EDSS, Woodland advance to provincials following robotics competition
IT LOOKED LIKE A FUTURISTIC Camelot, with brave knights – in the form of high school students’ cutting-edge robots instead of heraldic horsemen – competing for their people’s pride.
In the blue machine emblazoned with the number 4917, it was Sir Lancerbot of EDSS battling valiantly for the honour of Elmira.
Meanwhile, in red, the CyberCavs of Woodland Christian High School in Breslau hoped their high-tech steed No 4678 would win this year’s First Robotics competition at the University of Waterloo.
In the end, the two Woolwich schools fell just short, with Woodland coming second and EDSS third out of 30 teams competing in front of hundreds of noisy spectators last weekend.
Both, however, qualified for the provincial championship, which is being held in Mississauga April 4-6.
“We’re really pleased with our robot’s performance,” said EDSS science teacher Barb Gaudet, who was helping students Hudson Jantzi, Cole Thompson, Jasmine Frey, Aiden Fisher, Connor Jantzi, Jared Wight, Carson Toonstra, Megan Sims, Wesley Wilson, Nick May, Brandon Hall and Calen Freeman.
“We also won the Quality Award at the competition for the quality of our robot and how robust it was throughout the entire competition.”
Both Woolwich teams have benefited from thousands of dollars in donations as well as the support of outside technology experts and firms.
“Our budget really is about $55,000,” explained Woodland mentor Maurice Veldhuis, who was helping students Jack Good, Adrian Stan, Joseph Schuurman, Zack Scherer, Eli Sullivan and Zen Qu.
“And that doesn’t include going to the world championships, if we were to qualify”
A similar amount was spent by the crew of Sir Lancerbot, a name which is a robotic play on the school’s Lancer symbol and Sir Lancelot, the legendary companion of
King Arthur at Camelot.
As a distinctly modern update to the kind of tournaments the Knights of the Round Table are said to have taken part in, the teams have to design robots that complete a task that was only revealed on January 7.
This year, the machines had to be able to collect “notes,” which are large, donut-like, orange rubber rings that are then deposited in a different location to score points over a series of qualification and playoff rounds held on Friday and Saturday.
“We have a round intake and those notes get taken into the robot and they come up through a channel,” said EDSS student Megan Sims.
The robots also need to be speedy and maneuverable to get around the court quickly as well as be tough enough to withstand frequently smashing into one another.
Due to the risk of metal parts flying through the air, both team members and spectators in stands on two sides had to wear safety goggles.
Gaudet said the machine held up well to the battering it received during the contest, but that it still needed fixing.
“During one of our playoffs, something disconnected,” she explained. “And so we did lose some functionality, but that was easily correctable.
“We didn’t have any major damage, so we were really pleased.”
The Elmira students planned their robot with a computer-aided design system and then had it built by Petersburg-based Demtool.
Sims, who has been part of the EDSS robotics team for three years, said they had worked hard this year to improve their technology.
“We are using swerve drive for the first time this year, which means that each of the wheels is independent,” explained the 17-year-old.
Gaudet said the students in the team were working on their robot every day during the recent March Break school holiday.
After becoming finalists, finishing behind an alliance that included a team from Kingston, both EDSS and Woodland will now be focusing on improving for the provincial tournament.
“We are looking to make some design modifications,” said Gaudet, including “refining” some elements of their robot’s game-playing mechanism.