Saturday was a great day for R.E.S.T. (Roseville Engineering Science Technology) club. On April 13, a subsection of R.E.S.T. called U.R.O.V. (Underwater Remote Operated Vehicle) competed against many other schools at RHS.

The competition began in the pool room at 9:30 a.m., and ran until the award show at 2:30 p.m. During the event, which was held by Square One, the teams had to do three challenges, with an optional fourth. These challenges includes collecting balloons with PVC connected to the string, measuring a PVC pipe underwater, and collecting bags of balls that were at the bottom of the pool. All of these challenges had to be done only using the U.R.O.V.’s camera and their teammates, because the driver was not allowed to look into the pool.

RHS’s first challenge was called ‘Traffic Jam,’ in which they had to collect the balloons from the pool. However, during this time, the U.R.O.V.’s motors would not turn on, so the team spent the time during the challenge trying to fix the issue. After both rounds of traffic jam, RHS scored 0 points.

The next thing they had to do was present the U.R.O.V. to the judges. They played a video presentation, and then answered questions that the judges asked them. This went well, and then they were on to their next challenge.

The team had to next compete in ‘Carp Diem’, where their job was to get the balls from the bottom of the pool. Again, during both rounds, RHS was busy troubleshooting the motors on the U.R.O.V. They ended this round with 0 points as well.

The last required challenge was to measure a PVC pipe that was in the pool. By this time, half of the U.R.O.V.’s motors were working, but the hook that had to be added on that morning threw off the buoyancy. So, the team resorted to taping heavy objects to the robot. However, the motors that made it go up and down were still idle, so RHS received no points for this either.

RHS then competed in the optional drag race, where two teams would race their U.R.O.V.s across the pool. In this, the team got the robot to get halfway to its destination before the motors quit again, letting the other team win. After this, the challenges were over, and the awards began.

“Although the team had a tough day performance-wise, their engineering and innovative design were able to prevail over other team,” teacher Bob Smitka said.

During the awards, Square One gave first and second place awards for many categories, and first place awards for the three divisions: junior, senior, and advanced technology. In the general category, RHS got second place in design/innovation and in engineering. In their division—advanced tech—they won first place. This is because of the risks the team took this year in the design and control of the U.R.O.V. This competition was the best the team has ever done, and they plan on continuing to improve the design and functionality of their current model.

“So many people have put work into this, I’m so glad it paid off for us. I’ll admit, some of the categories we won were definitely unexpected, but I’m excited to see how the team continues to make improvements on this design that we all really love,” junior Marissa Hedrick said.