The Athens Bible robotics team, known as Trobotics, is not just competing in a challenge affected by the pandemic this year. They’re fighting a pandemic as part of the competition.

ABS is one of 14 schools in the Northwest Alabama region preparing for the Nov. 20 event, part of the annual BEST Robotics Inc. competition. BEST, a nonprofit organization, fosters interest in science, technology, engineering and math among high schoolers by hosting robotics competitions.

Trobotics started in 2006 with only six members. This year, 11 boys and six girls worked together as part of the team to build and market a robot in a thematic competition titled, “Outbreak 2020: Adjusting to the Threat.”

For this competition, their robot must traverse a course representing the human body to isolate, eradicate and vaccinate diseased cells. Team members learn skills in manufacturing, software development, research, testing, marketing and community outreach.

The challenge for the robot is to pick up wooden blocks, which represent cells, and test them for the virus, then either treat the disease or isolate the healthy cell. Each round last three minutes, with the team working together to score as many points as possible.

The 2020 BEST Robotics Competition season brings new challenges to comply with COVID-19 safety precautions. Trobotics traditionally attends a kick-off mixer with other teams, but Northwest-Shoals Community College instead hosted an outdoor event to keep teams safer. Parents and team members stayed in their vehicles while NWSCC shared important information from a live feed on a big screen.

Due to the pandemic, teams will compete virtually from a classroom setting at their school called the “Outbreak Classroom,” instituted by the National BEST Robotics organization. Each robotics team works at its school to design, build, test, document and complete their robots.

As part of the marketing campaign for the robot, Trobotics designed a website to serve as a virtual team exhibit and prepared presentations that include interviews with team members. Judges will also interview team members Nov. 17 about their robot design and marketing efforts. On Game Day, Nov. 20, representatives from Northwest Alabama BEST Robotics will be sent to each school to live stream the robotics competition highlights for judges at NWSCC to score.

Categories include virtual team exhibit and interview, marketing presentation and engineering notebook, with the top scorer winning the BEST award. Northwest Alabama BEST Robotics will host a live stream Nov. 21 to show highlights from all competitions and announce winners in an awards ceremony.

Follow the ABS Trobotics team via trobotics.info or on Facebook and Instagram for more information about the group. Visit bestrobotics.org for more information about BEST Robotics Inc. and the BEST competition.

—Athens Bible students and Trobotics team members Kate Hargrave, Brooke Piscitelli and Chloe Bays contributed to this article.