You may never be able to make a crab walk straight, but Huntsville’s 8th-grade Cool Robots and Builders (C.R.A.B.) robotics team is making a beeline for the FIRST LEGO League (FLL) World Championship in Houston April 20-23. They were invited after being named State Champions at the 2022 FIRST LEGO League Alabama Championship on March 5.
FIRST is the world’s largest student celebration of STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) with multiple levels of competition for grades pre-K through 12.
For the FLL competition, each team not only has to build and program an autonomous robot, but they had to create an innovative solution to a problem for this season’s CARGO CONNECT challenge.
The team used block coding provided with the robot, however, over the last two years the team has been programming in Python and using tools like GitHub and Visual Studio Code. Their efforts this year resulted in the highest robot performance score in the state at a competition.
C.R.A.B. is now working to improve their presentations and robot performance while seeking additional sponsors to help them get to Worlds.
For their CARGO CONNECT challenge, the team came up with a solution for transporting wind turbines.
“After doing their own research, these students chose to tackle the problem of transporting wind turbine blades,” said Michele Durda, a volunteer with a student on the team. “After researching on their own, they set out to talk to knowledge experts and eventually designed their own special purpose aircraft.”
They were also nominated for the Global Innovation Award for that innovative aircraft solution. In June, they will compete against other nominees from around the world in the FIRST LEGO League Global Innovation Award event where 20 semi-finalists will have an opportunity to showcase their research and invention to industry leaders.
In addition to the core competition activities, the C.R.A.B. Robotics Team hosts community events to promote STEAM activities and this season, they helped mentor two additional teams.
Volunteer and parent Susanne Whited, has been working alongside the students, watching them learn skills they can use outside the classroom.
“As a parent, I am thrilled with the growth of these kids,” she said. “Every season we ask them what they gained from participating in FLL.
“Unprompted, their answers not only include friendships, research skills, and programming skills, but also organization skills, presentation skills, and confidence.
“Love it!” she added.
The C.R.A.B. team was the Alabama state champion in 2020, but the world championship was canceled due to the pandemic.
This is the team’s fourth and final season in FLL. They plan to move up to other FIRST competition levels when they enter high school.
The FIRST World Championship in Houston will feature over 700 teams from 40 different countries.
“This team has accomplished a lot,” said Durda. “I couldn’t be prouder of their hard work.”
Follow C.R.A.B. and their sister team, the Blue Bananas at www.facebook.com/CRABRoboticsBlueBananaRobotics.
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