programming and engineering in an environment where students work collaboratively to solve a yearly robotics challenge. Students, with guidance from their teachers and mentors, are challenged to design, build, program and operate robots to compete in the challenges.
Since its inception in 2009, HTA Robotics has won several awards at both local and state level competitions.
