LOLHS TechnoTicks Create Trail App and Cube Satellite

by Phoebe Lampos

​The Robotics season has been very different this year for FIRST Team 236-TechnoTicks. The team met via Zoom, and programmed using remote collaboration software. Even the challenge was different this year. Instead of building and programming a robot for the FIRST Robotics Challenge, this year there was the FIRST Innovation Challenge. Teams were asked to “identify a problem or opportunity and design a solution to help people keep, regain, or achieve optimum physical and/or mental health and fitness through active play or movement.”

The TechnoTicks realized that Old Lyme, Lyme, and East Lyme provide many opportunities to engage with nature through hiking trails and open space, but many of the trails are underused. The team designed a system called “Lymelyte”, which consists of a mobile application called “Trailyte” and a Cube Satellite called “Satlyte” to encourage people to experience our local trails.
The Trailyte app provides a hyper-local, personalized experience of the trails in Lyme, Old Lyme, and East Lyme. Although there are some commercial trail apps available, Trailyte is uniquely focused on trails in our immediate area, providing a detailed level of focus that is not offered by other apps. Trailyte will ultimately be augmented by Satlyte, a compact cube satellite that will provide real-time information to the Trailyte app about weather, trail conditions, and more. The team plans to test our prototype Satlyte via tethered weather balloon at the end of April.

To communicate our ideas, representatives from the TechnoTicks wrote and delivered a live presentation to a panel of judges in a remote interview. The judges asked questions about the project components and goals. If the TechnoTicks advance to the Semifinals, the team will create a more detailed presentation and advanced satellite prototype. 
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Check out the TechnoTicks' Business Pitch and Technical Presentation on youtube: