Hope High School

HOPE – For the second consecutive year, the Hope High School Robotics Team overcame a seemingly defeating obstacle to place in the top 10 of the BEST Robotics Competition in Little Rock and win the “It’s Alive” Award.\r\n

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Robotics advisor Kathy Knight said the team, again, overcame a problem during competition.\r\n

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“By the end of the day we placed nine out of 20 teams and ended up winning the ‘It’s Alive” Award for the second year in a row,” Knight said.\r\n

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Based upon a theme of Current Events, the competition dealt with an environmental problem that had to be resolved through the engineering of the robot.\r\n

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“Our robots would not be traveling across the floor as in previous years,” Knight said. “This year they would be riding four to five feet above the ground on a two by four that was suspended by a rope on one end and a spring on the other.”\r\n

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The idea was to simulate wave action created by ocean currents that was to be overcome based upon robotic design, and to use that scenario in the second round to “clean the ocean.”\r\n

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Knight said rubber ducks positioned along the 2x4 beam were to be toppled into a net, and data attached to the bottom of each duck was to be used to determine the current flow that would become the basis for the movement of the beam in the second round.\r\n

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“We also were given the task of ‘cleaning the ocean,’” Knight said. “For us, it meant our robot would need to reach up to three feet from the robot and pick up articles like soup cans, ping pong balls, and empty water bottles.”\r\n

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Hope drew an early competition round, which is when the team discovered a piece of bracing had been left behind.\r\n

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“We didn’t have much time to fix our robot once we arrived,” Knight said. “We realized we forgot our bottom brace, but we were already ‘on deck,’ so our plan was to go slow and steady for the three-minute round, and then attach a brace for our next match.”\r\n

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And, that was when disaster struck.\r\n

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“As soon as our robot was loaded onto the beam, it began rocking and about one minute into our match, our robot came crashing down, landing at the feet of our drive team,” Knight said.\r\n

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Under ordinary circumstances, that would not have been troublesome; but, rather than building a metal-framed robot, this year competitors were required to use wooden-manufactured components. The team was not allowed to touch the robot without disqualification for the remainder of the three-minute round.\r\n

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“The announcer all but counted us out of the rest of the matches,” Knight said.\r\n

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But, the team’s knowledge of its robotics engineering took over.\r\n

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“As soon as the buzzer rang, the drive team grabbed the bot and headed to our pit,” Knight said. “We were able to strip all of the broken pieces from the robot and make it to our next round on time, with a brace on the bottom.”\r\n

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Although unable to collect any of the “trash” items required, Knight said the team concentrated upon other aspects of the scoring in the competition.\r\n

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“We were not out of it yet,” she said.\r\n

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Knight said the team’s collective action resulted in the special award for the second year.\r\n

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“We want to give a special thank you to Subway in Hope for providing our lunch,” she said. “As well, we want to say thank you to our mentors Jerry Martin, Val Knight and Tony Hooker for working hard teaching the kids how to use tools and work as a team.”\r\n

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Team members in the Nov. 3 competition included Ally Fincher, Ben Knight, Timothy Rowe, Samantha Bailey, Kaitlyn Hooker, Jalen Pool, Kelsey Reedy, Yovana Martinez, Jacob Gunn, Hanna McCorkle, Zoltin Dellosso, Mayra Garcia and Brenda Ventura. \r\n

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Knight said the team is currently raising funds for its spring FIRST Robotics Contest in Little Rock.\r\n

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“This competition will be more about the robot and less about the engineering notebook,” she said.\r\n

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The Jan. 6 contest will be a three-day event, and the team has already received a $5,000 grant which is applied to the contest entry fee.\r\n

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“Now, we are fundraising for our hotel fees, approximately $1,800,” Knight said. “As well, we need two or three cases of water, and lunches and dinners for up to 20 people for three days; around $1,000.”\r\n