Waring School’s Wolfpack Machina robotics team builds their way to the top
BEVERLY — Waring School’s Robotics First Tech Challenge Team claimed victory at the Massachusetts State Championship, and moved on to the FIRST Championship, otherwise known as Robotics Worlds.
Francis Schaeffer led his passionate team, Wolfpack Machina, comprising 11 students, to an inspiring victory in the Massachusetts State Championship held March 5 at Natick High School.
The team consists of 10 juniors, Alma Powers, Amelia Wyler, Olive Sauder, Owen Cooper, Chris Douglas, Peter Hanna, Olga Gadmer-Langman, Collin Keegan, Owen Reimold, Thomas Davis and sophomore Charlie Pound.
Wolfpack Machina won the Inspire Award which means that the team won all other minor awards in the competition as well as place first or second. They won this award due to their inspiring summer camp program, impressive engineering documentation, detailed control code for the robot as well as the robot itself, community service outreach, and extensive work with local STEM professionals.
“So when we won the inspire award instead of any other kind of award for just the robot, it really meant that the whole team had won and not just any one individual or people who were just working on building the robot,” said Gadmer-Langman. “It meant that everyone on our team contributed something that helped us all to win and get to worlds.”
For the competition itself, there were a few requirements to meet. The crew took on the challenge of creating a robot that is able to pick up blocks off of the floor then score them into a bowl. The team also needed the robot to drive over plastic barriers that were about 1.5 inches tall.
The team designed their robot to pick up and take in the block through the front and then score it out of the back using a bucket in the rear to dump it. There was particular detail on the design of their robot's suspension and wheels so that it is able to move smoothly over the road barrier.
The robot consists of a completely original design that composes of six individually suspended wheels. The design was found to be so successful that the team is currently trying to get their design patented.
“We built from the ground up some code that is able to make sure that the robot knows exactly where it is, treating the field almost like a coordinate plane,” said team member Hanna. “It also can intuitively decelerate itself while turning due to kinetic energy equations built into the software and so much more.”
Of course, their impressive robot was essential to their win, but another big component that played into the Wolfpack’s success was their outreach. The students spent much of their time reaching out to the community to spread their knowledge of robotics as well as helping out other teams and people during the competition.
A glimpse into their outreach initiative is their involvement in the Centerville Elementary School. A few students volunteered to teach third and fourth graders the basics of robotics using LEGO bricks within a 10-week program.
Members of the team participated in running three summer camps, one for teaching design, one for coding and the one for building with LEGO bricks.
“I taught at that camp which was really great for me to share what I have learned with people and also gain skills for myself,” said Powers.
At the camp people were able to learn the skills they would need to join a robotics team and eventually a lot of the kids who took this camp went on to make up Waring School’s sister team, Lupine Robotics.
“We have a mission statement which is to create a sustainable STEM ecosystem both within our community and in the greater world around it,” said Douglas. “So we're trying to bring in as many people as possible so we can teach them robotics and get them as passionate in the subject as we are.”
The team also worked with local STEM professionals in the community to make design reviews. These STEM professionals ranged from professors at prestigious universities, to CEOs of big businesses, and even a NASA scientist.
These outreach actions are important to the competition because it allows the students to gain great insight into how they can refine their designs and processes. Several students claimed that these outreach programs taught them a lot while also being really fun.
Wolfpack Machina qualified for Worlds in 2020 and 2021, but both got canceled due to COVID-19. So the team was hungry to make it to the world championships this year. They started their extensive work toward this goal at the end of the previous season in June 2021.
Over the course of the year, Wolfpack has been teaching all they know to Lupine Robotics, another robotics team of Waring School. They are leading them to thrive in their rookie season at the First Tech Challenge State Championship.
The day of the State Championship, Wolfpack faced off against the best 32 robotics teams in the state. They were worried when they lost the robot match that worlds were out of sight. In the end, they found themselves winning the top award, qualifying them for the championship. The students say they dedicate an average of about 6 to 7 hours per person each week to the bettering of their robot.
The team meets just about daily to put their best efforts into making this robot the best it can be. Each team member had their own task they needed to complete to prepare for states, and now they use their creation and specialty to improve it for worlds.
“One of the main things that we’re doing in terms of the robot is just improving it from states,” said Powers. “So we’ve made some coding and building changes just to make our cycle times, while we’re picking up those blocks a lot shorter and doing a lot of changes to be as efficient as possible and then continuing all of our outreach that we have been doing.”
Wolfpack will soon find themselves up against 160 of the best robotics teams from all over the world. They are prioritizing improving the robot any way possible as well as focusing on how they can make their tent stand out from the others.
The team thanks their years of knowing each other and working together for their strength and success as a team. These students have worked in robotics together since they were 13 years old and have gone to school since even before.
They are ecstatic to finally be able to go to the world championships in Houston. The trip and experience as a whole is something that the team gets to enjoy together now that COVID won’t hinder their opportunity.
“As much as it is to compete and try to win, we are going to meet so many people and see so many cool things so that's just how excited we are to go,” said Douglas.
The students also thank their coach for all of his help and support throughout the team's work toward worlds.
“We’re so fortunate to have Francis, who is our coach, is so dedicated; he needs to be here in order for us to work and he lets us stay late and comes in for us on weekends to allow us to compete and practice,” said Douglas.
