Nithin Suresh, senior, is the captain of the Baryons robotics team, one MHS’ three robotics teams, and is controlling their robot in an official match. On February 11, 2023, all of the MHS robotics teams competed at Rockwood Valley Middles School for the FIRST Robotics Competition State-Qualifier. This year, every team must design a robot that can grab cones on the field and stack them up for points. The Baryons created a design to maximize their points. “We call our design the ‘track and trolley,’ consisting of a rail going from one corner of the robot to the other and a trolley that rides on the rail powered by string tightening and releasing via a spool,” Suresh said.

Anna Hill-Jones, junior, applies green hair spray onto a fellow competitor to showcase their team spirit. Hill-Jones is a part of the Gluons robotics team. The Gluons have a green color scheme, so Hill-Jones only found it fit to use green hair spray to emphasize their comradery. “Because we’re environmentally conscious, or Green, Gluons I thought it would be fun to make us a green team both physically and in practice. Green hair dye was, in my mind, the best way to make this happen,” Hill-Jones said.

While talking to a FIRST Robotics Competition judge, Hill-Jones talks about how the Gluons used concepts in physics to improve their robot. All robots need to be stable, so having a good understanding of stability and physics helps teams like the Gluons in making sure the robot is moving stably. “I wanted them to know that a lot of deliberation and thought went into the design of our robot,” Hill-Jones said.

Sanjana Chirra, senior, tweaks the Baryons’ robot’s claw system. In order to score points, each robot must be able to have a functional claw to pick cones up. “The servos seemed to have an issue so we were troubleshooting it to see any problems so we had loosened the servo holders,” Chirra said.

Dhruv Bansal, senior, drives the robot for the Gluons robotics team. Unlike the Baryons design, they focused on creating a claw system that moves up and down vertically rather than a slight horizontal angle. “We wanted a simple, efficient and easy to execute design so we settled on a single track of linear slides with a standard claw mechanism,” Bansal said.

Sam Lee, senior, gently aligns the Baryons’ robot onto the match field. During the match, Lee is driving the robot and he also programmed the robot’s actions before competition. “If I misangle it or shift it too far left or right, then there is a chance for the robot to move too much and run into obstacles on the field,” Lee said.

The Luxons robotics team won an Alliance Award. This award is given to teams who manage to show immense skill in the main robotics competition. They have qualified for the state competition, which will be held in Rolla, Missouri

The Baryons won first place for the Alliance Award. Like the Luxons, they came out on top in the main robotics competition. They have also qualified for the state competition, which will be held in Rolla, Missouri