Getting things moving

Warwick Vets robotics team members prepare for FIRST Tech Challenge at New England Institute of Technology

Matt Bower
Posted 1/22/15

The Warwick Veterans Memorial High School robotics team has been hard at work preparing for the ninth annual FIRST Tech Challenge, which will be held at New England Institute of Technology (NEIT) on …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in

Getting things moving

Warwick Vets robotics team members prepare for FIRST Tech Challenge at New England Institute of Technology

Posted

The Warwick Veterans Memorial High School robotics team has been hard at work preparing for the ninth annual FIRST Tech Challenge, which will be held at New England Institute of Technology (NEIT) on Saturday, Jan. 31 from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. It is free and open to the public.

FIRST stands for “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology,” and was founded by inventor Dean Kamen in 1989 in an effort to get students excited about science and technology through the fun of robotics.

NEIT will host 33 Rhode Island middle and high school robotics teams at the college’s Center for Automotive Technology, located at 101 Access Road in Warwick. The teams will compete for the chance to travel to regional and national competitions.

The Vets team, called the Cane Bots, consists of eight to 12 students, depending on how many are available, and is led by Vets technical education and visual arts teacher Larry West. The team is open to any student interested in joining.

Core members of the team that have been involved from the start and show up to each meeting session include junior Kevin Sanita, the team’s lead programmer; juniors Kaleigh Marcotte and Kyle DiCarlo, who are co-senior builders; and sophomore Scott Watterson, a junior builder and team organizer, whose responsibilities include cleaning up tools and supplies and assisting the senior builders. Watterson plans to become a senior builder next year.

The team normally meets once a week, usually on Wednesdays, for 45 minutes to an hour after school. In addition, students often use their 25-minute advisory period Monday, Wednesday and Friday to get together and brainstorm ideas for the robot. As the competition gets closer, the team meets as often as it can after school.

Sanita explained how to receive points in the competition. He said the robot starts out on a ramp holding a Wiffle ball and a ping-pong ball, which must be placed in various tubes located around the playing field away from the ramp.

“The goal is to get the balls in various tubes. You get 20 points if you get off [down] the ramp and 30 points for each ball you get in the tubes,” he said, adding if the tubes fall or are knocked over, the team loses points. “You also get points if you can make it back up the ramp.”

In addition to the various tubes placed around the playing field, there is also a structure in the middle of the field area holding multiple Wiffle balls. Two support bars, one placed on either side of the structure, hold the additional balls in place.

“You get 40 points for knocking down the bars that are holding up the rest of the balls,” Sanita said. “You need to use a lot of teamwork to maximize the points.”

Sanita said there are two different periods in which tasks must be completed. One is the autonomous period, in which a team member guides the robot using a remote control. The other period is a programming period, in which the team must write a computer program that tells the robot exactly what to do when executed.

“You have to write a program that directs the robot in 30 seconds,” he said. “Writing the program is the hardest part.”

West said he had the students figure out how to calculate the speed of the robot in feet per second, since all the programs are done in seconds.

“Everything must be very precise,” he said. “There’s a lot of math involved.”

West said the robot uses two opposing motors, so students have to determine the speed of each motor to ensure the robot moves forward in a straight line. He said the robot must measure 18 inches high by 18 inches wide by 18 inches deep, or less, and should be able to rotate a full 360 degrees.

In addition to being judged on individual tasks in the competition, teams also receive points for school spirit.

During the qualifying competition last November, the Vets team came in second place in the competition, and fourth place overall.

“We were the only team during qualifying to place the ball in the tube,” Marcotte said. “We won the most innovative robot. We had a good showing at the competition.”

Marcotte said the first robot was difficult on the building end because the team had little time to prepare.

“We thought if we could reach the small tube, we would be OK,” she said. “We learned from our mistakes in the first competition. We needed to fix the height difference.”

Marcotte said the robot had to be modified on the spot.

“There was a lot of trial and error. We’re constantly learning and modifying,” she said.

West said the team has done quite a bit of modification, taking the robot apart and putting it back together 20 different times since the qualifying competition.

“Students noticed traction and height issues with the robot,” he said. “They’re trying to get it to rise 48 inches; so far they’ve gotten it to 42. I told them if they can get above 12 inches, then they’ve progressed.”

In addition to having to do modifications on the fly, such as cutting off pieces of the robot with a hacksaw, which had to be purchased on the spot, the team ran into computer problems during the competition.

“The program would not open on our computer, so someone else lent us their laptop, but it had the wrong firmware,” Sanita said.

“It was great to see the program eventually work because we spent so much time on it, and even though a lot of things went wrong, we came in second place,” Marcotte said. “My favorite part is interacting with everyone and seeing the final product working. It’s such a feeling of accomplishment. When we finally got the robot working, everyone was screaming.”

West oversees the team together with Dean D’Andrea, technical education and visual arts department chair.

“When I was first asked about the program, I didn’t want to do it if I wasn’t going to have any help or support, but Dean stepped up to the plate and invested time and money into it, so I agreed to run the program,” West said.

West said in order for the program to be successful, it needs support from both the school administration and the community.

“We need support from the school department and the community helping out in order for us to excel,” he said. “We are constantly looking for any monetary donations from those who want to help out.”

West said the team has received support from the school department. He said Anne Siesel, assistant director of curriculum, purchased a field kit that all high school teams will be able to practice with, and which will also be used as part of the robotics curriculum.

“The kit has been extremely helpful because students can practice the programming, as they would when it comes time for the competition,” West said.

West said while the kit is helpful, teams must go above and beyond the basic kit in order to compete at the competition level. He said the team has fortunately also received donations in supplies and money.

“Numerous people have given donations to help us out,” he said.

West said the team received a $250 cash donation from VR Industries to buy essential supplies; a $100 donation from Coventry Dunkin’ Donuts franchise owner Deb Gallop; and $800 in donated supplies from IGUS Corp., an East Providence subsidiary of a parent company in Germany. In addition, Kaleigh’s father, Erik Marcotte, donated tools and her uncle donated flags with the Hurricanes logo the team plans to use for decoration.

As far as the robotics curriculum goes, West said he is currently teaching four classes and will have another class next year that will be a competition preparation class, instead of running it as an after school program.

“We mostly have new students doing it. There are three back from last year; they love it and we’re looking for more students because we want the program to continue to excel,” West said. “I’m happy they are participating. We should do well at the competition.”

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here