ABOVE: Members of Fairmont’s Robotics team after recently competing in the Lake Superior Regional Robotics Competition in Duluth. Front row, from left: Aiden Nelson, Isaac Sheard, Isaac Stone. Second row, from left: Matthew Malo, Ainsley Malo, Ty Nawrocki, Amanda Poetter, Kaylee Nelson, Jake Ehlert. Back row, from left: Alex Kastning, Ben Moeller, Sam Grogin, Noah Wolner, Jacob Murphy, Jonathan Heinze, Noah Vetter.

FAIRMONT– The Fairmont High School robotics team, MegaHertz, has qualified for the world championship for the first time in its history. The team ultimately placed second overall at the Great Lakes Regional in Duluth last weekend.

“That is one of the biggest honors because instead of playing against teams in your state like most sports do, we’re playing against teams from all around the world. There’s teams from Egypt, Australia, China, Japan (etc.),” said Aiden Nelson, the team’s design lead and one of the robot’s operators.

The tournament was a multi-day event held at the Duluth Convention Center which ran from March 2 to March 4. Sixty teams from across the Midwest came to compete.

The challenge at the tournament varies from year to year. This year teams were tasked with building a robot which can pick up cones and boxes and move them onto raised scoring areas, in addition to being able to balance on a tilting platform. Each match at the tournament featured six robots and six robotics teams split into two alliances of three which needed to work together to score points.

Fairmont’s robot weighs 74 pounds which is exceptionally light compared to other robots at the competition which could weigh over 50 pounds more. It also features a drive system which is capable of moving in all directions without rotating, and a telescoping arm which is capable of reaching ahead of and behind the robot. This means Fairmont’s robot is significantly faster and more maneuverable compared to its peers; capable of picking up an object in front of it, quickly moving to a scoring zone and depositing the object behind itself without taking time to rotate. The robot’s lower mass and higher speed also make it easier to balance on the tilting platform.

“We had a match where we had a robot sitting on (the tilting platform) and we just flew up in like five seconds … If we would’ve been heavier we would’ve knocked our teammate off,” said Nelson.

Fairmont’s team competed in nine qualification matches, five semifinal matches and two final matches for a total of sixteen rounds over the course of the tournament.

A portion of the team reached Duluth a day ahead of the tournament to set up the robot while the remainder arrived the following day. Teams were given the first day of the tournament to calibrate their robots on a practice field, but event organizers accidentally gave the practice field notable discrepancies compared to the real thing.

“It was not accurate whatsoever and people were coding their (automatic guidance systems) to that and it was super (upsetting),” said Amanda Poetter, the team’s business lead and a member of the build team.

“That was the biggest challenge there,” said Nelson.

This caused problems for the team in the first phase of each match when robots are driven autonomously.

After placing second overall in qualifications, the MegaHertz was designated as an alliance captain and allowed to pick two other teams to accompany them into finals and semifinals. Other members of Fairmont’s alliance included Charger Robotics from Cokato High School in Minnesota, and Avis Automata from Chippewa Falls Sr. High School in Wisconsin.

The MegaHertz suffered after losing its first semifinal round. During this round the arm on the robot extended outside of bounds and the robot was shut off. In the same round teammates experienced hardware problems.

“Our teammate had their radio die so they lost connectivity and another teammate had their robot’s … voltage spikes beyond the allowed limits so the system shut them off. By the end of that match there were no robots running,” said Nelson.

After the first round Avis Automata was unable to address a problem with their robot and was replaced by Wayne Enterprises Inc. from Chisholm Senior High School in Minnesota.

“After every finals match we’d get back and see more and more pits were being packed up and people were leaving. … it was getting emptier and more quiet in there,” said Poetter.

Despite this initial loss, Fairmont’s alliance performed very well for the remainder of semifinals. In the final two rounds of the tournament Fairmont lost to a rival alliance consisting of Pi Robotics from Aquinas High School in La Crosse, MORE Robotics from Thomas More High School in Milwaukee and Sabre Robotics from Sartell High School, but their alliance still placed second overall.

Unlike other activities, FIRST Robotics allows teams to compete at multiple section tournaments, and the MegaHertz will compete again at the Iowa Regional in Cedar Falls from March 22 to March 23. At this tournament the team aims to improve its robot and its piloting ability ahead of the world competition.

After competing in Iowa the team will proceed to the 2023 FIRST Championship in Houston, Texas from April 19 to April 22. Teams from over 110 countries will compete in the world championship, and qualifying for it has been a goal for the team since its inception.

“It’s an extreme honor, we’re so happy, and it’s going to be a whole experience and we’re going to enjoy all of it to the fullest,” said Nelson.

The qualification is underscored by the MegaHertz narrowly missing the championship last year when the team scored high enough for them to qualify under normal circumstances, but a reduced capacity due to COVID-19 mitigation measures prevented it from competing.

The team’s victory also brings some relief to recent graduates.

“They said their main goal was to go to worlds and seeing that on TV was awe (inspiring),” said Alyssa Lutz, a recent Fairmont graduate who narrowly missed qualifying with the team last year.

This year’s victory has proven the MegaHertz can be a formidable robotics team, and could be capable of qualifying again next year.

“Last year we definitely thought it was a coincidence … this year going to (the world championship) proves it’s not a fluke,” said Nelson.