A group of local students is building a robot to take over the world . . . well, at least to compete on the world stage.
The JavaWockies is a First Robotics team based out of Springwater, Ontario. They had a successful rookie year last year making it to the First Robotics World Championships in St. Louis, Missouri. This year, they hope to continue the momentum and compete again at the international level.
Aidan Bennett and Jared Houghton are both returning for their second year on the JavaWockies team. They are grade nine students and both homeschooled. They’ve put in a lot of hours through the design and build phases so they are itching to drive the robot in competition.
“I really liked CAD-ing the robot,” said Bennett. The students use a program called Solid Works. “We create 3D models of the robot to scale, and we can work out the measurements and the weight.”
“I’m learning things I wouldn’t be able to learn any other way,” said Houghton of his involvement with the JavaWockies. “I learned how to use a metal lathe, and how to design a robot with a CAD program.”
He particularly enjoys the strategy and planning that goes into competing.
“I like forming alliances and figuring out how best to approach the game,” he said. “There’s a significant teamwork aspect that relies on us to cooperate with other teams.”
Each competition team includes three teams and their three robots. Once a team is in the final eight in a competition, they can choose their own alliances and robots.
Both Bennett and Houghton were scouts at the world championships last year, part of their job was finding the best alliances for their team, and learning the strengths and weaknesses of the other robots in the competition.
The competition is based on a game – created anew each year by the team at First Robotics – which is announced early in January. Each team hoping to compete will design a robot specifically for that year’s game objectives. They build from scratch, and must meet certain weight restrictions.
This year’s game requires the robot to pick up a block – nearly the same as a milk crate – and lift it from the ground onto a platform.
There are other point objectives in the game such as a 30 point bonus for climbing onto a scale structure at the end of the game. Click here to watch an animation of the game.
The team includes Matthew Piercey, Ella Hayward, Syndey Menard, Jared Houghton, Jacob Houghton, Aidan Bennett, Marissa Reevie and Lucius Balian. They are guided by parent mentors and alumni from last year’s team, all of whom help the students design, build and run the robot.
Their robot is about four feet tall, and looks similar to a mini forklift. Instead of forks it uses wheels to “suck” in the milk crate. The wheels reverse to eject the milk crate to set it down. But the JavaWockies added wings. The object of the game is to think outside the box. The wings are there to act as lifts for the other robots on the team. They earn a lot of points for the climb at the end, and if all goes well, all the other robots have to do is drive onto the JavaWockies robot and wait as it lifts them up.
“I think we’ve pretty much got the climb down,” said Bennett. “A lot of the match is how well we work with our team.”
The JavaWockies are headed to their first competition of the season at Georgian College in Barrie this weekend. Visit their website or Facebook page to follow their progress and learn more about their robot.
