{"id":15177,"date":"2024-06-13T22:24:27","date_gmt":"2024-06-13T22:24:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/secondary.sd42.ca\/thss\/?p=15177"},"modified":"2024-06-13T22:24:27","modified_gmt":"2024-06-13T22:24:27","slug":"thomas-haney-secondary-students-build-robot-for-global-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/secondary.sd42.ca\/thss\/thomas-haney-secondary-students-build-robot-for-global-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"Thomas Haney Secondary students build robot for global competition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-15179\" src=\"https:\/\/wordpress1.blob.core.windows.net\/thss\/2024\/06\/THSSRobot-6.jpg\" alt=\"Members of the ThunderTech Robotics team pose with their robot, Cobra Chicken, at Thomas Haney Secondary.\" width=\"6373\" height=\"4249\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Meet the <a href=\"https:\/\/thssrobotics.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ThunderTech Robotics<\/a> team\u2019s newest invention: A nearly 130-pound industrial size robot that\u2019s twice as powerful as a Ford F-150.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s about as powerful as the latest Tesla Model S,\u201d said Matvey Okoneshnikov, a Grade 12 student at Thomas Haney Secondary and team leader of software. \u201cThat\u2019s a lot of power, but we needed that power for the robot to lift itself off the ground for the last part of the competition.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Thomas Haney team built the robot for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.firstinspires.org\/robotics\/frc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">FIRST Robotics Competition<\/a>, an international contest where high school students design, build and program robots within six weeks to compete in a game against each other.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8kwPYAN-gxQ?si=LbMmUTU5-7rPYoPd\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cMany people assume immediately it\u2019s kind of like BattleBots, but it isn\u2019t. You are not allowed to intentionally damage other robots,\u201d Okoneshnikov said.<\/p>\n<p>The game is different every year and comes with a 200-page rulebook. This year, the game required robots to pick up foam rings from the ground or a platform and shoot them into targets at different heights. The final challenge was for the robot to hang itself from a chain without touching the ground.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a very well-known competition and it\u2019s a great opportunity for students to work with high-tech equipment and real-world applications of robotics,\u201d explained Okoneshnikov.<\/p>\n<p>Once the rulebook was published in January, the team got to work. They secured funding from sponsors \u2013 including the Thomas Haney Parent Advisory Council (PAC), Motorola Solutions Foundation, and McFarlen Engineering \u2013 and began building their robot.<\/p>\n<p>Grade 12 student Daniil Batishchev, the hardware team leader, spent more than 600 hours working on the robot.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur main idea was to make everything from metal because metal is strong,\u201d Batishchev explained. \u201cThe robot has three main parts: the drivetrain, arm and the shooter system. All three parts are replaceable so if something happens to our robot, we can always replace [it].\u201d<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-16869 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sd42.ca\/assets\/media\/THSSRobot-1-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"Cobra Chicken, the robot built by ThunderTech Robotics for the FIRST Robotics Competition.\" width=\"359\" height=\"539\" \/><\/p>\n<p>When they finished building the robot, they came up with the perfect name: Cobra Chicken, a slang term for the Canada goose.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe named it that because if we made it to Worlds, we wanted to be able to represent Canada to its fullest,\u201d said team leader of electronics and Grade 10 student Logan Humeniuk. \u201cWe also leaned into some of the other stereotypes, such as plaid flannel jackets and embracing the flag\u2019s colour scheme in our logo.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At the end of February, ThunderTech Robotics travelled to Victoria to take part in the Canadian Pacific Regional event of the competition.<\/p>\n<p>And that\u2019s when it all fell apart.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe got to the competition and we rebuilt every single part of this robot,\u201d said Humeniuk.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverything that could have gone wrong did go wrong,\u201d added Okoneshnikov.<\/p>\n<p>It started with the robot\u2019s frame, which they discovered was six inches over the allowed specifications.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNobody thought that a rookie team was going to be able to pull past that,\u201d said Humeniuk. \u201cBut we got in there with angle grinders. We were cutting parts of the robot off and we stuck it back together, and sure enough, within an hour we were back on the field playing with a certified robot.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But the problems didn\u2019t end there. The team also had to rebuild the intake and shooter mechanism and replace the main computer that controls the robot.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEven with all that, we still had a very impressive showing on the field,\u201d Okoneshnikov said.<\/p>\n<p>Although they didn\u2019t place or move on to Worlds, ThunderTech Robotics still ended strong, winning the 2024 Innovation in Control Award.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were blown away. There are no rookie teams that we\u2019re aware of that have gotten the award in the past, so it\u2019s a huge deal for us,\u201d Humeniuk said. \u201cIt\u2019ll hopefully allow us to get some more sponsors so that we [can] fund our robot for next year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s kind of the crown jewel of our collection.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-16868\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sd42.ca\/assets\/media\/THSSRobot-7-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"The 2024 Innovation in Control Award given to ThunderTech Robotics for the Canadian Pacific Regional event of the FIRST Robotics Competition.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Meet the ThunderTech Robotics team\u2019s newest invention: A nearly 130-pound industrial size robot that\u2019s twice as powerful as a Ford F-150. \u201cIt\u2019s about as powerful as the latest Tesla Model S,\u201d said Matvey Okoneshnikov, a Grade 12 student at Thomas Haney Secondary and team leader of software. \u201cThat\u2019s a lot of power, but we needed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":15179,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,20],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15177","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-announcements","8":"category-news","9":"entry"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/secondary.sd42.ca\/thss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/secondary.sd42.ca\/thss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/secondary.sd42.ca\/thss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secondary.sd42.ca\/thss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secondary.sd42.ca\/thss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15177"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/secondary.sd42.ca\/thss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15180,"href":"https:\/\/secondary.sd42.ca\/thss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15177\/revisions\/15180"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secondary.sd42.ca\/thss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/secondary.sd42.ca\/thss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secondary.sd42.ca\/thss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secondary.sd42.ca\/thss\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}