Novi's 'Frog Force' Seeks FIRST Robotics Championship

From Frog Force: Novi senior Andrew Pospeshil is preparing for his final business trip as a high school student.

The Frog Force 503 vice president will make his fifth and final appearance at the FIRST Robotics Championships in St. Louis, April 26-29. The four-day event will be held at the Dome at America’s Center, the 67,000-seat stadium that used to be home to the St. Louis Rams.

“We kind of think of it as a small business,” said Pospeshil, who has competed in FIRST Championships since eighth grade. “You have not only the people who make the product – which for us is the robot – you have management and public relations. There’s strategy, there’s business, there’s award submissions. So there is a variety of aspects that the team does.”

The Novi robotics team has qualified for the championships in 16 of the past 17 years, winning the world title in 2005. And this year, 44 students will represent Novi as they hope to put on a championship-worthy showing in the Show Me State.

“I think we’re pretty good,” Pospeshil said. “We’ve been finalists three times this season – two in districts and one at the state championship in our division – so we’re hoping for a gold (medal) and I think we’re in really good shape.”

But the competition in St. Louis will be intense.

“The robot has 12 or so matches and qualification rounds, so our drivers basically pilot the robot for 2 ½ minutes and it has to complete a certain amount of tasks,” Pospeshil said. “You get paired randomly with teams from other schools, so there is that aspect of working with others.”

Like any good athletic organization, Pospeshil says a successful robotics team counts on collaboration and chemistry. Think auto racing.

“The atmosphere and the environment has all of the aspects of an athletic competition. There are people cheering, there’s chanting and a big crowd getting hyped up,” he said. “There’s definitely practices like in athletics, where you’re working hard to get ready. Like auto racing, you’re working on your robot, which is kind of like your car.”

Game planning and strategy can also play factors in match outcomes.

“There’s a general math strategy which depends on the game each year,” Pospeshil said. “There’s kind of a consistent way that you want to play the game. But depending upon your alliance partners and your opponent you might want to formulate a different strategy. You find this a lot in elimination rounds with a lot of different complex strategies. You know your partners’ and opponents’ strengths and weaknesses more in depth because you’ve had lower matches against them, so you’ll definitely plan on a more intricate strategy.”

Last week, Frog Force had its best-ever finish in the state finals. Novi, along with its Ford Division alliance – ICE Cube 4970 (Bark River-Harris High School) and TORC 2137 (Oxford High School) – reached the finals before losing the best-of-three match.

Next week, Frog Force will be part of a whole new, and yet unknown, alliance and experiences.

“Last year we were paired with teams from California, Hawaii and Minnesota,” Pospeshil said. “There are also international teams from China, Australia, etc. So it really gives you an opportunity to work with people from all over the world who have the same passion as you, which is really cool.”

Photo courtesy of Frog Force ( Frog Force 503 members pose this week outside of Novi High School. The robotics team is going to St. Louis next week to compete in the 2017 FIRST Championships. (Photo by Bill Roose/NCSD))