Cyber Colonels Bring 'The Devastator' To Hartford

March Madness may be winding down but for the Ledyard Cyber Colonels, the spirit of competition is heating up. The 14-member team is competing against 64 other high school teams from six states in the regional robotics competition in Hartford today.

For six weeks the team, which is comprised of high school juniors, sophomores, freshmen and one eighth grader, has been designing and constructing “The Devastator," a robot built to play Nerf basketball against other teams’ robots.

The Cyber Colonels did not have a chance to test the robot before it was “bagged and tagged” for competition in early February.

Charles Estabrooks, a faculty advisor to the team said the robot works, “not as well as we’d like but about as good as you’d expect.”

Volunteer advisor Scott Horler has six years under his belt as a FIRST competitor and knew what to expect.

“There will be more teams up there who will be worse off than us,” he said. “We at least have a built and working robot. We just have some software glitches.”

A press release issued by the contest describes the rules as such: “during the competition, teams will play FIRST’s 2012 “Rebound Rumble” game, where robots will face off three-on-three to shoot baskets at the ends of an eight-hoop field during a series of two minute, 15 second matches. Balls scored in higher hoops score teams more points. Teams' alliances are awarded bonus points if, at the end of the match, their robots are balanced on bridges in the middle of the playing field.”

The team’s captain, Enya Horler, is optimistic despite the lack of trials.

“I think we actually have a very very good chance of winning almost all of our matches,” she said. “I know we have a robot that will do what we said it will do.”

Christopher Hughes is the eighth grader on the team and was a member of the middle school robotics club but joined the Cyber Colonels this year so he can work with bigger robots. Hughes said it’s “really fun and cool to see how all these things come together” and that wiring the robot was probably his biggest contribution this time around.

“It’s going to be fun controlling robots and playing games,” he said.

Scott Horler said the robot’s performance is important but teams are also awarded “co-opetition” points, which advance the team’s standing. He said on the sidelines, teams are encouraged to lend parts, tools, knowledge, etc to other teams.

“Gracious professionalism is what we’re trying to teach these kids,” he said. “You want to prove yourself on the field."

Scott Horler said the first day of competition went really well because the students had a great time. He said he doesn’t measure success by the standings because there are much bigger clubs with far more resources but the Cyber Colonels have won three and lost four matches, if anyone’s asking.

"The biggest thing is that they like the challenge, if something goes wrong they like to fix it and they like to work together, said Horler of Friday's matches. "They like the fast paced action that goes on here."