Area robot team posts strong rookie showing

The Palouse Area Robotics Team put up a strong showing in its debut competition last week at Eastern Washington University in Cheney.

The team, named Sci-Borgs, worked its way into the final round, a rarity for first-timers, after using its wide base to rack up points in the preliminary rounds.

Coach Glenn Woodhouse of Colfax said he was impressed with the showing.

The team of Colfax and Pullman students placed 14 of 48 teams, but was in first place after the first four rounds.

Championship honors went to Team Taters out of Boise.

The competition played out in front of more than 1,500 spectators at Reese Court on the EWU campus.

Woodhouse said the robot’s strength was in the balancing portion of the competition.

Each team’s robots joins forces with two other robots in a three-on-three basketball-style contest.

Teams open each round with 15 seconds in which the robot moves automatically on a program written by the students.

Robots then spend two minutes trying to pick up basketballs and sink them through hoops.

Rounds end with a 30-second round called “co-opetition.” Competing teams try to join each other in balancing their ‘bots on a wobble bridge.

Woodhouse said the Sci-Borgs strategy was to link with other teams that have robots with wide bases to try a rare triple-balance which counts for extra points.

They got it in practice, said Woodhouse, but came up just short in the finals.

The team got parts for the robot, as well as a description of the competition, in January. The Sci-Borgs team formed in October and worked through the last several months to figure out their robot.

Colfax students on the team were Ryan Christopherson, Brenden Jacobs, Nicholas Johnson, Alex Kackman and Katherine Woodhouse. Pullman students were Robert Comley, Hunter Farnsworth, Patricia Hawbaker, Vivek Jayaram, Zachary Leggett, Isaac Love, Miles Love, Conner Ormond, Lauren Radtke, Krysten Stoker, Tomas Stoker and Milly Xun.