Sarnia robotics group looking for members, sponsors

A lot has changed for Royal Thunder Robotics in four years.

For one, the competitive robot-building team that originated in Sarnia’s Rosedale elementary school in 2005, has moved up a notch in robot complexity and size, said Jeff Laucke, one of the team’s two adult mentors.

While hand-held LEGO-based bots were the focus in FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) LEGO League competition for fourth- to eighth-graders in 2019 — and for more than a decade prior — the pandemic changed that, Laucke said.

“The problem is that over COVID it was really hard to work on everything with the younger kids,” he said.

That, coupled with an ill-fated attempt at a high-school level FIRST robotics competition entry in early 2020 — a March 17 competition date for that team’s $20,000 machine was canceled as the pandemic took hold — prompted a pivot to FIRST Tech Challenge competition for the community-based team that includes participants from various schools, he said.

The metal-part, medium-size — 45-cm wide cube to start — bot league is for seventh- to twelfth-graders, is tens of thousands of dollars cheaper than FIRST Robotics competition, and was easier to do online, Laucke said. Competition was virtual when the new team formed in 2021, he said.

Last fall, he said, a team composed entirely of seventh and eighth-graders competed in two in-person tournaments in Windsor and Bolton, north of Toronto.

They placed fifth out about 10 teams in Windsor, and made it to the semi-finals in the playoffs, he said, calling it a good showing.

The team actually did better technically in Bolton a week later, but placed 10th or 12th out of about 20 teams, he said.

“Unfortunately the level of competition also improved,” he said.

In both, most other teams had high-schoolers participating, he said, noting Royal Thunder was noted for community outreach work and won back-to-back motivate awards.

“For doing promotion and promoting FIRST in general” Laucke said, listing things like appearances at science fairs, engineering days, and community events, holding a summer camp, and volunteering at local charities as some examples.

Laucke was also runner-up for a mentor award in Bolton.

The team of nine — FIRST Tech caps teams at 15 — is looking for members and sponsors, he said, noting the cost per year is up to $10,000, though recent parts donations have helped.

Royal Thunder is the only FIRST team of any kind remaining in Sarnia, he said, noting a Sarnia regional FIRST LEGO League tournament hasn’t run since 2018.

“At one point we had about 20 FIRST LEGO League teams in schools, and then COVID hit and people realized how much time it actually was giving them back,” he said.

FIRST Tech competition includes building the robot and programming it to execute missions, Laucke said.

Those include ones where the robot uses a sensor to read something like a colored cup and park in a certain spot automatically, and others that involve driving it with a controller, like stacking colored cups on top of posts of varying height, he said.

Rosedale eighth-grader and Royal Thunder’s main driver Jillian Baldwin said being on the team has been a great experience, and she’s hoping to make a career in robotics.

“Best decision of my life,” she said about joining, adding it also helps with teamwork and public speaking.

Teams have to explain their work to judges and in front of hundreds of people in competition, she said.

“There’s a broad focus on soft skills, they call them, that transfer no matter what you’re doing,” Laucke said.

“It’s a nice little bonus.”

For more information, email [email protected], he said, noting the next season starts Sept. 9.

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