Sunday, March 5, was the New York City championship of the FIRST Tech Challenge, an international robotics competition for high school students. Out of 100+ teams in the city, the top 24 advanced to this competition after succeeding in the qualifier and super-qualifier competitions. MTA’s team, Lionotics, secured their spot here with a solid record winning most of their matches at the February 5 competition. Over the last few weeks, the students have been hard at work making improvements to their robot. With new sensors and increased dexterity, their robot was able to reliably drive around the field, pick up game pieces and put them down on tall, narrow poles, with both speed and precision.

During the first 30 seconds of each match, the robots are not controlled by humans, rather they operate autonomously, running a prewritten program. The robot placed two or even three game pieces in that short time, before using computer vision to park in the designated area. After the autonomous period, the students have the opportunity to control their robots with wireless controllers. This is an exciting two minute period where robots work together to score more points and determine the winner of the match. Lionotics came out strong, winning their first match of the day. But the competition was very stiff—these are the best teams in the city—and Lionatics ended the day with a record of three wins and three losses. This record, combined with our impressive autonomous program, earned us the number 11 spot in the rankings. Out of 24 teams in the championship and 100+ in the city, the Lionotics return proud of their accomplishments and excited about their incredible season.