Recap: South River's Robotics Team in Baltimore

The South River Powerhawks robotics team headed to Baltimore last weekend for their robot’s inaugural run at the 2011 First Robotics competition. They made it into the semi-finals when their robot suffered mechanical issues and was eliminated.

Mechanisms captain Chris Bellas said that he felt the competition went well and that the team is well-poised to perform at the next regional competition in Richmond (April 7-9).

First Robotics is the brainchild of inventor Dean Kamen, who wanted to find a “sports-like” competition for youth in the fields of science, engineering and math. This year the competition and its business sponsors will give out over $14 million in college scholarships.

Students who volunteer for teams have six weeks of a predetermined build season to construct a robot from scratch. They use whatever tools they can—computers to animate their concept, power tools to put the machine together, electrical, mechanical and drive components to make it work. But most importantly they use their brains and imagination to put it all together as a team.

This year they started in January when they had to build a robot that could move in all directions while picking up colored inner tubes and placing them on scoring pegs in a variety of geometric shapes. There was an additional (optional) component to the game to build a separately deployed “mini-bot” that climbed a tower at the end of the game, tallying additional points.

Once teams arrive at a FIRST Robotics competition, they pair up in alliances—hopefully complementing the strengths of their own robot and filling in on deficiencies.

Bellas said that by the end of the Baltimore convention, they had five wins and one tie with their robot. Of 60 teams overall, they were ranked 11 going into the final matches of the weekend.

That was when the third place team selected them for an alliance, helping to push them closer to the finals. Unfortunately, a mechanical breakdown in the semi-finals eliminated them from the game.

Bellas said that one of the most exciting moments during the competition happened during the last match before their elimination.

“We called a time out and had six minutes to replace a part on the robot. We had people running across the field. The part we needed is called a Jaguar, it is an electrical component that lets you connect things to the “brains” of the robot,” Bellas said.

He credited Krysta Rasmussen, the team’s electrical captain with a great effort. “She did a great job making sure everything was working. During that six-minute period, she was the one who orchestrated that, made sure it was all hooked up correctly.”

But after that, they suffered a mechancial breakdown that took their robot out for good.

Bellas also gave a shout-out to team captain Taylor Collins for making sure that everyone stayed on task, and to drive team captain Madi Sheffer, who “figured out how to set up a new drive system that we’ve never done before,” Bellas said.

Bellas said that they had to “bag and tag” their robot before leaving Baltimore—so they won’t be able to touch it or make any modifications before they land in Richmond next month.

That said, the team is thinking up ways to repair and modify their machine to perform better the next time around.

“We know our strengths,” Bellas said.

The team did win two awards in Baltimore. Josh Luke won the animation award after teaching himself how to use a very complicated piece of animation software.

In addition, Sean Bruegman, the Computer Aided Design captain won the Autodesk “Excellence in Design” award for building a 3D scale model of the robot.

If the team does well in Richmond, they'll be in contention for the national FIRST Robotics in St. Louis at the end of April.