SA’s Own RoboRoos at Science Alive® – Fresh From the Competition “Duel Down Under”

Article contributed by the RoboRoos team.

RoboRoos, a community based robot-building team of Adelaide students will be part of SCIENCE ALIVE® held at the Adelaide Showgrounds from the 9^th to 11^th August.  They recently finished second in the competition “Duel Down Under” (DDU) in Sydney on the last weekend of June, completing a highly successful season of the 2013 FIRST® FRC® challenge Ultimate Ascent®. 

RoboRoos are the only South Australian team to have competed in the US based FIRST® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) competitions held by the organisation “founded by Dean Kamen in 1989 to inspire young people’s interest and participation in science and technology.” The First Robotics Competition (FRC®) is for 14 to 18 year olds and provides the toughest, and most complex challenges. The RoboRoos’ groundbreaking success at these events is only possible thanks to generous sponsors such as Don Alan.

The Ultimate Ascent® challenge was to build a robot which could shoot flying discs into goals of different heights for points and climb a 2 metre pyramid.  DDU is the only FIRST® FRC® event held in the Southern Hemisphere and this year had a total of 14 teams from across Australia competing.  4 teams at DDU (including RoboRoos) had built the robot in the required timeframe of 6 weeks (from January 6 to February 19) enabling them to be eligible to compete at Regionals in Hawaii in April this year.

These 4 Australian teams competed over 3 days in the Hawaii Regional along with teams from Hawaii, mainland USA, China, and Taipei.  RoboRoos received the prestigious “Rookie All-Star Award”, given to one first-year team competing in each Regional competition who are “exemplifying a young but strong partnership effort, as well as implementing the mission of FIRST®: To inspire students to learn more about science and technology.”

This award meant they were eligible go to St. Louis, Missouri to compete in the prestigious invitation only annual Championships in the FIRST® Robotics Competition (FRC®) division.  The FIRST® Championships is the pinnacle of FIRST® events, with over 12,000 students, and 50,000 people in the stadium to watch “robots at work”.

At Championships, RoboRoos were 1 of 400 FRC® teams from around the world and held their own against the “best of the best” on this international stage – just two weeks after the Regionals in Hawaii.  The learning curve continued exponentially from Hawaii to Missouri!

In June, it was time for DDU and Aussie vs Aussie, State vs State now on home soil.  The RoboRoos robot now had climbing hooks attached so it was time to see how it could perform in competition in Sydney.

Technical difficulties in the first half of Day 1 meant that the robot only scored points for climbing.  The software problem was solved after much consultation with other teams in the spirit of Gracious Professionalism® and Coopertiton® – FIRST® principles which encourage people in competition to work together.   In the second half of the day, the robot was able to operate at full capacity for the first time in any competition during the season – shooting the disks autonomously, then as positioned by the drive team and finally climbing the bottom rung on the pyramid at the end of the game.  The many hours spent building and adjusting had come to fruition!

Strong performances from that point on ensured they were sought as an alliance member, joining up with the Tasmanian team 4759, Devil Robotics.  Together they performed well to reach the “best of three” Grand Final rounds, eventually losing 2 games to 1 against the very experienced Sydney team 3132 Thunder Down Under, and newcomers 4788 Team Curtin from Western Australia.

The work of the students, Mentors (most of whom are parents) and sponsors such as Don Alan was initially acknowledged by the team and robot successfully competing in Hawaii, reinforced at the FIRST® Championships in St Louis and further in Sydney. RoboRoos recognise that this was only possible due to the generous support of the team’s sponsors, whose tremendous assistance both in time and money, have provided the foundation for this season’s amazing experience.

Would you like to see the amazing “well travelled” robot and its “award winning” team?  Both will be featured at SCIENCE ALIVE® to be held at the Adelaide Showgrounds from the 9^th to 11^th August.  Come and see the robot in action and ask about how much fun it can be!