West Kelowna high school robotics team preparing for competition

Photo: Mount Boucherie Senior Secondary

The Mount Boucherie Bears Robotics Team is getting ready to compete at the FIRST Robotics Competition, Charged Up.

At the Canadian Pacific regional event, the Mount Boucherie Bears will be taking on other top teams from around the province for a chance to build and operate the most functional robot possible.

"In this year’s game, two alliances of three teams compete to gather the game pieces, cones and cubes, and bring them back to score points. Every match starts with a 15 second autonomous period where every robot has to gather the game pieces based on pre-programmed code," explained Tyler, MBSS robotics team member.

"After 15 seconds the players take control. At the end of each match every robot races back to its charging station. Every team is graded based on the number of points they get during the game."

The ultimate goal is to walk away with a first place win, but in order to pull it off, the team is in search of a sponsorship deal that can help cover the costs.

"We are looking at all local businesses, particularly ones based around engineering and technology. Sponsors are our primary source of funding and cover our registration, robot building, travel costs, etc," continued Tyler.

"People should sponsor us because we are a team of youth who are taking an interest in STEM and business, and sponsors can help us achieve our goals and allow us to have this amazing experience."

The team is reaching the halfway point of the overall construction of the robot, planning to work for eight straight weeks at a pace of least four days a week.

"We're all spending a lot of time on it. We're into our third week of building now, and it’s probably going to take us right til the end to finish," said team member Nicole.

"We're working on the chassis now and we still need to add the arm and other stuff, so I'd guess we're maybe about 40 per cent done."

To help cover costs, the team has also set up a GoFundMe page ahead of the competition.

The Canadian Pacific Regional is set to take place on March 1.