This March, the Malvern Robotics Team programmed, maneuvered and sometimes cajoled the Friarbot to its best finish at the Chesapeake Regional Championship in Annapolis, Md.

“We finished 40th out of 60 teams this year – our best finish ever,” said member junior Jimmy White. “We had a lot of fun and were actually in fourth pace for a while.”

This year’s competition was named FIRST Overdrive, in which the robot must knock a ball off of a six-foot high monkey-bar like structure and then either push or carry the ball around a track. Extra points were earned for placing the ball back on the bars. The competition also featured a 15-second automated sequence, in which the team members programmed the robot to operate without using the controls. Malvern successfully completed this task, and in its head-to-head matches, the team was 3-5.

“Robotics is a fun activity to take part in with your friends,” said White, who hopes to take on a leadership role on the team next year. “Robotics is not only a good way to be more involved in science, but is also a good way to learn how to run a business. You get an inside look at how a business works.”

The team raised more than $10,000 this year, mainly through corporate sponsorships. The largest of these came from Communications Test Design, Inc. (CTDI), who also allowed the team to uses its facility to build the robot.

FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is an organization created to motivate young people to pursue futures in science, technology, and engineering. The robotics competition blends the excitement of an athletics competition with an engineering challenge, where teams lead their robots in a high-tech sporting event.

According to White, Robotics is a great activity for students interested in mechanical and electrical engineering, computer programming and graphics, marketing, finance and business leadership.

While the team showed improvement this year, White hopes the team will make even greater strides in the future, using some marketing tactics to attract new students to the activity.

“We would like to get together with other Inter-Ac or local schools to stage a mock competition to show other students what robotics is all about,” he said. “Robotics is still kind of a mystery to most people.”

For more information about the Malvern Prep Robotics Team, visit http://friarbot.com.

Additional photos can be viewed in the Malvern Photo Gallery.