Members of the Dexter robotics team work on their robot at a competition at Eastern Michigan University April 13.
Joseph Tobianski | AnnArbor.com
Members of the Dexter Dreadbots robotics team ended their competition season this spring with an appearance in the quarterfinals of the world robotics championships.
Team members and mentors both said it was quite an accomplishment for the young team that formed just three years ago to make it to the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics World Championships last month in St. Louis, Missouri.
The Dreadbots were one of 400 teams from around the world to qualify. This year's challenge for FIRST Robotics teams was to build and design a robot that shoots Frisbees into goals and then climbs a pyramid. The remote-controlled robots are piloted by the students and go head-to-head in a small sports arena trying to earn points during a two-minute round.
Dexter's robot made an appearance earlier in April at the FIRST Robotics state championships at Eastern Michigan University. It is the Dreadbots first year to make it to the state championships as well as the world championships.
The Dreadbots started with seven members in their first year, and according to team member Ian Cook, a junior, now have 20 members. Funding for the team comes from private donations as well as corporate sponsors.
Jennifer Bryson, one of the team's mentors, calls the competitions, "A varsity sport for the mind."
Bryson said, "Now that the competition season is done, the Dreadbots are looking forward to sharing the robot with groups from the community, continuing to build their support base in terms of sponsors and mentors and recruiting new team members for next year’s team."