Robotics: A Varsity Sport for the Mind

Students on the high school robotics team have been preparing for their disc scoring game, Ultimate Ascent, for months now.

Some of them have also competed on Swampscott High athletic teams, among them Melinda Wilson and Phil Cherner.

Robotics is a varsity sport for the mind, a few of the members said. 

The Boston First competition got underway Thursday and ends today at Boston University's Agannis Arena.

All of the Swampscott students have played a role in preparing their robot, their team, for the competition.

They have designed and tried out the robotic device over many hours in robotics' teacher and coach Dick Leonard's classroom.

Even the freshmen have had a role as they watched and learned from the older students, said freshmen Emily Travascio and Madison Van Dam. 

"I like building," Emily said at a team practice in late January. She helped build a place for the robot's battery, sort of its heart.

Their robot has other human quaities. A brain, its control center called the C-RIO. Eyes, a camera. Feet, wheels.

At the January practice, senior Phil Cherner, bound for MIT next year, was operating the robot. 

Debate raged over whether the Big Blue robot was a man or a woman.

Some members — the boys — claimed the robot was a man.

The girls were sure the robot was a woman. Rikki Rooklin said the robot was very temperamental.

Regardless of man or woman, the team members provide the emotions.

They were nervous about how their robot would perform at Boston First.

Together they have invested thought and effort, experienced frustration and expended laughter while creating and developing their robot.

Whether they created a monster or a sweet genius remained to be seen.

In any event, Maria Travascio, a sophomore, said the team is like a family.

"A dysfunctional family — a happy dysfunctional family," she said.

Ultimate Ascent, according to the Boston First website:

ULTIMATE ASCENT is played by two competing alliances on a flat, 27 x 54 foot field. Each Alliance consists of three robots, and they compete to score as many discs into their goals as they can during a two (2)-minute and fifteen (15)-second match. The higher the goal in which the disc is scored, the more points the Alliance receives.

The match begins with a fifteen (15)-second Autonomous Period in which robots operate independently of driver inputs. Discs scored during this period are worth additional points. For the remainder of the match, drivers control robots and try to maximize their alliance score by scoring as many goals as possible.

The match ends with robots attempting to climb up pyramids located near the middle of the field. Each robot earns points based on how high it climbs. Scoring for the match is summarized below: