The Paly Robotics team will compete at the Silicon Valley Regional on March 13 in San Jose, after winning four qualifying matches at the Pacific-Northwest Regional on Feb. 27 in Portland, Oregon.

The Pacific-Northwest Regional in Portland and the upcoming Silicon Valley Regional are two of the 41 competitions in the For Inspiration and Recognition in Science and Technology (FIRST) Championship, which occurs over the course of six weeks in various locations. The Paly Robotics team plans to attend three of these competitions, including the Las Vegas Regional, according to Robotics captain Daniel Shaffer.

At Portland, the team was off to a strong start, winning several matches on the second day of the competition. Although the team showed consistently-strong teamwork and planned well, a few problems hindered the team’s progress near the end of the tournament, including assembling and refitting problems.

During one of the last few matches of the competition, an unlucky driving incident destroyed an important sensor, forcing the team to show a faulty robot at the last qualifying match of the competition.

“One piece cost us our trip to the elimination rounds,” Shaffer said. “But we’re looking forward to doing better in San Jose.”

While the team was ranked 8 out of 55 teams on Thursday, it was unable to qualify at the end of the competition’s qualification rounds. On the last day of the competition, the team won four out of seven qualifying matches, and was unable to advance to finals.

However, the team has clarified the causes of the problems it experienced in Portland, and is optimistic about the team’s chances at the Silicon Valley Regionals.

“I was surprised when we didn’t make it into eliminations at Portland,” junior Eric Vicenti said. “But I’m sure we’ll make it to semifinals or even finals at San Jose and Las Vegas.”

The Silicon Valley Regional has a competition pool of 48 schools, which will compete in groups of three in a game similar to basketball called FIRST Overdrive, in which the robots race around a track while using mechanical arms to shoot yoga balls over a six-foot ladder. Teams who advance to finals are able to pick two other schools to form alliances with, according to Vicenti.

“Speed matters in this game, because if we can shoot the rubber balls over the ladder quicker than the other teams, we have an advantage,” senior Guy Davidson said. “We also have a nicely-designed arm, which helps the robot grab onto the yoga balls better.”

The team will be unable to fix their robot until they arrive at the competition, where they will work to quickly improve a few of the robot’s glitches using tools and spare parts they will bring with them to San Jose, according to sophomore Nick Clayton.

“We’re not allowed to work on [the robot] until we get to the competition,” Clayton said. “The competition ships the robot over to the next location, so that we can only work on it there, during the competition, to make sure that competition stays fair.”

The team raised around $50,000 to produce its robot, with help from private and corporate sponsors, according to Shaffer. Although the team faced disappointment in Portland, members are looking forward to improved results in the Silicon Valley Regional.

“Our biggest competitor is a team that is basically a culmination of NASA and UCLA,” Shaffer said. “We’re ready to place because we have a pretty good team and a solid robot, which is basically ready to go.”

After the Silicon Valley Regional on March 13, the Robotics team will compete at the Las Vegas Regional, which begins March 26.