With a vast knowledge of STEM skills in their arsenal, the Robotics team continues to innovate in preparation for ETSU’s MATE ROV Competition in April.
The competition will pitt our team against robotics rivals hailing from eastern Tennessee to northern Georgia. It challenges teams to present and operate their technological project: an Underwater ROV
The team is responsible for a robot, originally constructed and used in last year’s competition, that can perform its fundamental skills of traversing aquatic environments and performing tasks, such as picking up objects and traveling in a pool with accuracy.
The team uses last year’s creation as a foundation for continuous improvements and builds upon it to guarantee a better performance and result at the competition.
“We are currently working on major improvements to our ROV to make it float better at our competition,” Co-President Astria Kudela said. “[We] plan on doing as many tasks as we can to earn the most points in order to win.”
Dedication is an understatement when it comes to the amount of effort put into this extracurricular, as team members are required to put in tremendous hours and even document how long they have worked in a Google spreadsheet, similar to an engineering work environment.
While the work is lengthy and vigorous, with precise coding and time-consuming designing, the experience working in an innovative STEM environment makes the whole process worth it.
“To me, [Robotics] is the best place to prepare for my future,” said Junior Dominic Shipley, who enjoys surrounding himself “with a group of motivated and intelligent classmates.”
A majority of the team is packed with ambitious but inexperienced newcomers, which will be a challenge when the day of the competition looms as it approaches. Nevertheless, the Viking Robotics team has been proven vigorous through experiments and repairs, driving their creation towards triumph at ETSU and beyond.
“If we had a whole company of professionals, it would take a whole year for an efficient product,” said sponsor Benji Lewis. “Yet, we have new members learning as they go and still pulling it off.”
