By Anya Gorovits
STAFF WRITER
Seaperch, an AHS club, sent their two teams to a regional competition in Cambridge on April 10th. The Jellyfish, one of the teams, won 5th place, while the other team, the Orcas, tied for 2nd. Unfortunately, neither team qualified for nationals this year.
Seaperch is a robotics competition where high school teams’ robots from around the world are put through complex obstacle courses and are judged on time and completion of difficult tasks. Students use PBC pipes, wires, and motors to create a remotely controlled vehicle. This may sound similar to many other robotics competitions, such as the AHS Robotics Club (ARC), but there’s a catch: the entire competition is underwater.
The team has always scored well and is “pretty exceptional”, according to AHS Seaperch’s founder and advisor, Daniel Donovan.
Seaperch competitions consist of two parts, an obstacle course and a challenge course. For the obstacle course, the robots must maneuver themselves through 5 hoops and back as fast as they can. The path totals around 20 feet. The challenge course, however, is much more complicated.
“This competition, the challenge is modeled after collecting samples using a remotely operated vehicle like a deep submersible,” said Donovan. He chose to start the club after receiving an email from a US Navy representative. The Seaperch program, run by Robo Nation, is entitled to promote students’ interest in marine design.
This year’s challenge course requires the robots to pick up rocks and sensors, open a door, and place the objects inside a small space. They earn points from different tasks and are given 10 minutes to gain as many points as possible. During the competition, students stand on the side of a pool and control their robots as they find their way through the water. There are two competitions each year. Teams first compete regionally, and if they qualify, they compete again at nationals.
Though Seaperch robotics may still sound similar to normal robotics, Seaperch robots don’t require any programming at all. According to Donovan, “Robotics is more complicated. These are simpler devices, but they’re working in a more complicated setting.” Though no programming is needed, students must learn about buoyancy, waterproofing, and how to operate underwater to create a successful robot. They learn a lot about the marine environment as well as engineering.
Most Seaperch members are also in robotics. Junior Canyu Li said Seaperch is “way less time-intensive, and way less material-intensive than normal robotics.” She explained that the more relaxed setting makes Seaperch a very fun club.
Senior Luke Stump describes Seaperch as a “mini robotics,” saying it leaves a lot of room for creativity.
AHS has had a Seaperch team for about 10 years and has placed 1st or 2nd at regionals and gone to nationals almost every year. Nationals typically take place at the University of Maryland. Last year, the team rented a van and drove down to compete. A couple of years ago, the team won 3rd place in the country.
