News

The Rolla Regional Robotics team from St. James, Mo., took its second consecutive win at the 2017 annual Greater St. Louis Botball Tournament on Saturday, April 8 at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Fifteen teams competed in the Morris University Center’s Meridian Ballroom before a crowd of more than 200 throughout the day. Basler Electric, of Highland, helped sponsor the regional event.

This year’s theme was agriculture. Students’ robots worked to assist Agrobot with collecting seeds, fertilizer, and water, and moving cows and hay around the field. The students built autonomous robots that traveled around a game board earning points with a few possible goals to accomplish in two-minute rounds:

• Retrieve water and fertilizer from bins using mechanical means
• Plant in furrows by precisely placing equal numbers of seeds, fertilizer, and water
• Stack haybales in a barn
• Move the cow and farmer to beneficial locations

The board was multi-leveled, creating additional challenges for the teams. The robots could travel around the main area, which represented a field, and up a slope to the top of a barn that contained higher scoring game items.

Gary Mayer, PhD, associate professor of computer science in the SIUE School of Engineering and the event organizer, said that one of the biggest challenges for many teams was staying on the ramp up to the barn. “Many teams had plans for the bigger points up top but, for one reason or another, the robot tractors couldn’t keep a straight path and wound up back on the field,” he said. “However, those that could do it were able to score significant points.

“Some of the best mechanical designs seen were the hay bale stackers. The robots had to get the bale high enough to be put one onto another, but not so high that it didn’t fit in the barn.”

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. Uncontested seeding rounds are held in the morning. Points earned determined a teams’ placement in the double-elimination bracket.

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. Rolla Regional Robotics earned first place in documentation, seeding, and double elimination, guaranteeing its overall win.

“All of the teams came out with great plans and robot designs,” Mayer said. “Those that took the most points were able to perform consistently.”

Father McGivney Catholic High School of Edwardsville, took a step closer toward unseating Rolla through a solid second-place placement in all three categories - behind by only 0.4 of a point in the overall score. Edwardsville High School stepped up its game to place third overall. EHS edged fourth-place Saint Mary’s of Edwardsville by less than 0.09 of a point.