The Trumansburg Central School District Board of Education got a special treat during Monday nights meeting when the Trumansburg High School Robotics Team demonstrated some of what they do.

The Robotics Team is under the advisement of Brad Farnham and Jeff Honig. The team is comprised of 16 students with over one-third being female.

Thats a big plus for this team, said Farnham. We were trying to garner more female people in the group.

Teams from all over participate in what is called FIRST Robotics Competition, which is also known as the varsity sport for the mind.

Part of the teams presentation was a video that explains this years game and how its scored. Each year a different game is played and this years is First Steamworks.

The game calls for two adventure teams that can have three alliances each, according to a video Farnham showed about the game. The teams prepare for a long distance airship race by collecting fuel to build steam pressure.

In this case, the fuel are tennis balls that the robots carry and shoot into the boiler. Each robot starts at the alliance stations against a wall, where teams can load up to 10 fuel elements and one gear on each robot.

More fuel is found in hoppers that are spread out around the perimeter of the playing field, as well as at the alliance loading stations. For 15 seconds the robots are autonomous, with the goal of reaching the baseline, scoring fuel in the boiler or delivering gears to the airship.

When the teams are able to control the robots again, they have two minutes and 15 seconds to gather fuel for the boilers, as well as collecting and delivering gears.

Team members located behind the alliance station wall deliver gears and recycled fuel to robots through the loading stations, according to the video. The more fuel placed in the boiler, the higher the steam pressure.

The teams are able to earn points based on how much steam pressure is built and they can also earn extra points with pressure over a certain level. Gears also need to be delivered to the rotors with the goal of making as many of them spin as possible in the given time frame.

Teams also get points for each rotor that spins as well as how many robots are attached to the airship toward the end of the match. The winner is determined by the highest number of points.

The first Saturday in January it was revealed at the same time around the world, Farnham said.

After the game is revealed, teams have six weeks to create industrial-size robots that can play the game against other competitors. They are challenged to use their teamwork and problem solving skills to create the robots under strict rules and limited resources.

We were fortunate enough to be able to build two robots this year, Farnham said. One we are able to use for practice. We can take certain components off this robot and put it on the competition robot depending on weight limits and so forth.

Farnham said the robotics team has also taken a huge undertaking with what program they use to program the robots.

He added that while the team lost four members to graduation, they still have a nice core of students ranging in grade levels.

Its a heck of a nucleus to move forward, Farnham said. Its a great foundation to keep us going.

The team will be participating in two upcoming events. The first is from March 15-18 at RIT and the second is from March 29-April 1 at the Long Island SBPLI.

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A Glimpse into Robotics - ithaca.com