Robotics team wins national title

April 29, 2006
Greenville Herald Banner

By Brad Kellar
The Herald Banner

A team of Greenville High School students has shown it knows how to build a better and sneakier robot.

The Greenville High School Robowranglers Vex Team used a secret weapon on its “Clean Sweep” robot to claim first place in the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Vex Challenge Championship Friday at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

“We are the national champions,” said Vanessa Pope, who along with Terri Galloway and Johnny Tharp help coach the team.

A second Greenville High School Robowranglers team is competing in the separate FIRST Robotics Competition in Atlanta today.

Pope said the Vex team 1148, sponsored by RackSolutions, a division of Innovation First of Greenville, did well throughout the competition which began Thursday.

“In the qualifying rounds, they won five out six matches,” Pope said. Greenville competed against 49 other teams from across the United States and other countries.

During the competition, the robot is instructed to score balls into one of five goals during separate 30-second autonomous matches and two-minute human-controlled matches.

“It actually could drive over and pick up 15 of those racquetball sized balls and score them in a side pocket goal,” Pope said of the autonomous matches, in which no human contact is allowed.

In the human-controlled matches, drivers Kory Porter and Justin Tharp manned “Clean Sweep” and competed along with another robot in each of two rounds.

In the final round, Greenville was partnered with a robot team from Singapore against teams from Waterbury, Conn. and Arlington Heights, Va.

It was then that Greenville unveiled its big secret, a trap door built onto “Clean Sweep”, designed to allow the robot to steal the other team’s balls.

“Through all of the regionals and all the nationals, they didn’t use it,” Pope said.

The use of the device caught even the audience by surprise, as “Clean Sweep” began grabbing the other teams’ balls and stowing them away.

“The entire competition area, you could have heard a pin drop,” Pope said. “They thought we were making a mistake.”

In the end, the Robowranglers Vex Team 1148 denied the other team 15 points and were declared the winners.

Innovation First designed the technology powering the Vex robotics design systems and partnered with Radio Shack and FIRST in 2005 to develop the product platform. Earlier this month, Innovation First acquired ownership of the technology outright.

This is the first time the FIRST Vex Challenge has been held. A demonstration contest was conducted last year and this year’s event was designed as a pilot to determine the suitability of Vex as a potential FIRST program.