Prince Andrew High robotic team prepares for international competition

WATCH: A team from Prince Andrew High school in Dartmouth is heading to a competition in St. Johns to put their underwater robotics skill up against some of the best and brightest in the world. Ray Bradshaw has more.

DARTMOUTH – A team of high school students is getting set to put their underwater robotics skills up against some of the best and brightest in the world.

The Prince Andrew High team leaves Wednesday for an international competition in St. John’s, NL and hopes are high for the two time Nova Scotia champions.

With only two days to go before they leave, the team was making a few last-minute repairs to their robot. Once it was back together, it was time to find out if it would fire up.

Sure enough, the motors began to wind up. The next test was in the water and again everything was functional.

“Up a little,” said pilot, Alex Dewar. The robot splashed water in the small tub the team was using in the school.

“Down a little,” said Dewar, as the robot dropped to the bottom of the tub.

Prince Andrew won the provincial Remote Operated Vehicle Challenge in March for the second straight year. As champs, they’ll head back to St. John’s this week for the Mate ROV International.

“Last year was so much fun,” said Dewar. “Everyone there was great. We met so many great teams there. The organizers were great.”

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“This competition, the theme is all about the Arctic and how oil companies and oil refineries could like really benefit from having ROV’s,” said team marketing director Charlie McKay.

Now older and wiser, Prince Andrew has a new robot. The biggest improvement is the frame, which is now plastic.

“Last year, we made it out of aluminum which we found was really heavy,” said Dewar. “We also added a volt meter.”

The robot and all the equipment needed to operate it by remote control, costs about $5,000. The seven teammates had to raise the fund themselves — learning marketing skills along the way.

“We contacted a bunch of businesses here,” said McKay. “Shell was a big sponsor. That helped us a lot.”

Dewar said besides performance, the team has other obligations at the international event.

“We have to submit a technical report, which documents the entire thing,” he said. “We’re practicing for our marketing presentation, which we have to give to a panel of judges.”

Prince Andrew is among 30 high school teams from around the world competing in St. John’s.

Mentor Peter Redmond says their experience should help.

“We did middle of the pack last year. It would be nice to improve upon that. It would be great if we could break the top ten,” he said.

Working with ROVs has shaped the career goals of many of the students. Dewar will take electrical engineering at Dalhousie University starting in September.

“I should be able to pursue something in the ROV industry through electrical engineering,” he said.

The competition runs from Thursday until Saturday.