In the FIRST Robotics Greater Pittsburgh Regional competition, some high-school robotics teams are sponsored by technology titans such as Carnegie Mellon University, or have access to state-of-the-art facilities to create their robots.

The FRobotics team members do their work in their mentor’s garage in Murrysville, and this year that work earned them a spot in the FIRST World Championships, set for later this month in Detroit.

“It’s a dream, really,” said FRobotics team president and drive coach, junior Courtney Sheridan. “We were really close last year, but this is the first time we’ve qualified for worlds.”

The theme for this year’s competition is “Destination Deep Space,” and teams — who compete in “alliances” of three teams each — go head-to-head to see who can load items onto a mock rocket ship quickly and accurately, at a variety of heights.

It was themed in recognition of the 50th anniversary of U.S. astronauts landing on the moon, and FRobotics named their bot “Curiosity” in honor of the NASA vehicle currently patrolling the surface of Mars.

In November and December, the roughly 45 members of the FRobotics team hold what Sheridan called a “mock season,” mostly for the benefit of new members.

“Beginning in January, we have six weeks to build a complete robot, and they’re very specific about what the robot can’t and can’t be, and what it can and can’t do,” she said.

That sort of compressed build time means everyone on the team needs to know their role and perform it with confidence.

Sophomore Trevor McLeigh, 16, is the team’s wiring lead, designing the robot’s circuit board and keeping an eye out for any issues.

McLeigh was put to the test at the regional competition when Curiosity’s USB cable got caught between two pieces of metal.

“If a wire is broken, you can usually tell during the match,” McLeigh said. “We could definitely tell, and it’s normally a pretty quick fix unless something is very wrong with the control system.”

Below, watch Curiosity in action at the regional competition.

Junior Daniel Kline, 16, was the team’s scouting lead, tasked with watching what other teams were doing, “figuring out which teams we want to work with, which we want to avoid, and which teams we should be concerned about,” he said.

Junior C.J. Ciecierski, 17, earned a spot as drive captain, posting the best time in practice runs among team members, and had to work in concert with fellow junior Tina Henninger, who controlled Curiosity’s elevator.

“There were eight different heights we had to reach,” said Henninger, 17. “C.J. controlled the speed and direction and I control the up-and-down.”

Sheridan spent most of her time “making sure everyone’s doing what they’re supposed to be doing,” she said. “In competition, my job is to communicate with the other two teams in our alliance.”

The FRobotics team lost in its final round of competition, but during a previous match, they learned that two other teams had already qualified for worlds, which opened up additional qualifying spots.

“We knew that if we won (that match), we’d qualify for worlds,” Sheridan said. “When we finally realized that there was no way the other alliance could beat us on points, we screamed, we cried, we hugged.”

But surely the team is making constant tweaks to its robot in preparation for the World Championships, right?

Wrong.

Curiosity is currently sealed in a plastic bag with severe restrictions on who can touch it. It is sealed in a similar fashion prior to the regional competition.

“Once we’re at worlds, we can make changes,” Ciecierski said.

In the interim, FRobotics members will give presentations to younger students about how the team works, with the goal of starting up a FIRST team at Franklin Regional Middle School.

“It’d be awesome to have,” Sheridan said. “The new kids could learn about being on the team and get some more experience.”

FIRST World Championships will take place later this month in Detroit and Houston, and will include 30,000 students and 1,400 teams from 70 countries around the globe.

“We can’t wait,” Sheridan said.