Dragonoids! GFA’s Robotics Team

Ethan Lior '20, Zach Rothwell '20, Matt Olins '23, and Henry Chang '23 working on the robot.

Note: This article was originally written for the October 2019 edition of the Beachside Press.

By Antara Singh-Ghai '22

One Friday afternoon, I went down to the scene shop and talked with multiple members of GFA's robotics team, the Dragonoids. The Dragonoids participate in the FTC (First Tech Challenge) sponsored by First Robotics, which comes up with a challenge every year that the contestants must design robots around to complete the task. This year's challenge is Skystone, inspired by Star Wars, where the robots must take bricks, or "stones," and stack them. The higher the tower, the more points you get. However, there are height limits, and designing around them is the real challenge presented this year. Just like every year, their ultimate goal is to make it to nationals, but qualifying for states come first. 

This meeting, they worked on the chassis, or the spine, of a basic robot. After finishing the chassis, the Dragonoids plan to attach wheels and add more mechanisms. However, robotics isn't solely about coding and building. While I was speaking with William Lopez-Wortman (’20) about robotics, William McGonagle (’23) had finished designing the capstone for the robot. The capstone is added to the robot to distinguish it from others. "We need to embrace the creativity of everyone on the team, and this is an expression of that creativity," says McGonagle. Lopez-Wortman disagreed, but the team moved on to bigger goals. 

William McGonagle '23 with his creation for capstone.

Disagreements aside, the Dragonoids are steadily progressing towards their goals. Once they finish the robot, they have to edit and test it. Their first competition is in December, and we're sure they'll do great!