TD robotics teams qualify for state

Bazinga Bots also won the PTC Design Award.

Competing at two different locations in Hillsboro, the Bazinga Bots and Sa-BOT-age were both strong during the five qualifying rounds but each lost during the semifinals.

Bazinga Bots, using a dual sweeper mechanism and block delivery system, went 5-0 despite generating too much electrostatic. Each time the robot would touch the metal mountain, it would shut down and have to reboot, which happened once or twice in every match.

The Dalles High School senior Quinn Farquharson said the shutdown and reboot cost the Bazinga Bots at least 50 points in each match.

“It was extremely frustrating to say the least,” he said. “We were very careful and tried not to do too many 360s or spin in place too much. If you drove straight or at slight angles, it wouldn’t do it as much.”

Farquharson and his Bazinga Bot teammates Preston Klindt, Rebecca Stiles, Caelen Curtiss, Lauren Jubitz, Azure Compton and Jacob Field also had to avoid touching other robots.

Sa-BOT-age, which features TDHS students Spencer Honald, Bill Burns and Tyler Vassar, finished 4-1 during the qualifying rounds.

After tying its first semifinals match, Sa-BOT-age lost the next two, ending its tournament.

“The semifinals weren’t our best,” Vassar said. “We did a lot better in the qualifiers. During the semifinals, our goal was to deposit 10 blocks to the mid zone and we collected enough blocks to do that and we wouldn’t make them all, we’d miss a couple, which really docked us on points.”

Robotics teams can score points by hanging on a bar or placing blocks in three different zones—low, mid and high.

Sa-BOT-age prides itself on hanging using a tape measure. The boys also added a scissor lift, which ultimately won them the Rockwell Collins Innovate Award for “thinking outside the box but also having the ingenuity and inventiveness to make their designs come to life.”

Another The Dalles robotics team, KillaBots, also competed at super qualifiers but did not advance to state.

The team included Stephen Ganders, Jacob Stansbury, Rey Aviluz, Justin Eiesland, Jordan Dexter, Jacob Bartholomew, Caelen Anderson and Jared Leibowitz.

The Oregon Championship will include 44 teams. This will be Farquharson’s third trip to the state tournament. Last year, Bazinga Bots advanced to the next round—super regionals.

Between now and Feb. 27, Farquharson and his teammates will work on adding sensors to score more points during the first 30-second autonomous period of each match. The Bazinga Bots must also fix their electrostatic discharge problem.

“I’m doing a ton of research,” Farquharson said. “If those are fixed, we should be able to do much more in the field without problems.”

Vassar and Honald have also been to state before. They competed for Renegade Robotics last year.

“It feels really good [to advance],” Vassar said. “We definitely know what we need to improve, which is good. That was our goal. Let’s just improve a couple things and do it again. It was a big relief to know that we actually did make it because at the end of semifinals it was a tossup.”

After the state tournament will be super regionals in Oakland, Calif. March 24-26.