B.C. student robotics club defies expectations, going from underdogs to champions

Although they called themselves 'The Thunderbots,' the members of B.C.'s Spectrum School Robotics Club were definitely the underdogs.

“It was very daunting at first,” Everett Capean says. “I don’t know what I’m doing and feel like I’m in the wrong club.”

The Grade 12 student wasn’t the only one feeling that way. Nine of the 11 members of the The Thunderbots were rookies this year.

They were tasked to design and build a robot that could compete in a complex game.

“Simply put, the robot plays basketball,” Everett says, before drawing a diagram to show how the robot must grab a ball from the floor and throw it into a series of elevated “hubs” to score points. “And then at the end (of the match) it clamps monkey bars.”

The Thunderbots had just six weeks to complete the robot before attending the FIRST Robotics Competition in Victoria, where they would compete against more-experienced and better-funded teams.

“There’s a lot of money out there in this game,” Spectrum science teacher Sarah Crisp says, adding that some of the teams have been sponsored by NASA.

“And we’re stopping by the automotive shop across the road, looking through the bin of discarded bolts to try and get what we need.”

On the first day of competition, the Thunderbots arrived at the arena with a robot named Herbie and a challenge that seemed insurmountable.