The Wreckers Robotics Club, RoboWreckers, placed second in the world at the FIRST Tech Challenge World Championship in 2009. Now, over a decade later, the club aims to revive that success—this time, through a new type of challenge.
For the first time, Staples will host a drone competition in the field house on Feb. 21, drawing teams from across the state and beyond. Using drones that are already assembled, students will work to program them to navigate autonomously, meaning without coding, across many obstacles. The club has three competing teams.
“They have a set obstacle course that is used every year. [For example], they’ve got to fly through obstacles in an infinite kind of a shape or they need to go through cubes,” Tech Ed teacher and Robotics Advisor Alison Stephens said. “And then they have a thing called a mission, so the mission changes every year. The mission typically is some kind of engineering task where they have to solve a problem.”
President Anit Arvind ’27 joined this club as a freshman and began working to expand it last year.
“I took it as a goal to get more people. In the first two weeks of school, I contacted friends, and I contacted friends of my friends. I asked my brother to join as well. So, after starting as a club of two people, [participation] surged,” Arvind said.
Arvind is also interested in broadening the competitive opportunities. Another potential competition would be building an underwater Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) to navigate an obstacle course with a similar mission to the drones. For example, a mission might involve mimicking an ocean clean up by picking up debris from the water and transporting them to a garbage can.
“They have the same obstacle course every year, which is essentially offset hula hoops under the water that they have to drive the ROV through,” Stephens said.
Ultimately, robotics is extremely expensive. Although the team has received grants from the school in the past, as it has continued to grow, the costs have become more demanding.
Fortunately, because Staples is hosting the drone competition, they have been approached by the drone companies and received products for free. Arvind hopes to continue raising funds so they are able to expand even more in the upcoming years.
“Around the time when I got all those new members, I raised around $700 on a GoFund me,” Arvind said.
The club meets every Monday and Wednesday in the Tech Ed room, and he encourages everyone interested to stop by and participate.
“Although I had not done much for robotics prior to high school, I developed a huge interest in it and worked my way up to becoming President,” Arvind said. “Now I want to bring back success to Staples robotics.”
