Members of the Cassopolis Robotics Team work on their robot for this year’s competition “Aerial Assist.” This year’s first competition will be held March 7-8 at Gull Lake High School. (Submitted photo)

The Cassopolis High School RoboRangers are gearing up for this year’s FIRST Robotics Competition at Gull Lake High School on March 7-8.

Every year in January, robotics teams across the country are given a game in which each team’s robot will compete.

It spend the next six weeks building a robot to do just that. This year the game is “Aerial Assist” in which team robots will work together to pass around a yoga sized ball to make goals.

The RoboRangers are working every day after school, sometimes until late in the evening, as well as weekends to meet their deadline. The team meets at their robotics workshop in Squires School to construct the robot, make buttons and posters to cheer on the team at competitions, create their business plan, and contact sponsors.

Also this year, the team has built a presentation robot to show the community what they can do. The presentation robot is fully automated for shooting Nerf darts. The team is also busy mentoring another local robotics team from Dowagiac Union High School.

The RoboRangers are just three years old and have grown to 40 members.

The team has strong support from the community. Many robotics teams in urban areas rely on one or two sponsors, but the RoboRangers are truly a community team, and many local businesses and individuals sponsor them; however, they could always use more sponsors!

If you would like to have a presentation from the team, please call them at 783-5326 or email at RoboRangers4325@gmail.com.

Check out the website www.RoboRangers4325.com or like them on Facebook at RoboRangers-Cassopolis Robotics.

(By MARY WRIGHT/Special to Vigilant)