ESCANABA – Gladstone senior Chad Parks is one of 38 members of the BraveBots competing at the FIRST Robotics District Competition in Escanaba this weekend. Preparing in the “pits”, Parks talked about the robot that the group created for the event.

“These are the motors that power the drive wheels. These new wheels we’ve never had before. It allows us to spin 360 very easily.

“Our spindles allow us to pick up the exercise balls that are used in the competition. Our compressor allows us to power these arms. The computer is re-programmable. These four motors power our shooter arm.

 

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“Our driving shot can hit about 20 feet if we’re going full speed. It’s really, really awesome this year.

“The object of the game is to pick up a yoga ball and shoot them into 5 or 6 foot high goals. There are also low goals but the high goals award more points. There’s a lot of assisting involved so the more assists you get the more points you will get in total.

“Our design was a collection of a few ideas. We did see some of the spindle and shooter design online but we made it our own. We worked really hard to get the coolest design we could think of.”