On Jan. 5, the Scarlet Knightmares, MH’s Robotics Team, won the High Match Score at the First Tech Challenge meet, hosted by Morris Knolls.

During meets, contestants create robots that comply with specific challenges. They receive feedback from their mentors in this process, ensuring that their ideas and creations are candidates of success.

The High Match Score is won by the team that scored the highest amount of points out of all the matches in the competition. In total, 28 teams across New Jersey competed.

The team comprised seniors Krishna Chidrawar, Akshay Dhawan, Ruhi Kamdar, Anish Mahapatra, Divya Patel, Alan Qu, Premkumar Sethumadhavan, Aaryan Shah, and Sheil Shah. The robot they perfected for the meet was the product of over two months and several afternoons of designing, coding, and constructing.

“I felt really proud seeing our team’s hard work over the past few months come to fruition,” said Alan.

“We work so much for hours and hours, especially Alan and Prem. They really put their hearts and souls into it, and it’s because of them where we are,” added Akshay.

“When we won, it was as if we reached our new potential, and we realized we could do even more,” he continued.

This year’s FTC theme centers around exploring life forms in the ocean, with the focus of the January meet being “Into the Deep.”

In this challenge, each robot had to hang blocks with affixed clips onto bars located in the center of the field. These blocks represented marine life, and the robot needed to move the blocks to the bar contraption, corresponding to an underwater-exploring robot.

While none of the tasks a robot has to complete are set underwater, technology such as GLIMR ocean space sensors and the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) can help emerging roboticists learn how their skills relate to real-world applications.

After adding final touches onto the robot, as well as practicing its movements, the team ventured on towards their mat. The driver/facilitator drove the robot to adapt to obstacles that came its way, listening to the coach’s directions.

The team is currently preparing for the regional qualifiers on March 2. “We have a completely new robot that is specifically designed to look like a knight, with a castle wall in the background, and we’re so excited!” said Akshay.

“It’s truly such an exhilarating experience. The rush with each competition, fixing things last-minute, practicing matches repeatedly. It’s a struggle, but it pays off.”