3rd Yap Robo Day a big success for robotics in Micronesia

NIMGIL, Yap (YCHS News, June 08, 2014) — Thanks to the support of both Habele and Waa'gey, twelve YCHS students were able to participate in this year's Robotics program.  The students and their coaches, Mr. Michael Wiencek and Mr. Darrell Holloman, began working on the robots in January. The teams met at least once a week throughout the spring semester and practiced with the robots every day within the final weeks before the annual Yap Robo-Day Competition against the Seventh Day Adventist school.

In this year’s competition, two robots faced off head-to-head on a playing field divided into two halves by an 8 inch high wall. Tennis balls, foam soccer balls, and foam footballs were scattered throughout the playing field. The objective of the game was to place as many balls as possible onto the other team’s side of the wall.  The winning team was the one that had the least number of balls on their side of the wall at the end of two 5-minute rounds.

The YCHS team challenged themselves by designing and building three different robots. Each robot involved complex engineering.  Many different designs and prototypes were needed before the students were satisfied with their final products. Two of the robots created their own unique claw designs that could grab and lift balls, as well as battering rams to knock tennis balls off of the dividing wall. The third robot also included a battering ram, but used an innovative two-wheel system to trap balls into a reservoir and then shoot them through holes in the wall. The intricate designs showed a great deal of understanding and creativity from the students.

On Tuesday, May 27, YCHS organized the 3rd Annual Yap Robo-Day. The day began with exciting volleyball and basketball competitions between YCHS and SDA. During the day, YCHS students also sold local food and coconuts as a school fundraiser.  The day concluded with the robotics competition which began with two of the YCHS robots competing against each other to demonstrate the rules of the game. In the final match, two sophomore drivers—Annalyn Tareg and Kobe Sacres—took home the State Championship title for YCHS for the third year in a row.

Congratulations to our entire robotics team and thanks to all of those who make the Robotics program possible on Yap!

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