Apple Pi Robotics Wins Awards in “Robots To The Rescue” Design Challenge

Over the course of the last few months Guilford’s own “Apple Pi Robotics” FIRST Robotics team of high school aged students from the shoreline, competed in Parametric Technology Corporation’s (PTC) “Robots To The Rescue” competition. PTC is a leader in computer aided design (CAD) software. All FIRST teams were challenged to virtually design a robot to solve a current real-world problem using Onshape, a web-based CAD Software that allows a group to access and edit documents at the same time. Starting on April 3, 2020, with a goal to continue innovating and working as a team during the pandemic, a group of student’s and two mentors from the team decided to take on the challenge. The first few virtual meetings were scheduled for brainstorming. Their preliminary thought was to design a robot that would benefit local businesses through the hard time of social distancing. Starting with many ideas and ending with two: the “Bishop” curbside delivery robot and the “Evergreen” elder care robot.

The design team submitted both designs on May 15 along with 152 teams from around the country. On May 29th PTC held a webcast to announce the award winners. The top 8 teams would receive cash prizes. At the end of the webcast Apple Pi received the 5th place for the “Evergreen” and 9th place for the “Bishop”. Along the way the team members learned new skills, and continued innovating and working as a team during the pandemic.