High school robotics team wins Innovate Award for ball drive robot
MARS — For the fourth year in a row, the Mars Robotics Association team earned an award at the state FIRST Tech Challenge. But it was the first mechanical award the group earned.
Team members of MARS: Curiosity? attribute their winning of the Innovate Award at the March 14 and 15 event to the design of their robot, which was built on a ball chassis that allows its wheels to move at the same speed in all directions. Theirs was the only one in the state that used this kind of chassis, which helped the robot’s mobility in the ball-launching challenges.
“The ball drive can go the same speed in all directions with the same amount of effort,” said Max Kant Zajak, who is the mechanical co-lead for the high school-age team. “We're pretty sure we're the first team that ever used ball drive in competition, as far as we know.”
The FIRST Tech Challenge is an international robotics organization that issues annual challenges, prompting students in middle to high school grades to design, build and program a robot to play a floor game against other teams’ creations. According to Colby Kohnen, the project manager for MARS Curiosity?, all teams in the state get a video around September that starts the season and defines the season’s competition and the game that a robot should be designed for.
Although the team didn’t place in the top three at the state floor competition, Audrey Anderson, the team’s mechanical co-lead, said the Innovate Award is a high achievement in itself, and recognizes a robot design that stands out and is functional.
“We'll go into a room with two judges and give a five-minute presentation and have five minutes of questions that they ask for a certain award criteria, and that's where we got our Innovate Award,” Audrey said. “Then, they come to the pits to talk more about them and see, compare us to other teams to see who actually should get the award.”
The members of MARS Curiosity? normally meet twice a week in the basement of the Mars municipal building, where they have all the supplies and materials necessary to assemble a robot, program it and run tests and practice games.
Robots the team used in the past are stacked on shelves, some left in heaps because the team stripped them for their useful parts. In one corner is a regulation field, where the team practices driving robots and launching the balls into hoops. The field is also used as a base to program and test its autopilot.
A robot for FIRST Tech Challenge can be made out of anything. The Mars team’s is composed of aluminum, 3D printed material and water jets, which help it move. The green rover is 14 inches wide, 16 inches long and 15-and-a-half inches tall, and doesn’t necessarily have a front or back because of its all-range ball drive.
The robot is programmed to scoop up wiffle balls and sort them by color in its chamber before lining up a shot and launching them into a hoop — the exact objective of this year’s season.
Creating the robot and preparing it for the challenge took the teamwork of all 14 members of MARS Curiosity?, many of whom come from different schools in the area. Each has a role to fulfill. Aside from the state competition, the team competes in regional challenges and also performs outreach relating to robotics and programming education, which all factor into the final score at the state competition.
But at competitions, some of the weight falls on the robot, which has to be good at maneuvering by remote control and also on its own during a self-piloting portion of each game. The rest is on the drivers, who must communicate with the rest of their team and the team they are paired up with for the two-versus-two robot contests.
“It's really important to communicate with your alliance what you're doing, because there's also a 30-second autonomous period,” said Alex Hutchens, quartermaster and driver for the team. “With human players, you have to communicate which one you're using, because say the other team really relies on their human player and you don't, then you obviously want to use their human player more.”
While each member takes on a role that interests them, from crafting the initial design for the robot to driving it in competition and performing outreach for the team, several members said that it’s an all-around educational experience.
The team is made up of Colby, Audrey, Alex, Max, Santiago Beltran, Hailey Tomsik, Rohit Doijad, Sophia Gourash, Isaac Hanson, Nate Taylor, Grigory Parkhitko, Emma Salasky, Eshan Kazi and Tatum Empey. Colby said in addition to the team awards, Audrey was recognized as a semifinalist for the state Leadership Award. Sophia was recognized as a finalist for the same award, so she will advance to the World Championship in Houston on April 29 to compete for the national award.
The team has to do a lot more than just build a robot, as its members explained.
“It really builds your ability to talk to everybody, as well as communication within the team and teamwork,” Colby said.
Alex agreed, saying the group not only has to speak to judges at competitions, but has to work with other youths to communicate ideas, with members becoming mentors to younger people involved in Mars robotics.
“It also teaches you a lot about public speaking,” Alex said.
Audrey said she learned a lot through her involvement with the Mars Robotics Association through the coaching of adults who have programming and building backgrounds.
“Last year, I never thought I would be able to do this,” Audrey said. “We've already started our new chassis and a bunch of different projects.”
Audrey also said the team has its sights set on earning another award from the judges next season.
“Next year's goal: Inspire,” Audrey said. “It's kind of all the awards combined.”
