For the past several months, the Robotics team at Walpole High School has dedicated countless hours to building a battling robot — a machine that many weeks ago was merely a slab of metal. For students on this team, their work of constructing a prototype is tested at various competitions over the course of the school year. Recently, the Robotics team participated in the Northeastern University District Event on Friday, March 28 and Saturday, March 29. Due to their success, the RoboRebels qualified for the Regional Championship, which took place at Boston University from April 10-12th. Currently, having also qualified for the World Championship from April 24-26, the team hopes to travel to St. Louis, Missouri where they have the opportunity to finish their season on a very high note.
Overall, the RoboRebels performed well but lost in the semi-final round at the Northeastern District Event. Taking place at Matthew’s Arena in Boston, the competition welcomed the RoboRebels with the challenge of battling 40 other teams. After accidentally flipping a robot over, senior Colin Fair said, “We had to work hard to recover, but we did well in the end.” The team also received 45 qualifying points towards the championship.
Not only were they given these points, but the RoboRebels were also awarded with the Engineering Excellence Award—the most prestigious of the engineering awards. Receiving this honor, as well as 45 points, was a big accomplishment for the team. Regarding the team’s competition, senior Anthony Divirgilio said, “We did very well and worked effectively with other teams throughout the event.”
At the WPI District Event, just a week prior to Northeastern, the RoboRebels only obtained 15 points — five of which came from the Industrial Design Award that they were given. Mr. Dustin Scott, the head of the Robotics team, said “It was night and day going from WPI to Northeastern. Going into Northeastern, we set a goal to receive 40 points, so finishing with more than we expected was a huge achievement.”
The team struggled at WPI as their shooter, which is used to launch the balls into the goals, broke down several times on the playing field; therefore, the RoboRebels had a week following the event to start from scratch and redesign a shooter that would be ready for Northeastern. Made out of surgical tubing, the team’s robot at WPI used elastic force in order to generate an enormous amount of power. However, due to this strength, the shooter dry fired several times, and ultimately destroyed itself.
In order to build an improved robot, the RoboRebels turned to stainless steel for their redesign instead — decreasing the chances of any destruction. Also with a built-in shock absorber, the team used air power to create the same amount of force as their previous shooter did. Mr. Scott said, “ Unlike at WPI, our new shooter for Northeastern did not break down once. We stuck together as a team when redesigning, and everyone contributed to its success.”
Having returned for yet another competition of FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), which presents a new “game” each year that the teams must build their robot to play, the team played the game “Aerial Assist” for the 2014 season.
“Aerial Assist” is played on a flat 25 x 54 foot field, straddled by a lighting beam that is hanging just over five feet above the floor. With two competing alliances of three robots each, the objective is to score as many goals as possible during a two minute and 30 second match. The alliance gets more points based on their ability to get the balls in their goals while working together to do it. Scott said, “Working with other teams can be difficult so we try to remain flexible in all aspects of the competition.”
Once all balls in a time called the Autonomous Period are scored, only one ball is re-entered into play, and the alliances must cycle a single ball as many times as possible for the remainder of the match. They try to maximize their points earned by throwing balls over the beam, catching balls launched over the beam, and scoring in the high and low goals on the far side of the field.
While playing this game, Walpole’s Robotics team competed strong at Northeastern and consequently finished in 63rd place out of 200 teams. In the New England area, 54 teams are invited to attend the Championship and because of several team dropouts, the RoboRebels were askked to compete. However, Mr. Scott said, “It wasn’t a fluke that we got in. It wasn’t luck. We definitely deserved to make it.”
At the Regional Championship, the RoboRebels were in second place before the alliance selection; however, they were eliminated in the quarter finals. Additionally, the team was awarded with the Gracious Professionalism Award because they offered hotel rooms to other teams in order for them to attend the event. Having qualified for the World Championship, which will take place next weekend in St. Louis, Missouri, the RoboRebels are looking into whether or not they will be able to compete considering the large amount of funding necessary. Within the next week, the Robotics team will decide if they will attend the World Championship — a feat the RoboRebels have accomplished only three times before in school history.
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