Victory for the RoboHawks

The Situation:
Every year, high-school students all over the country enter the NASA-sponsored First Robotics Competition, where they compete for awards that include millions in college scholarships. The students at Lloyd C. Bird High School in Chesterfield, Virginia compete as the RoboHawks.

From the moment the details of the competition are announced, teams have six weeks to complete and ship their robots. Since 2005, members of the award-winning RoboHawks have relied on TSLOTS’ flexibility and ease of modification during the competition.

The TSLOTS Solution:
The RoboHawks spend all year prototyping with TSLOTS so that once the rules of the year’s competition are announced, they can order their TSLOTS immediately and start designing quickly and easily. The RoboHawks rely on TLSOTS to build the chassis — a standard base to work around. Then they began working on linear movement and vertical superstructures, fastening components like limit switches and sensors using TSLOTS.

In 2007 the RoboHawks used TSLOTS to build a chassis with a 3-stage telescoping mast that extended up to 10 feet. In 2008 TSLOTS enabled the team’s dual-axis telescoping mast, which was featured in a PBS documentary about the competition. In 2009 the RoboHawks once again used TSLOTS for integral parts of their robot — and went on to win the competition in Richmond, Virginia. The RoboHawks then took first place in their division in the national competition in Atlanta, Georgia.