Human powered

Mar 21, 2024

Aug 28, 2023

Connor Coryea, left, watches as Michael Lawrence competes in a cube collector game during a robotics camp at the Northwood Innovation Hub in Lake Placid on Friday.(Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)

LAKE PLACID — Lake Placid Middle School students participated in a five-day robotics camp at the Northwood School Innovation Hub on Main Street this past week.

The camp was put on by Lake Placid Central School District teachers Olaf Carlson and Brian LaVallee and was funded through the Lake Placid Community Schools program. The robotics camp was designed for middle schoolers; there was also a sports camp for elementary school students.

Carlson said the robotics camp and the sports camp were a way to give kids something to do after the local Youth Commission Camp ended. He hoped that it also helped keep the kids engaged while making the summer break a little easier for parents.

During the robotics camp, which kicked off this past Monday, students competed in a series of competitions that included building robots, coding robots and a cube game. The competition is part of an international series of events through a company called Vex.

The students split up into teams of two and both members from each team had a chance to compete. Both team members have to do a driving test and get a score.

Isabelle Morganson, left, and Sunshine Gravatt celebrate after placing a cone on to one of the posts during the robotics camp on Friday. Morganson and Gravatt were the first group to place two cones on to one post.(Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)

The students were timed on driving through a series of cones, missing obstacles, dropping a cube from far away distances and a blind part, where they couldn’t actually see where the obstacles were.

The campers then worked on coding for autonomous movements on a computer. They had to learn how to code their robots to go through some cones and a minefield, while also coding it to park.

The third piece is the actual cube game, where each team member had to drive across a playing field while attempting to pick up cones or cubes and drop them into a box to earn points.

Some team members chose to drop the cones — not just pick up the cones and drop them into the box — but they had to set the cones on a post, which counted as five points rather than one point for each cube dropped into the box. However, if the cone wasn’t put on the post and was dropped into the box, it was worth zero points.

Community schools funded the cost of the robots and the field and Lake Placid Central School will get to keep the robots that they used this week and use them in the middle school’s robotics club, according to Carlson.

Elijah Carlson controls the robot during a cube collector game at the Northwood Innovation Hub in Lake Placid with Michael Lawrence, right, watching on. Also pictured are Doug Gugliemi, Fritz Wenzler and Jack Wright.(Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)

Both Lake Placid and Northwood School have high school teams that compete with larger and much more mechanical robots than the ones at last week’s camp. Carlson and LaVallee are the team coaches for Team 7030 — Lake Placid High School’s robotics competition squad.

The robotics squads travels to Albany each year to compete in the New York Tech Valley Regional at the Times Union Center.

Olaf Carlson, right, goes over the scores with Isabelle Morganson and Jack Wright during the final day of the robotics camp in Lake Placid.(Enterprise photo — Parker O’Brien)

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