GIRLS RULE FALCON FURY LFHS ROBOTICS TEAM

Whoever said building robots was not something for girls has not been to Los Fresnos High School.

Team Falcon Fury is made up of 10 girls who will be competing in the First Tech Challenge Dec. 14 at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.

Falcon Fury has built a remote-controlled robot this year that will be exhibited at the Los Fresnos CISD Robotics Competition Dec. 7. But the big challenge for instructor Albert Tudon will come the following week when Falcon Fury must build a new robot from scratch at the competition.

FTC is designed for students in grades 7-12 to compete head to head, using a sports model. Teams are responsible for designing, building, and programming their robots to compete in an alliance format against other teams. The robot kit is reusable from year-to-year and is programmed using a variety of languages.

“You’re given a kit of parts four motors, four tires, some pieces of aluminum, some motor controllers, and servo controllers, Tudon said. “Out of that, you build the robot that you think can accomplish the task.”

Teams are required to develop strategy and build robots based on sound engineering principles.

Members of the Falcon Fury are Jocelyne Balboa, Angie Casas, A’ nysha Fortenberry, Emily Garcia, Ana Hernandez, Scarleth Mosquera, Jocelyne Padron, Alexis Perez, Teresita Silva, and Amy Villarreal.

“The robot has to drive itself for 30 seconds, pick up cubes from the floor and place them in scoring goals, or go up a ramp and drive itself,” Tudon said.

Participants have two minutes to drive the robot. To score points, goals are placed goals on a teeter-totter system. As long as the team is scoring goals and keeping the teeter-totter level, additional points are scored.

In the last 30 seconds of the competition, robots must go have to go a T-shape handle that must be turned clockwise to elevate a flag, drive back to the ramp and pull themselves off the ground.

“All of the robots will look completely different,” Tudon said. “The wheels are omni-directional so the robot can drive itself sideways. It must also fit into an 18x18x18-inch cube.”

The group has stayed after school most days to build its creation, which has not been named yet. A much-larger robot built last school year was named Millennium Falcon, like the spaceship from the Star Wars movies.