Walton Robotics Earns FIRST Honor

Thanks to Olivia Malice, the communications coordinator for the Walton High School Robotics team, for sending along this news about its recent regional competition:

The Walton Robotics Team earned a second prestigious honor of the 2013 FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) Tournament Season, taking home the Rockwell Automation “Innovation in Control Award” at the Washington DC FRC Regional Tournament last weekend.

Walton won the honor over 58 other teams that travelled to our nation’s capital city from Brazil, Israel, and nine other US states to compete in FIRST Robotics’ version of Ultimate Frisbee. The team won FIRST’s highest tournament honor, The Chairman’s Award, at the Peachtree Regional FRC Tournament March 16, earning it the title “Model Team” and a trip to the FIRST World Championships.

“The Innovation in Control Award is given to the robot with the best overall control system. Walton's robot has combined a system of basic and advanced controls to end up with the best overall control system. This included a PID control for the shooter wheel so that the wheel is always spinning at the same speed,” said junior Alex Bassett, Walton Robotics programming lead.

“Even more notably is a more advanced process called ‘camera tracking’ where images are taken off of the robot’s camera and sent to the robot’s control laptop. From there, a target is identified so that the robot can aim both vertically and horizontally.”

The modifications to the 120 lb. Frisbee-shooting robot and the update to its programming helped the Drive Team, led by junior Matt Boler, pilot the robot to a 6-1-1 record and the sixth seed position after 78 round-robin qualifying matches. Walton went on to earn a fourth place finish as part of three-team alliance with FRC Teams 623 (Vienna, VA) and 4464 (Lanham, MD).

The Walton Robotics Team will complete the competition season at the FIRST World Championships in St. Louis (April 24-27), where it will be among nearly 400 FRC teams from all across the globe vying for top honors, including the Chairman’s Award, the World Championship (competition) Trophy, and the Dean’s List Award.

Dubbed “the varsity sport of the mind,” FRC combines the excitement of sport with the rigors of science and technology. Under strict rules, limited resources, and time limits, our Walton is one of thousands of teams across the globe that are challenged to raise funds, design a team “brand,” hone teamwork skills, and build and program robots to perform defined tasks against a field of competitors. It’s as close to real-world engineering as a student can get.Professional mentors volunteer their time and talents to guide each team.

The Walton Robotics Team is supported by 23 corporate partners that provide financial and in-kind donations, including the time, knowledge, and skill of professional mentors: Taylor & Mathis, GE Energy, Women In Technology (WIT), Automated Logic, United Technologies, Novelis, Warren-Hanks Construction, Lockheed Martin, UPS, East Cobb Rotary Club, UPS, Cobb EMC, Benton Advisory Group, TSheets, Dixie Industrial Finishing, Twisted Kitchen, Automation Direct, PBWorks, Net2Atlanta, Inmotion Hosting, LabWorks and Evicient.