Successful teams in sports and business know that they must continually strive to improve, even when they reach the top of the mountain. Progressing after ascending to the forefront is essential, because hungry competitors are always chasing the leader. “If you’re not moving forward,’’ actor Sam Waterston said in a memorable quote, “you’re falling back.”
A Pennsylvania high school robotics team learned those lessons early on and set four world records in global competitions during the past year. Even after setting a record in its third competition, the Pittsburgh-based squad continued to raise the ante in this year’s FIRST Tech Challenge.
“After every competition, we’d come back and make changes to our robot and try to improve it,’’ said James Walton, senior and team captain of The Giant Diencephalic BrainSTEM team. “We put the time in to make it work consistently.”
The team includes 10 students from high school. Seven students in elementary and middle school also supported the team, which set its first world record in December at an Ohio tournament. The team went on to set three more world records, won the Ohio state championship and qualified for the FTC World Championship. In qualifying tournaments in Pennsylvania and Ohio early in the competition, the team went undefeated in 10 matches.
In FIRST Tech Challenge, teams were tasked to design, build, program and operate robots to compete in a head-to-head challenge. The students develop STEM skills and practice engineering principles, such as keeping a notebook, while realizing the value of hard work, innovation and sharing ideas. Teams must also raise funds, design and market their team brand, and do community outreach. This year’s competition included 5,900 teams and 59,000 participants. Its scholarship program awards nearly $50 million in college aid.
The organization released a video in September to identify the challenge to the teams, who were then tasked with building their robots. This year’s challenge, “Relic Recovery,” required robots to collect and score glyphs (foam cubes) in various patterns, retrieve jewels, transfer relics, park on balancing stones and navigate to specific parts of a playing field – both autonomously.
Walton and his team immediately started building their robot after seeing the video from FIRST Tech. The robot included spinning collectors, elevating depositing-platforms and robotic arms all built on a fast moving, omni-directional drivetrain.
“It took about two months to get a basic working design,’’ Walton said.
Even with academics and other school commitments, students worked together, primarily on weekends, for as much as 40 hours a week in the early stages to design their robot.
The students, whose father Gordon serves as the team’s mentor, designed the drivetrain as the first component to their robot. The team traveled to a competition site to discover the field on which it would be competing and brainstormed to devise the key component.
“We used a CAD model to determine what we could do for the drivetrain,’’ Walton said. “We wanted something that was custom designed.” They built a swift-moving, omni-directional mecanum unit to negotiate the field.
In the next design step, the team built a floor for the drivetrain, two vertical walls and a U-shaped panel in the middle of the robot for depositing the cubes and jewels. The team then designed the lifts for the cubes, the collector, storage system and tilts. Different team members worked independently on each segment of the robot and shared their information through a master file. After designing the robot, the team fabricated the parts, laser cut and milled components, wired the robot and lined up the cables. Walton said the team mechanically tweaked each part to make the intake method as fast as possible.
“The main challenge was how much work it was to custom design each part,’’ Walton said. “But it was worth it. When you custom make everything, it allows you more flexibility in the design.”
Walton said some teams use kits to help design their robot. His squad used a CAD program to help design its unit. He said the experience the team gained last year with CAD helped them in this year’s design.
“It was still a ton of work, but it took a little less time because we were more experienced with computer assisted design,’’ he said. “It’s probably one of the things that helped us a lot.”
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Besides the customization, the team’s primary mechanical challenge came in designing a system to collect and store the glyphs and jewels.
“We spent a lot of time figuring out the most efficient collecting system, storing them, depositing them and figuring out how to best orient them and collect them,” Walton said. “We wanted to get them perfectly oriented on the way in. That was the most difficult part.”
The team solved the perplexing collection issue with low-profile, self-lubricating linear glides. The unit included five miniature glides, which are manufactured by igus, a company headquartered in Germany that also has a presence in East Providence, R.I. The DryLin® guides are small, compact and adjustable. The guide systems are manufactured with igus’ engineered plastics and are frequently found in woodworking tools, machine tools, package handling, lab automation and machine building. The guides are corrosion-free, wear-resistant and operate quietly.
For the high school team, the most critical benefits were the light weight and self-lubricating properties. The 9-millimeter rail guide used in the robot weighs just .11 kg/m while the carriage weighed just 17 grams. They also did not have to lubricate the robot after each competition or practice.
“We were looking for something very small,’’ Walton said. “Last year we had a similar challenge and we started with the same slide. Our unit has the most compact lift, and it’s also very fast. The fact that the parts are self-lubricated is a nice feature. It’s easy to build around. The sliders are quite light, too. We try to keep everything as light as possible.”
Gordon Walton, a semi-retired research and development specialist who has utilized a range of igus products, introduced the team to the linear glides.
“The alternatives are big, steel drawer glides that are heavy, awkward and get dust inside them,’’ James Walton said. “The non-lubricated glide is extremely smooth, sturdy and consistent. And really, really fast.”
Other teams have marveled at the robot designed by the Pennsylvania team, which includes students from 10 schools in the Pittsburgh area. All the students are alumni of the FIRST LEGO League robotics competition, a program that they now help run in Western Pennsylvania with their non-profit sponsor, BrainSTEM Learning, Inc. The team also watches other robots to compare designs.
“Sometimes I’m just a spectator,’’ Walton said. “I’ll see what other teams are doing, and some slides are really bulky. I think about how much heavier their robot is compared to our robot. Our robot is not heavy or bulky.”
Even before the final competition, Walton and his teammates were working on improving the design of their robot. He said the team was evaluating its lift and handling system to make certain it operates as efficiently and quickly as it makes its final tweaks.
“There’s a small conveyor that helps push the block and it wasn’t getting a good grip,’’ Walton said. “There are some things we could theoretically improve, but there’s nothing really major.”
Walton said getting started quickly with the proper CAD design and the time the team spends on making the robot work consistently helped its march to the top. He also practiced extensively on driving the robot.
“I’m the designated driver during competitions,’’ he said. “I go into the basement and practice driving it whenever I want.”
At competitions, other teams frequently stand in awe at the speed, handling and design of the Pennsylvania team’s robot.
“It’s pretty neat when we see other teams checking out what we’re doing,’’ Walton said. “It gives you a reason to do it.”
Author
Thomas Renner is an award-winning journalist based in Connecticut. He writes frequently on manufacturing, building trades and other topics for national and international publications.
