Marian Employee Mentors Students in Building a Robot for Robotics Competition
March Madness isn’t just for basketball fans. Since 2001, high schools across Indiana have been building teams of budding mechanical and electrical engineers, programmers, and business leaders to compete against each other in robotics competitions. In the “Super Bowl of Smarts”, each team competes with their own custom-built, 100+ pound, multi-functional robot.
Curtis Rozeboom, a Marian employee, has been involved as a programming mentor to a FRC team for two years. The team, 5010 Tiger Dynasty, is from Fishers High School in Indiana. Curtis utilized Marian’s die cutting capabilities to water-jet cut some high tolerance parts on this year’s competition robot, as well as some parts for the training robot they built during the fall semester.
The Robotics Competition
The teams spend their first semester training after school in their various fields and raising funds for the second semester season which includes a 6-week build-off and competitions. Over 60 teams from Indiana attend as many as 3 district competitions with a chance of competing at the state and national level in Dean Kamen’s FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition.
This year’s competition is called SteamWorks for its steam-punk thematic elements such as a boiler, large gears, and “steam-driven-propeller” fantasy airships. The teams of each school are pitted against one another in two 3-way alliances, six schools at a time. For two and a half minutes, the robots deliver gears to the airships in order to rotate the propellers. They can also shoot whiffle balls of simulated fuel to a faux-boiler which are counted towards the simulated steam-power being supplied to the airship. During the first 15 seconds, the robots operate according to a preset program, after which they operate under driver control.
During the final 30 seconds, the robots can climb a rope to hitch a ride aboard their alliance’s airship. Each of these goals are counted towards the overall alliance score, and with each match, the teams who are able to contribute the most to their alliances rise to the top of the field. The competition lasts 2 days with a final elite-eight alliance match-off at the end. It’s not “battle-bots”, but there’s plenty of “rubbing-is-racing” kinds of action. Teams pack the competition gym dressed in spirit-wear with mascots helping cheer their robot on.
5010 Tiger Dynasty
5010 Tiger Dynasty’s first competition was March 4-5. Despite some tough qualifying rounds, they proved themselves enough to be selected as part of the “Finals Alliance” out of 30 other teams. Lessons learned from this match will be used to make adjustments to the robot and strategy. While Curtis and the other mentors have influence over the students in direction for the season, the team has developed their own goals and how best to achieve them. Sometimes they’re right and sometimes not, which means they all learn from each other!
Indiana is one of the leading states in FIRST, producing some of the best robots in the nation. FIRST also has programs that extend all the way down to age 6 using LEGOs as the building material. Exclusive scholarships are available to participants of FIRST programs at all levels. It’s a terrific way for kids to gain life experience needed to succeed no matter where life takes them.
Learn more about Marian employee’s other philanthropic ventures.
