On Jan. 8, Bellarmine’s robotics team set to work on their 2022 robot, Rainmaker XXII. The robot is designed to compete in the FIRST Robotics Competition, a high school robotics competition bringing together 3898 teams across 34 countries. Robots are about go-cart size, usually around 3 feet in each direction, and weigh as a maximum 125 lbs. Teams are given six weeks to design, build, and test these robots before the start of the competition season, where two teams of three robots from different schools play the game on a basketball-sized field. Each year, the robots play a different game. Previous games have seen robots shooting basketballs, chucking frisbees, and stacking tote containers. This year, robots are expected to shoot large tennis balls into a container in the middle of the field and climb a series of monkey bars, each bar increasing in height from the previous one.

With such a tight time frame and so many tasks, the team splits into “subteams” to consolidate work. Different subteams focus on designing the robot, cutting and assembling pieces, wiring, or programming. Our Design team has been hard at work on brainstorming mechanisms for the robot in Computer Assisted Design (CAD), 3D modeling software that allows them to make the robot online before cutting out pieces. The Mechanical team takes the drawings from Design, cuts them out, and assembles them into the robot. They also prototype robot mechanisms in collaboration with Design. Electrical wires the robot together, turning it from a hunk of metal into an actual robot. The final piece to the puzzle, Programming, uses their (to the rest of us at least) unknowable magic to animate the robot, enabling it to operate both autonomously and respond to driver controls.

In the span of one week, each subteam came together to produce a robot already capable of driving. Usually, it is well into the second week of build season that the robot takes its first metaphorical steps, but exactly one week after starting to build, we were driving. Design team CADed each component to the drive system while the Mechanical team cut them out using both manual and Computer Assisted Manufacturing techniques. The Electrical team wired the control system and motors in under two and a half hours, cutting the previous team record by more than half. Lastly, Programming updated robot firmware and wrote code to enable the robot to drive. Now, the Mechanical and Design teams are working on an intake system to allow the robot to pick balls off the floor, as well as a turreted shooter system to allow the robot to shoot from most locations on the field. Electrical team is working to wire these new additions and upgrade existing robot systems. Now, Programming is working to implement vision tracking code, allowing the robot to intelligently aim and fire at targets. This turreted system is set to be another first in the team’s 22 year history.

Success can be attributed to the highly motivated students showing up every day, including those long 8 hour days on Saturday build sessions. This year has seen record numbers of student engagement. Due to COVID, there are few members of the team with experience: seniors have experienced one full season, and juniors experienced half a season before COVID cut our season short. Despite this, we have the strongest classes of freshmen and sophomores anyone could ask for. They show up willing and ready to learn, full of contagious enthusiasm coupled with drive. For us seniors, the World Championships in Houston, TX, are on the line. Bellarmine last competed at Worlds the year before our freshman year, meaning this is our final chance to compete at Worlds before graduation. With the records we’ve been setting, the motivation of our team, and a little luck, we just may make it back.

To Hopes and Dreams! (traditional end of build season robotics toast)

Author’s Note: My name is Jaylen Shawcross, and I’m a current senior. While not doing school, I’m involved in Robotics, Model UN, and Marine Chemistry, where I study the evolution of the early Mars atmosphere. I also love reading and programming.