Students in the Remote Operated Vehicle team at Santa Rosa Christian School, the Santa Rosa Subtropics, is heading to the 2015 Marine Advanced Technology Education International ROV competition next month in St. John's, Newfoundland Canada where groups from across the globe will compete in completing complex tasks while operating a underwater robot.
Steve Archer, who oversees the school’s ROV club on a volunteer basis, said the team will need to earn points for each task they complete in a certain time frame via the underwater robot. By controlling their hand-built and designed ROV using only a video feed from a camera inside the ROV to operate the robot, teams are tasked with using engineering skills to locate and deploy objects and complete other difficult tasks.
“When we go to the international competition, we get 15 minutes for each one of those missions,” Archer said.
In addition to completing the tasks, each team must also submit a thorough written report as part of the competition. Regardless of the outcome at the competition, Archer said the team should appreciate the experience and learn from their international competitors for future competitions.
“In one sense, you are going up against the best of the best from around the country and around the world,” Archer said. “On the other side of the coin, as newcomers from a very small school, we are just glad we get to go.”
Local businesses have offered their financial support through sponsorship in helping the team with traveling expenses for the competition.
One of the four students traveling to the competition is Hunter McKinnon, who served as the team’s Chief Executive Officer in his senior year at the private school. Similar to any business model, the CEO oversees each function of the ROV team.
McKinnon said he is not at all nervous about the upcoming competition.
“I look at it the same way, I’ve looked at it when we first got into this type of competition,” McKinnon said. “We were the smaller Christian school going against a lot bigger robotics (programs). So, we look at it as ‘we are going to try our best and were going to build the best thing to get it done’ and we slammed dunked it.”
In its third year, the school’s ROV team has took first place in their level at the regional competition called the ‘MATE Northern Gulf Coast Competition’ held at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab in Alabama.
In his first year with the team, Garhett Smith helped in the building process of the ROV. In addition to be a part of the building and design process, Smith is proud to be part of the team’s success, so far this year.
“It has been a lot of fun,” he said. “It feels really cool to know that I helped contribute to get it here.”
Smith is also planning to further build upon his experience on the ROV team after he graduates from the school.
“I plan on going into college and using these skills,” he said.
FOLLOW:
To learn more about the Santa Rosa Subtropics ROV team and follow their progress, visit their Facebook page at http://on.fb.me/1c9DRZQ, which also includes video of the school’s ROV robot in action.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Robotics team from Santa Rosa Christian School to compete in international competition