By Brian Argabright
The 830 Times
They’re back!
After two years away from face-to-face competition due to the COVID pandemic, Del Rio High School’s FIRST Robotics Team 4063 TriKzR4Kidz is headed back to the FIRST Robotics Competition’s World Championships in Houston.
The team departs for worlds Tuesday morning with a parade send-off from the Career and Technical Education building at 201 E. 10th St. to Veterans Boulevard. The public is urged to attend.
Team 4063 is expected to arrive in Houston later that day. Wednesday morning they will take part in the load-in at the George R. Brown Convention Center before qualifying begins Thursday morning. Del Rio will have Thursday and Friday to qualify before the actual competition for the world championship begins Saturday morning.
“We have some legendary teams that will be attending, like Citrus Circuits from California. We will also see teams from Turkey, Israel, Brazil, Mexico, Canada and China in our group,” Bill Davis, one of the team’s coaches, said.
About 400 teams are expected to be in Houston for the world championships. Included in that group are several Texas heavyweights including the Robowranglers, Team 148, from Greenville; and Kryptonite, Team 624, from Katy.
This is the 11th year for the robotics world championships, and Del Rio is making its seventh trip. The event was put on hold the past two years due to COVID, so in reality Team 4063 has competed at seven of the nine world championships held in either St. Louis or Houston.
“We are one of 23 Texas teams that will compete at worlds this year,” Davis said.
This year teams are taking part in the Rapid React game presented by the Boeing Company. Teams have three minutes to collect and shoot beach ball-sized tennis balls into a tower that is around 12-13 feet tall. Teams can opt to shoot at a lower or a higher hub, but their robots must be able to pick balls up off the ground and deliver them through the hoops. Near the end of the game, robots must then make their way to a “hangar,” and try and hoist itself onto the highest rung possible. Points are awarded for the level of rung the robot is able to reach and hang from before time expires.
As in years past, Del Rio’s robot, which this year is named Hoptimus Prime, is more adept at shooting versus climbing. “The goal is to get to the highest bar, but so far we’ve only been able to reach the mid bar,” Davis said. “Our robot is not a climbing robot. We collect the ball and shoot.”
Despite being one of the more competitive and successful programs in the state when it comes to robotics, this has been a year of firsts for Team 4063. For the first time in the team’s history, they were part of the winning alliance at the Amarillo District Event and they won the Amarillo District Chairman’s Award. It was also the team’s first event championship in five years.
“The Amarillo event featured all of Texas and all of New Mexico,” Davis explained. “We competed at Dripping Springs earlier in the season. We qualified well, but got eliminated in the semis. At Amarillo, again we qualified well and were picked by the number one team there and won.”
While scoring is the key emphasis in finding success at competition, Davis said a robot also has to be durable to survive so many qualifying matches. While a team can be punished for over aggressive play, Davis said Hoptimus Prime and its drivers are well versed in playing hard, but fair.
“We built our robot so that it is extremely rugged. If we have to play defense, we will be able to play against any robot on the field,” Davis said.
Though the team didn’t travel to compete the past two years, cobwebs and dust didn’t collect on their robots or tools. Teams still competed albeit via video. Robots had to perform specific tasks that were recorded and viewed by judges. Scores were allotted based on how many elements were executed and how much time it took to compete the tasks. The robotics team members also needed to design and submit a game. The past two years the team was able to use the same robot, nicknamed Skyhopper, saving the Del Rio High program money as well as wear and tear on parts.
Because the past two years the team competed via video, Del Rio team members who saw actual live competition prior to this year were few. Davis said only three of the members of this year’s team were on 4063 when they last compete live. That means less than a quarter of the 22 team members traveling to Houston had seen live competition prior to this season.
Senior Ryan Torres is one of those team members with experience. A three-year member of the team who admits taking his junior year off from robotics for personal reasons, Torres is a member of the construction and drive team. He said his first year was focused on scouting other teams and finding out if they would be a good fit to team up with 4063 when they time came. He said he’s shared that experience with the younger members of the team. “It was a really good experience. It really helps you break out of your shell,” Torres said. “Being on the team was one of my greatest experiences and it made me have some higher expectations for myself. I hope I did a better job of passing down my experience to the younger members and prepare them for what to expect.”
“Engineering was always something that I wanted to do. In the beginning, I didn’t want to join robotics. I was very nervous around people as a freshman. It wasn’t until I was in Mr. Billadeau’s class that he got us into it. My mom learned about robotics and kind of forced me to come the second day. Now, I’m thankful for both of them for getting me involved,” Torres added.
What the team lacked in live competition experience it made up for away from the arena.
“They meet every day during the build season. UIL rules allow them to work up to eight hours combined Monday through Thursday, but on Fridays and Saturdays they are sometimes here all day,” Davis said. “Parents will bring them food and they’ll put in a full day of work.”
“It can be time consuming for the coaches and the kids. Some kids try to be in both groups. Some days it’s just drive practice. Some days just the captains meet. No matter, we always have the kids log in and log out because we don’t want them going over those eight hours,” Davis added.
Everyone learns how to use the machines designed to build the parts necessary for the robot, whether they have prior experience or not. That means on the job training and learning what to do if something goes wrong and Hoptimus Prime needs something replaced.
Freshman Hugo Faz is part of the construction team. He first learned about robotics through the Robot in a Week program that took place at the CTE Building during the summer. He immediately found a new passion.
“I never really did any robotics before high school, but my mom recommended the idea to me. I had always liked math and science a lot and I was hoping to find something that would maybe apply those things to a real world setting,” Faz said. “I went into Robot in a Week blind. I didn’t know anything about robotics. It was all new to me. I just loved the tempo and it gave this drive … it’s something I just can’t describe.”
Now as part of the construction team, Faz sees his role as something of a creator.
“I’m still learning, but at this point I feel I know how to do a lot more things myself, like detaching gussets for the configuration for the climber mechanism. I didn’t know how to use all the equipment, like drill presses and the band saw, but it’s all really good equipment. It’s interesting because you can’t really create something that’s perfect, so you’re always trying to get better. It makes it really infectious,” Faz said.
Freshman Hector Jimenez is also part of the construction and design team. This is also his first year in robotics and like most of his teammates, the first year he’s going to worlds.
“I think that’s pretty cool,” Jimenez said. “I’m a little nervous because it’s Houston. It’s a big city and there are 400 teams that will be competing there, but I’m looking forward to watching all the really cool robots play.”
This week’s world competition marks the end of the line for the seniors on the team. It’s a bittersweet thought, but as Torres explained, all year long those seniors have tackled each competition as though it could be their last … and that has made getting to this point so satisfying.
“I’m going to miss it. I don’t see anyway I wouldn’t miss it. At state I was feeling a little that this could be my last event. That made me very nervous. It made you work harder to try and climb up the ranks and try and get one more match out of your year. It hit me hard, and the truth that this might be my last competition is fine because I’m glad I was able to make it to worlds. I will be back this summer for Robot in a Week again and I’ll get to mess with some really nice new parts. I won’t be gone just yet,” Torres said.
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Contact the author at drnhsports@gmail.com
