Bright lights, themed costumes and a valuable learning experience. From April 19-22, the Force Green Robotics Team and 192 more teams from across the world competed in the First World Championships in Houston. 

Senior Shravya Sunkugari, who is part of Force Green’s outreach and documentation team, said the large number of teams were intimidating, but she enjoyed the chance to meet possible mentors and talk with other teams that were passionate about robotics. 

“The creativity and diversity in robot design and outreach projects was crazy compared to State,” Sunkugari said. 

Force Green qualified for Worlds through the Missouri State Championships, where they were awarded the second place Inspire awards. There are three Inspire awards given to the best overall teams in the competition, based on categories such as programming, public outreach, design process and technical communities. 

Winning the second place Inspire awards gained Force Green the third qualifying spot to compete at Worlds, where they competed in the First Tech Challenge (FTC) championship. 

This year, the theme for FTC was PowerPlay, where the team’s robot, nicknamed Scarlett, competed against other teams by putting cones on different level poles.

Scarlett has a 3D printed claw, which is used to pick up the cones. The robot’s movements are preprogrammed for 30 seconds, but the rest of the game uses a telerobotic system, or control of the robot through a remote control. 

Freshman Sneha Deo, who is a member of Force Green’s outreach team, said her favorite part of Worlds was being able to interact with teams from different countries.

“I’ve learned so much about the different cultures from around the world, and while there were language barriers, it was certainly a cool experience,” Deo said. 

Force Green won a third place Think award at the competition, recognizing the team’s expertise in the design process. Garrett Palmquist, team coach, said the team’s success is in large part due to their well-rounded capabilities.

However, while Palmquist assists his team with the design process and brainstorming, he leaves the actual creation and building of the robot to the students.

“FIRST defines the coaches as mentors,” Palmquist said. “We provide guidance, advice and coaching to the students, but they are the leaders of their efforts.”

Palmquist said he hopes to use the experience at Worlds to inspire ideas on expanding community outreach efforts. He hopes Force Green can connect with more business and technical professionals and look into setting up ongoing educational events with local schools or organizations.

The Force Green team also hopes to improve and simplify their robot design by creating a more efficient design process, which would leave more time to program and practice driving their robot. The team is also looking to improve specific components, such as arm type, based on the challenge for the upcoming season, which will be revealed in September. 

Overall, Palmquist said he hopes the experience at Worlds will provide the team with motivation and inspiration.

“Something magical happens when you gather 1,000s of brilliant, creative and inspiring students in a building,” Palmquist said. “Even though they may be competing with each other, they are also making new friends, going out of their way to help each other, and forging memories and experiences which will stay with them for their lifetimes.”