The Dreadbots Battle in Belleville: Full Steam Ahead

By Peter Hilliard, DHS Dreadbot Reporter

The Dreadbots, Dexter’s High School robotics team, made a stunning season debut in the Bellville district competition event. In this FIRST® robotics competition, 39 teams from throughout the state competed in matches between alliances of 3 teams where 120-pound robots raced across a field the size of a tennis court at speeds up to 15 mph. Throughout the two-day competition of nearly 100 matches, Dexter’s team remained highly competitive. Along with their alliance partners (Las Guerrillas from Pontiac and The RatPack from Huron High School), the Dreadbots set the event record high score for a match. “It was a great showing of what we can do,” says strategy team lead Rose Dray. The Dexter team competed well into finals before falling to the winning 2nd alliance.

While the team’s performance on the field was impressive (earning the right to captain a highly ranked alliance during finals), the team and supporters were ecstatic to learn that the Dreadbots were the Judges’ pick for the coveted Engineering Inspiration Award. This award is presented to the team that best advanced respect and appreciation for engineering within that team’s school and community. The Dreadbot’s collaborative efforts with their friendly competitors at other Washtenaw County schools and fostering team-to-team communication was listed as a factor in winning this award, which also came with bonus points that improve the team’s state ranking.

A FIRST® robotics match is split into two parts: the autonomous period, in which robots compete without human control, and the teleoperated period, in which robots are controlled like an RC car, but with up to two drivers. This year’s challenge is music themed: robots are tasked with picking up foam rings called “notes” and scoring them into one of two goals, a high goal called the “speaker” and a lower goal called the “amp.” If two notes are scored in the amp, then the speaker is amplified for ten seconds, allowing teams to score more points per successful speaker shot. At the very end of the game, robots attempt to climb a hanging chain for more points.

While engineering a robot to do all of these things is a tough task, the Dreadbots took it head on and designed a robot that could autonomously operate itself, and reliably complete nearly every scoring challenge. With fifteen electric motors, an onboard air compressor powering two pneumatic cylinders, a robust climbing mechanism, and a massive pivoting arm supporting a shooting device, “Woofer” (A.K.A. Dreadbot XIV) is one of the most ambitious and efficient robots that The Dreadbots have ever built. Additionally, The Dreadbots had a premium strategy team backing their robot, which helped them achieve the 5th ranked spot at the Belleville competition prior to finals.

In FIRST® Robotics competition finals, alliance selection comes after the 78 qualifying matches. The upper echelon of teams get the opportunity to invite other teams into their alliance permanently for finals. But how do the teams know who to invite? The answer is robot scouting: Students record data from every team to help them choose the best teams for their alliance. This is where the Dreadbot’s strategy team shines. “We just take scouting a lot more seriously than a lot of other teams,” Strategy subteam lead Rose Dray explains, “A lot of other teams just don’t put too much thought into it, … But we choose to collect (data) all ourselves.” The Dreadbots typically have up to six team members scouting at once, ensuring accurate and reliable data to use in making strategy decisions.

Subteams developed innovative and efficient solutions for problems encountered during robot design and build. For example: Woofer’s 15 pound shooter requires a lot of torque from the motors at the base of the shooter arm. “Essentially, whenever we tried to bring the arm down the chain would slip because the weight at the end of the arm pulled it down too quickly for the motors to counteract it,” Mechanical subteam lead Hanne Neilsen explains, “So we put torsion springs on the axle and they push back against the force of gravity.” Instead of adding additional motors, the mechanical subteam harnessed the power of potential energy.

Another impactful sub-teams this year was the CAD subteam. “This year is the first year that we’ve modeled the entire robot,” Mason Portice, subteam lead explains. “In other years we just threw stuff together, and when we had to combine things we just hoped it would fit. This year we did a lot of it in CAD first, and we were able to then put everything together, making sure that it was all cohesive … it made it very smooth sailing.” Using CAD to check designs before building allowed the Dreadbots to save time and money designing prototypes that actually all fit together.

After the robot had been 3D modeled in CAD, The electrical subteam realized that there was no space for the Power Distribution Panel (PDP), a vital element of any robot. After some worry, the electrical subteam settled on placing the PDP under the robot and protecting it with a polycarbonate shield. This solution worked well, giving the robot functionality and part concentration.

With such a successful start to the year, The Dreadbots like their odds of qualifying for the very competitive state championship, and perhaps even another invitation to the world championship, held this year in Texas.. With one district event under their belt, the Dreadbots are currently ranked 162nd in Michigan, a state with 630 of the most successful teams in robotics.

The Dreadbots encourage you to join them. “It really helped me learn a lot of new skills I wouldn't have learned anywhere else,” says Izzy Martinez, a 1st year member on the mechanical subteam. You can contact us at dhsdreadbot@gmail.com.

Does your child want to get in on the robot fun, but isn’t in high school? The Dreadbots, who’s team motto is “Building People by Building Robots,” and Dexter Community Education support k-8 robotics teams in Dexter through our DROID program. DROID teams build and compete in the fall. For more information, email outreach@dexterdreadbots.org.

Photo: Woofer shooting into a homemade speaker goal. (Photo by Kaleb Delancey)