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This isn’t your average sport. The arena is divided into two sections by a long black cloth. On the right side robots battled for points in a small enclosed area. On the left side, the engineers work hard to fix minor engineering details. They’re competing for a chance to make it one step further to compete in the next state competition hosted in Houston, Texas.
The NS robotics team recently traveled to West Valley Maverick Center where their robot was truly put to the test in a battle of…. surviving multiple rounds, and being faced against schools with more equipment, resources and a bigger budget, the “Robo Hawks” put up a fight.
“When you start looking at some of the robots that we’re going to be competing against, there are some of them that are going to spend upwards of $60, $70, $80,000,” robotics advisor Bryan Holder said. “We’re sitting somewhere right around $2,500 to $3,000 for the current robot and that’s even recycling some of the base stuff that we had from last year.”
Staying in it till the end, the Robo Hawks team pressed forward after each match, always discussing the match afterwards and dissecting it to see what could be changed.
“We’ve had to overcome pretty much everything from ground up,” senior Calder Bailey said. “Just today our base wasn’t working, our drive was not working on one of the corners, we had to troubleshoot that for like three straight hours.”
Reef Scape is the theme picked out for this year’s 2025 robotic competition. Based heavily on real-life environmental scenarios, this game mimics its focus on the removal of algae and seeding or planting of new coral beds.
“So it’s kind of like a real-world idea of we need to fix an environment that’s falling apart, and that’s kind of what we’re doing here,” Holder said.
In all, the game pieces themselves are quite simple: a green rubber kickball, PVC pipe and a hanging cage. However, the complexity of the game comes in when trying to create a robot that is capable of all the tasks.
“The challenge this year is a little bit more complicated, which is exciting because it gives us more of an opportunity to come up with more creative solutions on our robot,” Bailey said.
The game begins when the large coral structure (PVC pipe) is lined with algae (rubber green kickball). There is a deposit station off to the side where algae can be placed after removing it from the reef, the algae is then brought to the human player where they have a chance to throw the algae into a “barge” to permanently eliminate it from the game. New coral (shorter PVC pipes) can be put in place of where the algae used to be.
The element of a human interaction piece is a new and unexpected aspect of this year’s games. It gives each team another opportunity to score points.
“It’s given us an opportunity to stretch and grow. It’s given them an opportunity to try new things that they didn’t do last year or the year before, and it’s real cool to see how we can evolve,” Holder said.
More points can be scored through the amount of algae removed and coral planted. The cage that hangs from the ceiling is also a major place to score points. Students have the option to code their robot to clasp onto the cage and hang a few inches in the air.
The team has faced lots of obstacles along the way but continued to push through.
“Each problem has been a challenge, but overcoming that challenge is really exciting,” Bailey said. “There’s a lot of excitement that comes from solving problems.”
Creating a robot capable of performing all the ways to score would need many resources, so the Robo Hawks decided to focus their efforts on one section to ensure a constant source of points. The NS robotics team hopes to team up with other schools who are focused on a different aspect of the game, that way all areas can be successfully covered.
The robot was built with an extendable arm, an intake made of wheels, and a smooth control system which helped the robot maintain a steady point intake. The robot’s main capability was to pick up coral deposits and place it on the base of the reef.
“I get to see them try something that they think is a great idea, and then I watch them fail, and no one is as vulnerable as they truly are unless they fail,” Holder said. “And to see them pick themselves up, and start over again, and fix whatever issue is happening right up until the last moment.”
The last two years the Robo Hawks were ranked top 20 out of 40 teams coming from around the world, and this year they ranked 30th.
“Even though we placed lower this year, we performed better and are happier with our results,” Spencer Bradley, Robo Hawks president said.
