Fort Gibson robotics team earns second place in competition – Muskogee Daily Phoenix

Fort Gibsons Hostile Gato robotics team moved its robot further into competition than ever.

And that was quite a feat for such a boxy device.

Hostile Gato was part of a three-team alliance that placed second in the FIRST Robotics Oklahoma Regional, held March 22-25 in Oklahoma City.

Fort Gibson sophomore Noah Jorgensen said he felt a big sense of accomplishment and pride after the contest.

Youre seeing a thing that you helped build be able to complete tasks that most people would be stumped on, Jorgensen said.

Teammate Whittman Abbott, also a sophomore, said teams are given six weeks to put their robot together and compete.

Thats six weeks in which we plan it, design it, build it, program it, test it, break it, fix it, play, win, Abbott said.

Fort Gibsons alliance, which included Chickashas Cockadoodle Dominators and RoboLobos from Edmond Santa Fe, competed against eight other alliances to make it to the final round.

According to the FIRST Robotics website, the group played the finals round against Tiger Strike from Broken Arrow, the Circuit Chargers of Tulsa Memorial and Team S.W.A.T. of Smithville, Missouri.

According to the website, Hostile Gatos alliance won the first round, 311 to 235. However, the opposing alliance won the second two rounds.

Alliances and teams were scored on their robots ability to do certain tasks.

Abbot said one task was to shoot balls into targets at each side of the playing field. One point was scored for every three balls shot into a higher target and one point for every nine balls shot into a lower target.

Abbott said this this years theme was steam punk, and the balls were supposed to represent fuel.

Another objective was to program the robot to put gears on an airship.

The team had to preprogram the robots instructions for part of the round and were allowed to directly control the robots the rest of the time.

Abbott said he learned new things, such as how to deal with Plexiglas and Turtle Wax.

We got to do new stuff this year, Abbott said. I never dealt with wiring before, or an actuator. I call it a pusher-outer.

The actuator pushed the gear or docking station onto the peg.

This years Hostile Gato team was made up of 30 students.

Abbott said FIRST Robotics tasks and themes are different each year, so team members could not predict what Hostile Gato must do next year to top this years success.

Reach Cathy Spaulding at (918) 684-2928 or cspaulding@muskogeephoenix.com.

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Fort Gibson robotics team earns second place in competition - Muskogee Daily Phoenix