The Moonshots, Gilmour’s robotics team, and their robot, Triton, had a strong showing at the Buckeye Regional FIRST Robotics Competition, which challenges high school students with building a robot of a specific size, weight (under 125 pounds) and cost (under $5,000) in as little as six weeks. Each year, the robot must be able to complete a designated task. For this year’s competition, the robot scored points by gathering balls of certain colors and then scoring them in either a low goal or a high goal (worth more points because it was more difficult). Teams could also score points at the end of each game if their robot was able to hang from bars at progressively greater heights. 

 

The team went 5-4 in the qualifying matches. For the final matches, the top eight finishers chose their alliance of teams and Gilmour was the ninth pick for the finals, which meant that the GA robot impressed one of the top teams with its consistency, speed and design. The robot had four main systems:

 

The team lost in the quarterfinals to the eventual winners of the competition.

Congratulations to the following team members, who were led by mentors Matt Vanek and Dan Adiletta: