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The Daniela Rus Team from Wabash Valley in Terre Haute, Ind., won the 2014 annual Greater St. Louis Botball Tournament on Saturday, April 12 at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Twenty-one teams competed in the Morris University Center Meridian Ballroom before a crowd of more than 150 throughout the day.

This year’s theme was assistive robotics. Building on last year’s theme of a Mars Sample Return Mission, the robots had to help Botguy recover from the long journey in space. The students built autonomous robots that traveled around a game board earning points with four goals to accomplish in two-minute rounds:

• Assist Botguy with gross motor tasks by moving exercise equipment in bins
• Hang hangers on various height racks
• Remove items stored on shelves
• Move an exercise bench over to a physical therapy area and place Botguy on the bench

“Each year, we try and define some unique, challenging tasks that allow both the novice teams and those with more experience to succeed by scoring in the competition,” said Gary Mayer, Ph.D., assistant professor of computer science in the SIUE School of Engineering and the event organizer. “This year, it was the hangers. Many teams answered the challenge and were consistently successful in earning points.

“As an educator, it’s a great thing to see, and everyone should be proud of what these students accomplished.”

Botball teams score equally in three categories of documentation, seeding rounds and the double elimination tournament. In each category, teams earn a score of 0.0 to 1.0. The Daniela Rus team won the competition with a total score of 2.930 out of the possible 3.0.

Documentation points are earned through a team’s online submission during the weeks leading up to the tournament and from a presentation that student team members must give at the tournament. Another Wabash Valley team, Maja Mataric, took first in documentation. Teams following closely behind included Belleville East High School and Daniela Rus.

Uncontested seeding rounds were held in the morning. Points earned determined the teams’ placement in the double-elimination bracket. One way to earn large points was for the robots to place hangers at the higher of two bars.

Daniela Rus took first in seeding rounds. St. Mary’s School in Edwardsville and another Wabash Valley team, Ada Lovelace, took second and third, respectively.

Daniela Rus beat Ada Lovelace in a dramatic final of the double-elimination event. In the semi-finals, Revitalization 2000 of St. Louis squared off against Daniela Rus. Each had one loss with the winner facing then undefeated Ada Lovelace, and Daniela Rus advanced.

In the first meeting against Ada Lovelace, Daniela Rus prevailed. The robots from both teams were high scorers, consistently able to place multiple hangers on the top rack.

With each team having one loss, it was winner take all as the two teams squared off again. With both teams going for the hangers at the center of the tournament table, Ada Lovelace got there first and was lining up its arm to hang its hangers when Daniela Rus arrived. The robots collided, knocking Ada Lovelace out of alignment, so the robot couldn’t successfully get hangers on the rack. Meanwhile, Daniela Rus was able to successfully get three hangers on the top rack, and advance to the winner’s circle.

Photo: Contestants Sam Wagner (left) and Amoni McNair at the 2014 annual Greater St. Louis Botball Tournament at SIUE.