January 27, 2016 at 5:13 p.m.
Climbing the mountain: RHS Robotics Club takes first place at regionals
Climbing the mountain: RHS Robotics Club takes first place at regionals
By Kayla Thomason-
The team consists of 12 students with a wide variety of skillls. Some are new to the group while others are veteran robot programmers. This is the second year the Robo-Hodags have participated in the Fox Valley Regional, but it's the first time they have placed.
Club members said this year's competition was harder than last year's as the programming and communication with the robot were different.
Students had to use an Android-based platform to communicate with their robot and to do so they had to learn how to program in Java.
Last year they programmed using RobotC, which is considerably different, they said.
The robot, which had to fit in a 17-by-17 inch box. is controlled using wireless Xbox controllers.
Under construction since Oct. 1, it has motors, chain drives and tracks.
"It's a group effort of builders - kids that worked on the robot and building the systems - and then we have a group effort of about three kids that worked on simply the programming and then the programs that they built got loaded on this robot and that's what allows us to do certain things with it," said Michael Wojtusik, co-advisor for the club.
The format of the competition involves alliances.
Two teams pair up and battle against another group of two teams in a 12-by-12 ring and a combined score is recorded.
"It's a battle between four robots essentially and the idea is to score as many points as you can and how they set it up this year it was difficult to score points," Wojtusik said.
The Robo-Hodags got off to a rough start. They forgot to charge their phones (Android phones purchased by the club for use during competition) so they got to the competition with nearly dead phones and couldn't communicate with the robot.
They were able to charge the phones before the matches started, but lost valuable practice time and ended up losing their first three matches.
They scored some points in the first match but their alliance wasn't able to reciprocate.
The second match followed a similar pattern. In the third match the Robo-Hodags were hit with a penalty which knocked them down to zero points.
"So we were in dead last after our third match, dead last, and it was lunchtime so we were sitting around and the kids were trying to find positives out of the whole day," Wojtusik said. "We made some points, we got the robot working."
For the fourth match the Robo-Hodags were randomly paired with the No. 1 seed, "Great Scott!" from Homestead High School, and their luck started to change.
"This 'Great Scott!' team, we got randomly chosen to be with them and when we competed with them that's when we set the first record," Wojtusik said. "We worked really well together with that particular team."
Later in the competition, the top four teams were able to choose their partners for the remaining matches. Great Scott!, seeded No. 1, chose the Robo-Hodags out of the other 22 teams.
"Pairing with 'Great Scott!' was a pleasant experience," said Bridget Rich, a sophomore who has been in the club for three years. "Their team was very friendly and I am proud that we were chosen by them. Their robot didn't do everything, but it definitely did what they wanted it to and that was important. They seem like a very dedicated and organized team and I think that they could go very far in this competition."
Eight teams (four pairs) participated in the preliminary matches where they had to win two of the three matches to advance to the finals. In the finals, the Robo-Hodags/Great Scott! alliance won their first two matches and beat their own record with 216 points.
The previous record was 147, Wojtusik said.
"The two teams - Great Scott! and Robo-Hodags - worked extremely well together and I think of the two robots that worked together we scored considerably more points than our alliance but the combination of the two we were able to win the whole thing," Wojtusik said.
"The alliance and friendships built with the team 7974, Great Scott!, was a great chemistry as we had fun and worked together to get the most points," said Seth Bowen, a junior who has been in the club for three years. "They worked to get themselves the 80 points to hang and we scored in the mid-mountain goals and parked in the high zone. Together we (set) two state records."
Bowen's teammates also enjoyed their partnership with "Great Scott!"
"In the finals we felt like one team," said Bailey Negben, a senior who has been with the club for two years. "We worked great together and made plans to collaborate in the future by sharing emails."
After the rough start, the victory was especially sweet, Wojtusik said.
"They were super elated that they had won," he said.
"I was so happy to win that I felt like my heart was about to thump out of my chest," Bowen added. "I was so excited I pretty much hugged everybody."
"After all the time spent on our robot, it was amazing to watch our team go all the way in the finals," Negben added.
One member of the team wasn't as excited about winning as she was about creating something wonderful.
"To me, winning isn't everything, but having the chance to do something truly great is very exciting," Rich said. "It made me proud of my team and the work that we had accomplished and it reminded me of all of the trials that we went through to get to that point. It shows that with dedication, hard work, trial, and no small amount of patience, anything is possible."
The students noted how organized and well put together the competition was.
"It was lots of fun and I'm impressed with how well it is organized," Negben said. "I enjoyed meeting the other teams and getting the chance to form bonds with and compete with amazing people like the members of 'Great Scott!'"
Bowen enjoyed testing the robot's capabilities and making new friends.
"The competition was a fun new way to test our robot and make new friends," he said. "By doing this we saw that our robot worked well but needed to be modified and fixed to right specifications. We learned from our designs to make better new designs."
Rich noted the collegial atmosphere throughout the event.
"I thought that the competition was very well coordinated and that the other teams participated well and definitely showed gracious professionalism," she said. "I think that each team was given an equal amount of time to prove themselves and what they had created and I think that there was a great amount of sportsmanship and healthy competition."
Gracious professionalism is a term used to help sell the vision of FIRST's goal of friendly competition, growth and teamwork in the STEM field, which includes professions like engineering, robotics etc. FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is a corporate group that is raising awareness of the STEM professions, according to Wojtusik.
"Robotics is a good way to make a person mature and take responsibilities that (will prepare) him or her for college," Bowen said. "You can express many talents in robotics club, showing gracious professionalism, respect, building, good with programming, computer knowledge or drawing/making parts. No matter what talent may be inside, robotics allows you to respectfully use it and lead you on a responsible path towards college as it is ran by FIRST. FIRST's basis/goal is to reach out and expand knowledge of those six and up, mainly people six to 18, as it uses STEM theology. STEM is Science Technology Engineering and Math; expanding the minds of many to make them college-bound."
Not only did the Robo-Hodags enjoy competing and making new friends, they learned the value of creating something together.
"My favorite aspect of creating the robot would have to be the brainstorming sessions that we had," Rich said. "I loved learning about other people's ideas, whether they were absolutely ridiculous or not. The process was fun, enjoyable, and I think that it helped cultivate comfort between members because everyone was heard and no one had their ideas shot down."
"I loved watching all the different prototypes and ideas come together into a finished product," Nebgen added.
Their advisor said he found it very gratifying to watch the students meld their individual strengths into a powerhouse group effort.
"(The RHS Robotics Club students) all have something that they are very good at and can offer the club and it's nice to see them compete like that," he said.
The Robo-Hodags will now advance to the state championship set for Feb. 6 in Milwaukee.
"We're looking forward to going to UW-Milwaukee, their school of engineering, to compete in the state championship for the chance to go to Missouri for the national championship," Wojtusik said.
To prepare for state, the students will try to program the robot to climb a mountain, grab a bar at the top and hang from it.
They have accomplished that goal before but are hoping to get the robot to move faster.
Whatever happens at state or beyond, Wojtusik could not be more proud of his group.
"I work with these kids a lot (but) it has very little to do with me, it's them, and I love to see them succeed," he said. "I love to see them work hard and succeed and that's essentially my role in this is to turn on the lights and try to do damage control when there's damage control, let them do what they need to do as far as building the robot and guide them."
Kayla Breese may be reached at kayla@ rivernewsonline.com.
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