There are a variety of clubs at Bakersfield High School that most students do not know about; the Bakersfield High School

Robotics team is one successful, but little-known team.

Very few Drillers are even aware that Robotics has previously won the State Championships, and competed at the World Championships. Robotics notably finished in the top 120 of the teams competing from around the world. Yes, they have games and activities, but they are not very recognized for what they are. 

Seeking to learn more about the Robotics team, team member Joel Martinez was invited to speak with “The Blue and White” about what they do. Here’s what Martinez had to say:

“What do you do in Robotics?”

“I build robots, made for competition. This year’s game is called “over-under.” the game aims to get triangular balls inside of your goal. Some of the mechanisms consist of launching, intakes, and lifting.”

“Who’s the leader?”

“Within robotics, there consist of different teams. Currently, there are three teams and each team has its own leader-like member. For example, I am the leader of my team. But none of it is certain.” 

“What are the different roles? 

“So on a team, there will be different roles like a builder, a coder, notebooker, and a driver. A notebooker is the person who documents the whole process of the build and the development. A coder is the person who codes for the robot and makes all the control for it. A builder is a person who puts together the robots as well as creating new designs for magnesium previously discussed. A driver is the person that guides the robot to victory.” 

From this information, I get that everyone in the club has a really good position in the club and opportunity to experience robotics. 

“What led you to robotics? Do you enjoy it?” 

“Well, I want to be an engineer so I figured that I should take extra curriculum engineering classes. In order to get experience in the engineering world.” 

“What steps do you take when starting a new project?”

“First it starts off with a design brief when we acknowledge the task at hand, then we consider the dates of the task when it’s due and also the materials we have to. So next after the design brief it would be an individual sketch, an individual sketch would consist of theoretical numbers, it would look like the system we envisioned to draw. As we as, the systems function. Next would be group discussion where my partners and I would discuss our different ideas and agree on which ideas would be best to incorporate into the design. Then there’s a group sketch. That’s where my partners and I sketch out the envisioned robot. Then there’s more theoretical, drawing, and functioning statements. Next after the group sketch, there are build notes, build notes consist of every little change since we started the project. Then there’s test notes, that’s we have our final robot built, instead of theoretical numbers, we use actual numbers. After test notes we do final drawing, final drawing consists of every measurement. Final sketch is the final built product also consisting of every measure so that if someone else wanted to build it they would be able to as in exact replica. Finally, there’s a conclusion which consists of all of the results in everything we fixed, as well as any extensions we had on the product.” 

“What’s your experience working with a team and overall in robotics?” 

“Working with a team is okay, it has its ups and downs. As you continue to work with a team you get more accepting of their ideas. And robotics I rate it a 7.2.”

Interested in meeting the team? Contact Don Wilmot, BHS science teacher and the Robotics’ team coach, for more information.