Great Falls Robotics more than ‘duct tape and hope’

Beacons are flashing, plastic balls are launched into baskets and two boxy robots are skittering around the practice arena preparing for their upcoming battle.

Flipper Bot hunts down red and blue balls to harvest and launch into the basket. Five points.

Barry Allen is running autonomously, hunting down beacons to claim for the blue team. Thirty points.

The two robots are the handy work of Great Falls Robotics, a group comprised of two teams from Great Falls High School.

Seniors Marcus Frisbee, Andrew Cantley, Nathan Jones, Alec Vanderkolk and Derek Roehm make up Bison Robotics with their robot, Barry Allen, named for The Flash comic book character.

Sophomores Ryan Munsterteiger, Kyle Miller, Aiden Heffernan, Brandon Vanderkolk and freshman Taylor Haslid are the Thundering Herd with their robot, Flipper Bot.

“The teams split themselves after ‘the great schism,’” said Brett Riss, Foundations of Science teacher and Thundering Herd head coach. “They naturally split based on their preferred scoring style in matches.”

The teams competed in Belgrade on Jan. 14 for the First Robotics Tech Challenge qualifier event. Of the 25 teams that competed, only 18 qualified to compete in the regional competition in Bozeman on Jan. 27.

The initial results ranked Sun River first, Great Falls’ Thundering Herd team second and the junior Sun River team third.

From these rankings, the first place Sun River team had the power to choose their alliance team to compete with in the partner playoffs. Sun River competed with Great Falls’ Thundering Herd team and Post Falls. This alliance secured first place.

Because the Great Falls Team was chosen by the first Sun River team, power passed to the junior Sun River team to pick their alliance. They chose Great Falls’ Bison Robotics team and Helena. This alliance placed second overall.

Teams will be holding a fundraising event Saturday, Jan. 21, at the 10th Avenue South Albertsons to help raise money for the event.

“Robots are one of the most expensive activities to be involved in,” said Beckie Frisbee, math teacher and Bison Robotics head coach. “The robots’ base price is about $1,200.”

Both teams hope to make it to the world competition in St. Louis in April.

But until then, the teams are working out some of the kinks — like figuring out why Flipper Bot occasionally hurls plastic balls at will.

“The hardest part is the trouble-shooting when things aren’t working,” 15-year-old Ryan Munsterteiger said. “We use a lot of duct tape.”

Munsterteiger is the team captain for the Thundering Herd and he’s being modest about the liberal use of duct tape on Flipper Bot.

Smooth, layered strips of neon green, pink leopard print, blue zebra-striped and Hello Kitty tape are wound from the outside into the inner-working of the robot.

But it works.

Flipper Bot easily traverses the practice field, scoops up balls and launches them into the three-foot baskets.

“We like to pretend there’s a style award,” Riss said. “Our motto is ‘Duct tape and hope.’”

Though the robots have an air of whimsy in their design, they are high-functioning machines with specialized sensors and mechanisms to make them a force in the arena.

The robots are required to compete in a 30-second autonomous round where students write lines of code telling the bots to find a beacon, determine what color is displayed and switch the beacon to their respective team’s color.

After the code is programmed, all the students can do is watch as their robot executes its directions.

Robots communicate with their human overlords through cellphones. One is held by the students, the other is wired into the robot.

Following the autonomous round, the students use a controller to drive the robot, harvest plastic balls, score baskets and switch beacons.

Great Falls Robotics meets every day after school for two to three hours in the workshop of Great Falls College MSU. They will be working on their final preparations for their upcoming competition for the next two weeks.

Support robotics

WHEN: Noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 21

WHERE: 10th Avenue South, Albertsons location