Kinetic Knights robotics Team 781 makes it to quarter-finals at Greater Toronto Central regional

The Kinetic Knights robotics Team 781 of Kincardine, took its robot to the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Greater Toronto Central competition on the weekend, and made it to the quarter-finals before being eliminated.

The team has worked on the robot for six weeks, beginning at the start of January, and bagging and tagging the robot Feb. 23, ready for competition. The robot has been named "Duncan," in honour of Duncan Hawthorne, retiring president and chief executive officer of major team sponsor, Bruce Power.

With the competition robot bagged and tagged, the drive team has been working with a practice robot, fine-tuning the skills necessary to compete at FIRST Stronghold - a game that involves robots throwing boulders at the opposing team's castle, trying to capture it, while defending their own castle. The robots have to breach eight different defences, such as walls of different heights, bridges, and uneven ground, in order to get to the other side and take the opponent's castle. At the end of each match, the robots can earn more points by scaling the castle wall.



Team 781's robot, "Duncan," in action at the FIRST Greater Toronto Central competition on the weekend; video by David Dadson

At the regional in Toronto, "Duncan" competed with various alliances of three robots, winning five games and losing five games, to finish 29th. In the elimination rounds, Team 781 was asked to join the 8th alliance, with Team 5834, R3P2, of Toronto; and Team 854, The Iron Bears, also of Toronto. The alliance was eliminated in the first round.



"Duncan" competes at the Greater Toronto Central regional; video by David Dadson

On the administrative side, Team 781 competed for the Chairman's Award, and nominated mentor Richard Yun for the Woodie Flowers mentor's award; and Michael Strader and Jed Gonzales for the Dean's List award which recognizes student leadership as selected by their peers. Jed was named a finalist at Toronto Central so his name goes on to the world championships next month in St. Louis, Missouri.

During the open house, Feb. 27, administrative captain Lana Splettstoesser said there are 42 students and 15 dedicated mentors on the team, and hopefully, the Kinetic Knights make it to the world championships for the sixth year in a row.

The next competition for Team 781 and "Duncan," is at the Buckeye Regional in Cleveland, Ohio, March 23-26.



Team 781's practice robot in action at the open house Feb. 27