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The Hazelwood Central High School Robohawks advanced to the semifinal round at the 2008 For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) Robotics St. Louis Regional competition.

The team placed 21st out of 45 teams from around the Midwest in solo competition but other, higher-placed teams selected the Robohawks during the alliance portion of the contest. During the allied phase, Hazelwood Central’s team made it to the last semi-final round, falling just a few points shy of making it to the final match. This year also marked the first time that all three Hazelwood high schools participated in the regional robotics contest.

Last year, the Robohawks took home the Rookie All-Star Award after their robot, In Theory, made positive impressions on several teams and judges. This year brought a new contest and a new robot, Reality Check.

“Things have gone really, really well,” said Hazelwood Central sophomore Christopher Viers from the pit area on the second day of competition. “We have done a great showcase of our robot; we’re having fun and doing our best.”

The contest involved a 54-foot by 27-foot oval track divided by a fence into a red side and a blue side. Crossing the fence is an ‘overpass’ marking each side’s finish line. Teams had to maneuver around the track manipulating red and blue trackballs – putting them on the overpass or knocking opponents’ trackballs from the overpass for points. Crossing lane markers and finish lines also scored points.

Each round has two scoring periods. One is a 15-second period where the robot drives itself according to a pre-programmed sequence of moves and the machines travel in a counter-clockwise direction. A two-minute period follows where the robots respond to radio-controlled signals from student drivers who stand at either end of the field.

In the bay next to Central’s pit area, the Hazelwood East High School Spartans Robotics worked on their machine. Students sporting burgundy and gold T-shirts and white

T-shirts that read WHNI which stood for, ‘We Have No Idea,’ worked on their machine with some help from a team from Indiana.

Problems happened to the Wildbots’ robot from Hazelwood West High, too.

“Something happened to our left wheel, it stopped working,” said junior Stephanie Felts of the Wildbots team. “Since we finally got it up to speed, students from Central have been helping us out. We have been grateful for the help.”

“One of the biggest challenges is, we have a lot of new students this year learning systems like pneumatics and electronics,” said East science teacher Dan Hiebert, who leads the Spartans’ Robotics Club. He added that a lot of his students from last year graduated. The latest obstacle was working with the robot’s arm welds, which broke during a previous match.

“It has been a definite learning experience,” Hiebert added. By Saturday, the Spartans’ fortunes had improved, they won matches and both East’s and West’s robots ended up on the short list of teams with robots on standby in case something fatal befell one of the robots in the semi-final and final rounds.

As the final day of competition continued, the Robohawks became more enthused about Reality Check’s chances of making it all the way through.
“It’s great; we’re excited,” said senior Zach Robinson. “We would like to go to the finals; we think we can make it. Our robot is in good shape, so we think we have a chance!”
Randy Guinther, one of the industrial technology teachers and a Wildbots sponsor at Hazelwood West High, commented on West’s first robotics competition.
“We’re going to be ready to go so we are ready to fill in,” he said of their standby role. We did a great job considering it’s our rookie year. It’s a little sad that we weren’t selected in the allied finals; it’s been a great experience though.”
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