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Student‑led robotics team showcases season, credits open‑source scouting tool
Summary
Kasson‑Mantorville student robotics team presented a year‑end recap, demonstrating robot subsystems, describing competition roles and crediting a former student for open‑source scouting software that helped them act as an alliance captain.
The Kasson‑Mantorville Autonauts robotics team presented a season recap to the school board, describing outreach to younger students, design work on intakes and shooters, and competition results.
Team members explained their season timeline, starting with elementary STEM outreach and moving through design and testing phases. "These are the game pieces... Robots go pick them up, and then they score them in this hub here," the student presenter said while showing photos and video of the robot in action (speaker 20).
Scott, the senior programmer (speaker 15), described technical work: "I'm the main programmer... we use a limelight. They basically look at mini QR codes and send information back about, like, how far off you are from it." He also noted the team used scouting software developed and open‑sourced by a recent senior, Ethan Gruner, which helped the team act as an alliance captain at events.
Students described time commitments (regular after‑school work from roughly 3 p.m. to 7–8 p.m. and longer near competitions), distributed roles (programming, driving, mechanical work, media and scouting), and troubleshooting during competition days. The team said their alliance finished fourth overall at one event and that they were third in their section.
Why it matters: Students stressed that the program is student‑led, provides real engineering and teamwork experience and exposes participants to potential post‑secondary pathways in STEM and engineering.
Ending: The board and coaches praised students for leadership and perseverance; students accepted questions on build hours and technical decisions.
