By Rachel Dinh
The robotics season shot off as soon as the 2016 FIRST Robotics Competition challenge was released. Through this three-minute medieval-themed challenge video, the team learned their objective. They must build autonomous or teleoperated (controlled by a person) robots that pick up “boulders,” cross the opponent’s defenses, and score the boulders into the goals, which are towers. Once enough boulders are shot into the opponent’s tower, the robots can surround the tower and scale the tower rungs for additional points. The alliance with the highest number of points wins.
This challenge is quite different from last year’s, where robots had to stack crates, recycling bins, and recycle pool noodles. There was little opponent interaction because teams stayed on their own fields. This year’s robots must be more multifunctional.
Sophomore Olek Piechaczek explains, “Because of the complex problem, we’re going to have to build an agile robot that can act as a defense and take hits. I’m really excited that there will be offensive and defensive strategies and more robot-on-robot interactions, something that last year’s problem lacked.”
Another change in robot design is using pneumatic wheels instead of mecanum wheels, which the TPA team hasn’t done for several years. Pneumatic wheels are better equipped to handle defenses with uneven surfaces or different heights.
The team had six weeks to design, program, and build their robot. At the “bag and tag” ceremony, the robot was bagged up and cannot be opened until the competition. That robot cannot be touched, but a replica robot can be built to practice. Now that the new members are all caught up with the basics, they are “doing robot design using computer assisted design software, building the robot, building a practice field with its props out of wood, wiring electronics on the robot, and coding in Java to run the robot all alongside the volunteer mentors,” says Mrs. DiCaro, one of the team’s coaches. This practice field is the length of half of a basketball court and will include wooden field props of the nine different defenses that will be used in the competition.
Ever since the challenge was released, the team has been extremely busy, meeting for 2-3 hours a time on weekdays and 4-6 hours on weekends, four times a week. Talk about dedication!
The big question is, who’s driving the robot anyway?
Mrs. DiCaro explains, “We have a driver competition to pick the two drivers. The top two drivers win. So, the back up of driver from last year still has to compete to be the main driver the following year. It is a lot of fun to watch to see who, and the ability to maneuver the robot effectively to accomplish its tasks in a 2.5-minute time test.”
Their competition is April 7-9 at Grand Canyon University. Mrs. DiCaro says, “We would love to have TPA folks come watch and cheer on our All Knights team. This year the audience gets involved in the competition by choosing one of the five defenses put on the field for each match. The selection is made by loud cheering by the audience, very medieval to go with the theme of the competition. So, come on out and enjoy the competition!”