UMEI Lightning Robotics Team Wraps Season On A High Note

UMEI Christian High School’s Lightning Robotics Team had a great season this year! After hours of planning, coding, building and testing, Team 8081’s robot was ready for competition in this year’s FIRST Robotics Challenge.

This year’s challenge, Crescendo, required robots to pick up circular rings and shoot them into different targets to score points both during the autonomous portion and the driver portion.

Lead builder, Grade 12 student Aidan Brown, describes this year’s robot. “UMEI’s robot, named “Fortissimo,” made headlines for its sleek design and incredible abilities. Weighing 150 pounds and reaching speeds of 15 feet per second, Fortissimo features a swerve drivetrain for unmatched agility on the field. Fortissimo is equipped with two cameras and is powered by machine learning to detect game rings with remarkable accuracy.

In addition, it utilizes its cameras to scan QR codes placed strategically around the field, ensuring precise navigation to autonomously shoot and place rings to score points. In the final seconds of the match, Fortissimo hosts itself into the air using a climbing system.”

Team 8081 competed at two qualifying events – one at Georgian College in Barrie, and one at the University of Windsor, both of which they finished in third place.

These events bought them a ticket to the Provincial Championships in Mississauga April 4-6 where they competed against the best teams in Ontario, most of them from schools of 1000+ students. Team 8081’s robot was noticed across the competition, as were the team’s signature yellow capes and team spirit.

The team finished qualifying rounds with a winning record and were chosen by the 6th place alliance to compete in the Provincial playoffs!

The robot performed well, and the team had some outstanding comeback victories. However, the matches that they did lose were incredibly close – one loss was 124-125, which broke a world record for the highest score by a losing team and the highest combined score, and then they broke those records in the next match by scoring 125-127!

Unfortunately, Team 8081 was eliminated right before semifinals. They finished 26th in Ontario out of 138 teams, just one place short of qualifying for the World Championships in Houston, Texas. This is a significant improvement over last year’s placement of 35th.

Team 8081 was awarded the Excellence in Engineering award at all 3 events, including at Provincials. This award celebrates the team that demonstrates a professional approach to the design process, and the design reflects an engineering solution to a specific problem.

Safety Captain Jocelyn Giroux also won Safety All-Star at all three events, which recognized her above all other 100 teams as the safety captain who went above and beyond to create a culture of safety.

The real success of this season lies in the dedication and growth of the team, as well as how it brought the entire community together. Alumni and parents are heavily involved in the program, and the team also engages future students through robotics camp and robotics mini days.

Team 8081 would like to thank the over 40 sponsors of this program, specifically JDC Inc, Unifab, UE Enclosures, and Sterling Ridge Group, and Centerline Windsor. The Robotics program truly highlights the power of community, teamwork, dedication and having fun!

To learn more, visit www.umei.ca/robotics.