Local high school robotics teams prepare to ‘kick off’ season | Local News

The members of the Fighting Mongooses, the Northwest Georgia College & Career Academy’s FIRST Robotics Competition team, are “gearing up” for the 2025 season, said coach and mentor Marten Hutchison.

FIRST is the acronym for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.

“The season is about to kick off, so we’re about to really set off our whole design and build process,” Hutchison said.

Hutchison said each year FIRST Robotics announces a designated theme for season competition, with this year’s theme “Reefscape.”

“We know that it’s got something to do with being underwater or the ocean,” he said.

Throughout the season, teams in the FIRST Robotics Competition typically design and build their own robots and participate in games that involve challenges such as collecting and shooting balls or objects at a target or designated area to score points.

This is the 10th season for the Career Academy’s robotics team. Hutchison said the worldwide FIRST Robotics kickoff event is Saturday at noon and will be livestreamed on the FIRST Robotics Competition’s YouTube channel.

“It’s almost like the Olympics’ opening ceremony in a way,” Hutchison said. “It’s a telecast, and (officials) will describe what the games are going to be like this year. FIRST (Robotics) usually releases the game information at the start of the year and it’s global, so everybody that participates in the competition gets the same presentation at the same time.”

Hutchison said the kickoff event will include an animation describing how the gameplay will be conducted for the 2025 season.

“It’ll show us how the field elements are going to be, what the challenges will be, how you can score points on the field and how you can earn bonuses,” he said. “A typical (game) involves three teams against three teams and you rotate teams through qualifiers before the finals, which is like a final four playoff. After the animation, then they’ll do a live broadcast where announcers will talk through each of the field elements and how things will play out.”

To prepare for the kickoff and their first competition, which is March 7-8 at the Dalton Convention Center, Hutchison said the Fighting Mongooses will host a watch party at the Career Academy on Saturday that will include robotics teams from Dalton High School, North Murray High School and Adairsville High School.

“All four teams will watch the kickoff ceremony together and when that gets done, (FIRST Robotics officials) will send us a code to unlock the rule book for this year,” he said. “Then, we’ll go through the rules and create notes. The key points we’re looking for this year are key dimensions on the field, like how tall or how far away (an obstacle or challenge) is. Then we’re also looking for what the point values are if you’re shooting a ball and how bonuses play out.”

Hutchison said the teams will also look for key information on the robot itself.

“Every year, we have constraints put in place regarding the robot’s size, shape, reach or weight,” he said. “Some years, you may only be allowed to make your robot two feet tall until the last 30 seconds of the (game), and then you might be able to be as tall as you want to because there’s always a final challenge in every match.”

He said the Career Academy kickoff event allows local teams to “get a jumpstart” on the rule book and gameplay as “quickly as possible.”

“It’s kind of a strategy and planning session,” he said. “Because this sets the tone for the next six to eight weeks. That will be the key information we need to start thinking about what we’ll be designing the robot to do on the field and what we want to design towards. You need to strategize and think about how to maximize points, and the kickoff really starts the clock ticking. You have from then until your first competition to do your brainstorming and your ideation, then your (computer-aided design). After that, we’ll build our prototypes, then test, iterate and build again until the competition shows up.”

Hutchison said the Fighting Mongooses, which features more than 20 high school students at the Career Academy, will have “about two months” to create and test their robot.

“(March 6) is when we have to have all of our stuff at the (Dalton Convention Center), so we’ve got basically about eight weeks to figure it out and test it,” he said.

The competition March 7-8 at the convention center is open to the public and is set to feature more than 40 teams, Hutchison said.

“Matches usually run from 9 (a.m.) until 4 (p.m.) and everybody will have their areas and pit booths set up the day before,” he said. “It should be a good way to start off the season.”