The SEGway News
Page 4
News
PhyXTGears Finalists at District
by Rita Koch
March 24-25 the Muncie
Delaware FIRST* Robot-
ics Team attended their
second competition of
the season—Perry Merid-
ian District in Indianapolis
where 37 teams competed
in alliances of three for an
Indiana district champion-
ship. Teams of high school
students had six weeks to
design and build a fully
functional robot to com-
pete in the 2017 game—
Steamworks.
The game is quite com-
plicated. Gears—hung on
a peg, hoisted by the pilot,
positioned and rotated—
accrue the most points. In
the last 30 seconds robots
that grab and climb their
rope gain 50 point. Fuel
(yellow balls) delivered
(shot) into the boilers are
worth very little during tele
operated mode but more in
the first 15” of the game,
the automated period.
PhyXTGears’ members
from Upland have been
heavily involved in build-
ing this year’s robot named
Spitfire. In the two inter-
vening weeks since their
first district event, they
worked on improving the
robot’s systems and their
game strategies.
The drive team—driver,
operator, coach, pilot (in
the airship), and human
player (delivering gears
from outside)—performed
remarkably well on the
field and off. Between
matches they repair dam-
ages, replace parts, tweak
programming, watch re-
plays, review all the infor-
mation gathered by the rest
of the team (the scouts) and
prepare for the next match.
The first day Team 1720
only lost one out of nine
matches and made the first
highest score of the day,
advancing from 16th po-
sition to #3. On day two,
by the end of qualifying
matches they were #4 in
the alliance-selection line-
up. However, Team 71,
the #1 seed, invited Team
1720 to join their alliance.
Spitfire was the only ro-
bot that could place a gear
and fuel the boiler dur-
ing autonomous mode, so
was top-choice on all three
lists.
Number 1 alliance made
it to finals and ended sec-
ond. Competition was very
close with tired robots that
malfunctioned at times.
Team 1720, PhyXTGears,
received the Innovation in
Control Award sponsored
by Rockwell Automation
which “celebrates an in-
novative control system or
application of control com-
ponents to provide unique
machine functions.” The
judges wrote: “This team’s
autonomous programming
and gear control reminds
us of something out of the
Matrix. Their robot adver-
tises their success on the
field like a billboard.”
PhyXTGears now ranks
fourth in Indiana FIRST
and is eligible to go to state
competition in Huntington,
April 7-8. One hurdle re-
mains—the finances!
* For Inspiration and
Recognition of Science
and Technology
March 30, 2017