MARTINSVILLEFor the 14th year in a row, local Piedmont Governors School students will compete in district competitions with a special guest a robot.

Piedmont Governors School Director Brian Pace hopes that this years robot, STAGS, which stands for Science, Technology and Gifted Students, will make it all the way to the final stage of the global FIRST Robotics competition, held annually in St. Louis, Missouri.

Ill be the first to tell you, Im very competitive, Pace said. We would love to do well. We like to win competitions when we go. Were happy with what weve put together. Wed like to finish first, but its not the end of the world if we dont.

Confident about their product, Team 1262 showcased STAGS to the public on Monday evening.

Guests learned about the groups history, about the upcoming competition and saw the robot in action.

The more we do it, hopefully the better we get, Pace said about making the functional object.

Each year, FIRST Robotics comes up with a new game in which a robot must compete.

Its totally different things you have to accomplish, Pace said. Its always different. You cant take the robot you made last year and tweak it a little bit.

There are several actions STAGS must successfully complete in order to move on to various rounds of the competition.

The robot has to pick things up off of the ground, hang some things on a peg and collect things, Pace said. For the first time, itll have to climb a rope. Itll go 410.

A first of its kind for the Martinsville group, STAGS climbs a rope 4'10" in the air

Seeing the robot in action is fun, but crafting a functional piece takes time and trouble shooting.

We use what were teaching. Were using math, science and technology to build this robot, Pace said.

Theres a strict time limit FIRST Robotics teams must follow. From the moment they receive instructions on actions the robot must perform, they have six weeks to construct a working piece.

This year, the Martinsville group received word the weekend the snowstorm hit in January, which affected their timeline.

We werent able to go out and get supplies right away, Pace said.

When school resumed later that week, Team 1262 got to work.

Youve got to figure out how you want to design it, build it and test it, Pace said. We try to spend the first week getting everyone together and discussing what we want it to do and how we want it to do it.

Even though copious amounts of planning go into the project, the final piece hardly ever resembles the first draft on paper.

Its just like real life. You problem solve, you collaborate. You expect it to go right and then everything goes wrong, Pace said.

While the director said he could give his students formulas and problems to solve all day long, the hands-on approach gives them real-world experience by working as a team to solve an issue.

You tweak it and you deal with problems, Pace said.

Nicholas Turner, a student on the team, helped tweak the robots drive system. STAGS started out with two sets of omniwheels and one treadwheel. However, the original design did not work the way the team hoped.

We collaborated in the lab and brainstormed ideas, Turner said.

The group ended up with two treadwheels and a set of omniwheels.

It gave us more traction on the ground, Turner said.

Throughout the process, students take on various leadership roles.

We give students the opportunity to be the drivers, Pace said.

If something goes awry, its up to the students to figure out why.

We ask them, What if this happened? What if this broke? Pace said.

Adam Wilson spoke of one mishap, which the team corrected.

Sort of the shooter mechanism showed inconsistencies, Wilson said. We found the correct angle and made sort of a backboard.

Spectators oohed and aahed as STAGS made his way through an obstacle course.

James Morrison, who came with his family to support his granddaughter, Victoria Pritchett, raved about the students skills.

Its a nice job, a very good job, Morrison said. Its very interesting.

About the size of a miniature refrigerator, STAGS is ready to make his debut at his first competition next weekend, March 4 and 5.

About the robotics program as a whole, Pace said, Were not saying were creating engineers, but were giving them a taste for it.

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Going For Gold: Students compete in robotics challenge - Martinsville Bulletin