Robots may soon be taking over the school, as the Coronado Robotics Team has built an amazing mechanical creation. With this year’s robotic task, challenging the group of 64 students to make the robot be able to pick up and place hatch panels on various places with velcro and then place cargo over the panel, as well as climbing a step; they had to put their heads together and come up with an outstanding construction.

Maddie Miles (12) has been a part of the team since her freshman year, and for her last year at Coronado she is a part of the presentation team, and she is also the Vice President of Community Outreach and Safety. Currently the team is taking a road trip down to Oklahoma for one of their biggest competitions of the year in order to prepare them for Colorado Regionals, which if they qualify will bring them to the World Championships. The team is looking on point for another trip to the World Championships to add to the 8 out of 10 championships that they have already qualified and attended. Maddie explained that if the team “win[s] an award that qualifies [them] or win the entire Regionals, [they] would go to the World.” In order to prepare for the Colorado Regionals that will ultimately determine their schedule in the future, the team heads down to Oklahoma to compete in a large competition that will help to prepare them for what is to come.

The team “only gets six weeks to build the entire robot, and that is including when [they] get the challenge, and [they] make two robots every year so that [the team] can keep practicing after the six weeks ends,” Maddie explained. Once those six tiresome weeks are up, the robotics team has to place the robot in a bag and they are not allowed to open it until the time of the competition. The practice does not end when the six weeks do though. Instead the team uses the practice robot they made to continue to work on controlling and driving it around the field that they have built. The stakes are high and Maddie is “really excited and [she is] trying to be optimistic, but [she] thinks that it is going to go really well. In Oklahoma, [the team] has a really good chance at winning some of the business awards, and then in Denver [they] have a good shot at winning the Regional.” After leaving early this morning, Coronados’ robotics team is on their way to Oklahoma with their incredible robot and skills, ready for any challenge.