Robotics Competition

Saturday, December 4th, Woodland’s Team 5458 Digital Minds gathered at their workshop at Douglass to hold their first ever preseason VEX competition. Students and mentors from all over Woodland, including both high schools, came to watch and participate from nine in the morning until five in the evening.

As mentioned in a previous issue of the Pioneer Post, preparations for this competition started all the way back in October. For six weeks, small teams worked together to plan, build and test their robots. The students worked without any help from adults, so they used their own knowledge and experience in mechanics, assembly and programming. Especially important was the random formation of teams: meaning that in each group, there was a mix of newcomers and seasoned veterans, adding different levels of experience to the design process.

After weeks of hard work and dedication, the robots were ready to rumble on Saturday. Each robot had a unique design: some built a claw-like device, and others built something more like a scooper. Some bots focused on strength, others focused on speed. There were small, light robots, and big, hefty robots. The blend of originality, artistry, and engineering was truly astounding, especially considering that each team worked with the same kit of parts.

Before the competition started, teams were given two hours to make any final changes, fixes, or adjustments to their robots. Students were buzzing about the room, screwing in bolts, editing code, and running tests on each little mechanism of their designs. As they finished their robots, they were told how the competition would work: two alliances (an alliance is a pair of teams) would go up against each other in a game where the objective was to push, drag, lift, and drop as many objects as possible onto the other team’s side of the arena. To simplify the rules, whoever had the least objects on their side won.

Each match was only about two minutes long and alliances were constantly changing so that each team would play with and against every other team. In a limited time frame, it made for a hectic day. For hours, kids were rushing in and out of the arena room to make fixes, charge batteries, check standings, and compete. Excited students were directing others and making entire changes to their robots within seconds. One team even changed their entire design between matches to best compensate for problems they encountered.

The matches themselves may have been the most exciting part. Impressive robots glided around the field, picking up, dragging, hitting, and catching boxes and star-shaped objects, with dexterous drivers at the controls. Nuts and bolts flew into the air as robots collided with each other. A few robots made an aggressive thud as they slammed into the ground, tipping over. All the while cheers, screams, yelling and clapping filled the air as the teams rooted on their bots.

As the matches concluded, the teams’ records were on display for the whole group. The best performing teams got to pick who they wanted in their alliance going into the finals. After the intense playoffs, Teams 1 and 3 came out on top. Team 1, a group composed of both Pioneer and Woodland High students, built an impressive robot capable of suspending itself in the air by a single arm; Team 3 had the most well-built robot of the whole group, that could zip across the field while pushing pounds of game elements.

The chaos, high energy, and fun are the kind that can be found at FRC competitions, an aura that Digital Minds wanted to capture. The FIRST Robotics Competition, which is Digital Minds’ primary focus, has robots ten times as large and complex as VEX robots, and fills stadiums with teams from across the world. On January 8th, 2022, FRC will unveil the year’s competition, and Digital Minds will unite once again as one whole team to create a robot to bring out in competition. With an extensive talent pool of engineers, programmers, and businesspeople, Digital Minds has a promising season ahead of it, and welcomes anyone and everyone to join. Membership is free and open to all high school students, regardless of grade, experience, or what classes you have. If you’re interested, see Mr. Watts in S102, Mrs. Barichivich in D406, or any students walking around in a maroon hoodie or T-shirt that reads “Digital Minds”.