High school robotics teams prepare for another season

Mar. 1—Hundred-pound robots zipped across the floor inside the AndyMark warehouse.

Manned by high school students, the complicated pieces of tech swiveled, swerved, shot forward and back, picking up orange foam rings with ease before shooting them into goals at either end of the playing field.

It's important to get as much drive time and practice in as possible, especially with another FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) season less than a week away.

This is how the robotics teams from Kokomo, Northwestern and Western high schools spent the better half of Saturday.

Students and their mentors will spend a lot of time at AndyMark in the coming weeks as they fine-tune their robots in the hopes of going to the Indiana State Championship and maybe even the world championship.

Northwestern Cybertooth is coming off a surprise appearance at the FIRST Robotics World Championship last year. Not expecting to compete, Cybertooth got a last-minute invite after a team dropped out.

But like every star-studded team, things change. Northwestern graduated its top two seniors, Maranda Padfield and Janna Wilson.

But on Saturday, it didn't look like Cybertooth had missed much of a beat.

There was a sense of confidence after a few test runs.

This year's game — FIRST changes the game every year — requires teams to put orange rings in goals to score points. Northwestern's robot had no issue picking up the rings and firing them into the necessary goals.

"We're really happy with how our robot has worked so far," said Liz Smith, Northwestern's mentor.

The Northwestern team designed their robot to pick up rings from underneath its bumper. That design choice, along with a few others, has reduced pick-up time.

"It's way exceeded my expectations," said junior Lydia Keiter.

"We're feeling really good, really confident," added junior David Irving.

Keiter found her way into robotics through a trunk-or-treat event freshman year.

"I fell in love and haven't left since," she said. "I feel really safe here."

It explains why students like Keiter are happy to spend hours on end inside a warehouse on a day off from school.

It's the community that's kept Irving around. The junior said he's made friends from all over the world through robotics.

Cybertooth, along with the Kokomo TechnoKats, kick off their season this weekend in Mishawaka.

There are many facets to this year's game, as well as ways to score.

A new feature to this year's competition has robots hang from a chain. Teams must build this into their robot's design, something like an arm or a hook.

Cybertooth's robot managed to do so during practice Saturday. Members from the other teams took a brief pause to watch it in action.

"That is so cool," said Ian Mouser, a junior and member of Western PantherTech.

The team from Western barely missed out on a chance to go to the world championship. They're aiming to make it this year.

"It's going to happen," Mouser said confidently while recounting last year's near world-championship appearance.

Mouser joined the Western robotics team sophomore year after he saw a demonstration one day in the hallway.

"The one thing I wish I would have done is joined freshman year," he said. "It's really an amazing place to show your own colors."

PantherTech starts its season in a couple weeks. With a little more time before its first competition, the team spent Saturday testing a prototype.

Freshman Ethan Edison looks like he'll be the lead robot driver this year.

Nolan Miller, the lone senior from last year's team, is back as a mentor this year while he goes to school at Purdue Polytechnic. He's helping Edison learn the ropes.

"Practice makes perfect," Miller said. "Just like everything else."

This year introduced the concept of swerve drive, which allows robots to go in any direction. Previous competitions only permitted robots to move as a tank would — front, back, etc.

It's a welcome change but comes with some additional programming.

"Swerve drive has been one of the biggest challenges this year," Miller said.

PantherTech members said communication has been better this season with everyone being on the same page. Mouser said this came through especially when deciding on design specs.

Since a new game is released every year, robotics teams must wait until FIRST announces the parameters of the competition. This plays a big part in the design process.

"We have to fully strategize what we're going to do," said Kelton Serra, a junior with the Kokomo TechnoKats.

Serra is heavily involved in the design process for the Kokomo team.

Though strategy is a big part of the game, troubleshooting is even more so. Building a robot, testing it out, figuring out what isn't working and then modifying takes up a lot of practice time.

"This is the stuff you get to do in an actual engineer career," Serra said. "I know it's going to have a great impact on my future career."

Troubleshooting is important on competition days, too. Something might go wrong; a team must think on its feet.

"They learn how to react to that," said Christy Edwards, TechnoKats mentor.

Robotics competitions feature alliances, where teams work together to score points. Teams scout one another and get to pick their alliances.

Core tenets of FIRST are teamwork, collaboration and friendly competition.

Events draw many teams and large crowds. Edwards likened the atmosphere to a high school basketball game.

"I think the stands are more excited in the robotic tournaments," Serra said.

Spencer Durham can be reached at 765-454-8598, by email at spencer.durham@kokomotribune.com or on Twitter at @Durham_KT.