Kealakehe High School senior Josiah Clark sees an exciting paradigm shift happening in the teaching and learning methods in Hawaii. Through rewarding educational opportunities like robotics, he said students are no longer just the consumers of knowledge. They can be creators.
Year after year, Room M103 is where Kealakehe’s career and technical education program coordinator Justin Brown and volunteer mentors build up students until they can build, program and explain their mechanical marvels, which move to particular locations, do certain tasks and respond to commands.
It’s here where Brown lays the groundwork that helps transform teens from underdogs to confident, inquisitive and inventive students belonging to the Tiki Techs, the school’s award-winning robotics team. Many of the team’s alumni choose to not only to further their education in good colleges, but are also passionate about giving back to their peers and community. Members take the team’s motto of executing excellence to heart. For them, it’s more than just being excellent. It’s also bringing out excellence in others, Brown said.
This year, Tiki Techs has its largest group of participating seniors, 13 in total, all of whom are determined to help create knowledge and understanding while contributing to the team’s legacy. These older students have embraced pursuing their own paths to learning and tackling a seemingly endless list of challenges, competitions and projects. Their enthusiasm and dedication has energized all on the roughly 45-member team, Brown said.
In its entirety, the team has experienced a stellar school year. It’s participating in a historic lunar project involving Hilo-based Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems and NASA. The Tiki Techs traveled to China for the Asia-Pacific Robotics Championship, where they placed in the top 20.
Another accomplishment happened in January at the Hawaii State VEX Championship on Maui, one of a series of VEX robotics competitions happening worldwide throughout the year. After qualifying for five spots, the Tiki Techs decided to develop five fundamentally different robots for the competition, simply because they could, Clark said. Other teams typically compete with one to three robots, he added.
This year’s game was Skyrise, played on a 12-foot-by-12-foot field. Two alliances — one “red” and one “blue” — composed of two teams each compete in matches consisting of a 15-second autonomous period, followed by one minute and 45 seconds of driver-controlled play. The object is to attain a higher score than the opposing alliance by scoring colored cubes in floor goals, on posts or on a Skyrise by owning posts and by building Skyrise sections, said sophomore Courtney Nelson.
There are 22 red cubes, 22 blue cubes and 14 Skyrise sections available. Each robot begins a match on one of the alliance starting tiles. There are different posts and floor goals that robots can score objects onto. The alliance with the topmost cube on a post owns the post. Alliances also earn points for building Skyrises on their Skyrise base out of Skyrise sections, and scoring cubes on Skyrises. A bonus is awarded to the alliance that has the most total points at the end of the autonomous period, Nelson said. The most points typically scored during a match is 85, added senior Chris Tabor.
The Tiki Techs’ fantastic five were Enigma, Dragon, Foxx, Super Dragon and Wailani. Four of the robots made it in the top 24, Clark said.
Foxx was the first robot the team designed. Their goal was to design something really simple that could uniquely score Skyrise sections and cubes at the same time and fast, Clark said. Its focus was the Skyrise. This robot went undefeated and the No. 1 seed at the tournament.
Dragon captained an alliance. It could very quickly up and score cubes, as well as could score Skyrise pieces. Its focus was on the post goals. Both Foxx and Dragon had an eight-motor, x-holonomic drive system, an arm with a double gear reduction and a tool that was pneumatically actuated.
Enigma can score four Skyrise sections in autonomous without driving. It has a robust six-motor scissor lift system with four small drive wheels for maximum acceleration and a passive spear to collect and score field pieces. Although Engima performed very poorly, its design and potential garnered the team the Innovate Award, Clark said.
Wailani has a traditional rolling intake system for the cubes and a spring-to-activate system for the Skyrise sections. This robot can work efficiently with all game pieces.
Super Dragon has an inverse four bar lift, allowing for a vertical lift system, and a pneumatic tool that can pick up one to three cubes at a time. Its focus is on the post goals and was able to score three posts in autonomous. It uses 10 sensors for reliable and consistent actions.
In the end, the Tiki Techs’ ingenuity paid off and helped qualify them for the highly anticipated VEX Robotics World Championship next month in Louisville, Ky., an event that unites top robotics teams from local, state and international competitions. This intense four-day annual tournament attracts more than 800 teams and 15,000 students from over 25 countries to celebrate their accomplishments and further inspire their interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Besides combining the lessons learned from all five robots into one and readying Enigma, the Tiki Techs are tasked with raising more than $40,000 — the amount needed to send a small delegation of students and chaperones to competition. An anonymous donor has committed to matching dollar for dollar all donations up to $5,000 by the end of this month. Those interested in donating money or helping the team in other ways can call 854-4066, email kealakeherobotics@gmail.com or visit kealakeherobotics.org.