APTOS — Fresh from a May 13 victory that made them state champions, Aptos High School’s robotics team now advances to the international competition in Long Beach, facing off against 60 teams from as far away as Russia.
The Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) Center’s 16th annual international student underwater robotics competition runs from June 23 to 25.
The group, called Watsonville Firefighters Seal Team 1272 after the group that sponsored them, has designed and built a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to perform complex tasks in a swimming pool while being remotely piloted by students on poolside.
The team is made up of nine freshmen and one eighth-grade student. As such, it was the youngest group to compete in the regional event in May, said the group’s Chief of Marketing Pratham Rathi.
“We lack the experience, but we have the enthusiasm,” he said. “It’s definitely good practice. There are some things we know we could do better, and things we know we’re good at.”
Other team positions include chief technical officer, vice president of safety and vice president of engineering.
The group’s simulated task in Long Beach will take place in a busy international “port” (actually a swimming pool), where the underwater robot must repair a structure, detect a source of pollution, take a sample of contaminated sediment, identify the contents of a container that fell off a cargo ship and measure the distance between two objects.
The pilots must complete their assigned tasks while looking only at video monitors linked to cameras on the robot, and moving it using controllers. The event is strictly timed.
The group took about four months to build the device.
“It’s really fun,” said Jamie Walton, 15. “I’m really into the engineering, and the problem solving is fun.”
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The Watsonville Firefighters Seal Team 1272 has set up a Go Fund Me page to help defray the cost of the three-day trip to Long Beach. For information, or to donate, visit www.gofundme.com/sealteam1272.
