Warren robotics students put skills to the test in Georgia

Warren robotics students put skills to test in Georgia

STAFF REPORT

WARREN — Two dozen Warren G. Harding High School students are in Atlanta, putting their skills at robot building and operation up against other students from around the globe.

The Warren students are part of the 60-member Delphi E.L.I.T.E. (Encouraging Learning In Technology and Engineering) Team 48.

The team will be up against some 1,200 other high school teams from across the United States as well as Israel, Brazil, Canada, Mexico and Manila in the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Championship being held in the Georgia Dome and the Georgia World Congress Center.

The students left Warren on Tuesday night, and today is practice day where they can put their robot through its paces on a 54-by-27-foot performance field.

Team 48 has achieved a 24-14 record in three competitions this year, winning a number of awards in the process.

The game requires robots, equipped with slippery wheels and payload trailers on a plastic surface, and their human masters to score points by placing “moon rocks” in an opponent’s trailer.

Qualification rounds will run Friday and Saturday, with the competition winding up in the Saturday afternoon elimination rounds.

Each round lasts just two minutes and 15 seconds, and robots are autonomous during the first 15 seconds of play but then teleoperated by the teams for the remaining two minutes.

The Delphi E.L.I.T.E. Robotics team formed in 1998 when Delphi approached the Warren City School District’s Board of Education with a suggestion that a team be formed around a program that features technology being a central part of the curriculum.

Every year, anywhere from 15 to 75 members join Team 48 to design and build a robot that completes the objectives of the designated competition.

The Atlanta championship can be viewed on Delphi E.L.I.T.E.’s award-winning Web site at http://delphielite.com.