Robotics
The goal of the robotics programs at SOH is to connect students, mentors, and schools in our community to a variety of successful and engaging technology-based programs.
Vex Robotics
VEX Robotics is one of the extracurriculars offered at SOH. Students from all grade levels work together to build a robot from scratch and prepare for competitions (specifically V5RC) hosted by VEX Robotics against other Sweetwater Union High School District schools under team #7164. Competition ready robots are prepared by 4 teams, each team member having a distinct role. Materials are provided by the club, and new members learn various skills in using tools, cutting metal bits, and learning the engineering design process. Food and beverages are provided during competition day.
Competitions
Competitions are held all year around. VEX Robotics announces a new game for the season on their official page, presenting new and different challenges for students to surpass, optimize, and strategize against. Once competition season begins, students can meet with their club advisor and team members where they will set up their working space, register their robot to make sure it follows the guidelines, and begin the competition.
Matches
Matches are played in 2v2, scoring the most points will decide the victor until all the matches - number of matches depend on amount of teams - have finished. Matches are divided into two periods, the autonomous and driver periods.
Autonomous
Matches begin during the autonomous period in which competitors can’t control their robot and it will execute whatever code was pre-programmed by the students.
Driver Control
Immediately after, the driver control period follows, where both teams will regain total control of their robot and will try their best to score the most points. Specifics on how to score points and their worth will be posted on each game’s manual.
Alliances
Once the main matches have culminated, the top teams will form an alliance with another team and participate in the last matches which function as an elimination bracket; last alliance without losses wins the competition. This makes competition not just a game, but also a networking event as teams have to converse and get to know each other in order to create alliances that can either work well with their robot or rescue them from elimination after the main matches.
Interviews and Rewards
Teams will be interviewed by staff members for their experience in working as a team, developing their robot, strategizing, difficulties, etc. Other teams may approach each other as they learn what their future teammates can do or scout the enemies. Depending on team performance, attitude, interview, and more, teams may receive awards during the closing ceremony of the competition.
Teams
Our club counts with four separate teams: Team A, B, C, and S. Team S is women exclusive. Students can participate as engineers, programmers, drivers, and designers. Teams must work together as they build, test their robot, and develop their engineering notebook.
Roles
Engineer
As an engineer, students will be in charge of developing concepts for their future robot. They must understand the functionality of different parts and how to assemble them together, making the most out of the physical changes while working with metal, VEX components, motors, pneumatics, and power tools. Curiosity and responsibility is key for success as an engineer.
Programmer
Once the robot has been built, the programmer is tasked with connecting the motors and pneumatics with the controller and accommodating the inputs with the preferences of the driver. Although it isn’t mandatory, competitions begin with an autonomous period, thus programmers should prepare the robot for this phase, coding a procedure that can make the most amount of points per game. Robots are programmed through the franchise’s editors: VEXcode V5 and VEXcode Pro V5, both written in C++ and available for download here. The standard VEX Code works with blocks, allowing beginners to ease their way into the language, and begin assembling the basic functionality of their robot. On the other hand, the Pro version of the editor is script based, meaning that programmers will have to write C++ code, providing them more freedom and control over what they can do.
Driver
Drivers are responsible for taking control during matches, and are pivotal for success in competition. This role requires less technical knowledge, but makes up for it in the amount of practice and communication needed to improve as a driver when learning how to manipulate the robot, or suggesting changes to the team.
Designer
Designing the robot is a difficult task as features, limitations, capabilities, resources, and time need to all be considered. Furthermore, the engineering notebook requires constant update from the team’s progress and struggles
Engineering Notebook
To develop good engineers, every team is tasked with journalizing their ideas, process, advancements, and failures in a notebook describing all of their robot’s features. This notebook needs to be frequently updated and will be submitted on competition day.