By Brittany Anderson
KYLE — Ranger Robotics, Wallace Middle School’s robotics club, has qualified for the VEX Robotics World Championship — but they need some support from the community to get there.
The club, which was established in 2015 and is coached by teacher James Noble, is made up of 7th and 8th grade students on two teams who build their own robots to compete in the annual VEX Robotics Competition.
During the Texas Region 4 Championship on Feb. 26, the two Ranger Robotics teams faced off against each other in the final match. One team got Tournament Finalist while the other got Tournament Champion, and both awards qualified for the World Championship.
Ranger Robotics team members Landon, Dakota, Mathyus, coach James Noble, Eli, Daniel, Anthony, Pierce, Chris and Wyatt with robots Scrap and Flare and their trophies at the Region 4 Championship. Photo via James Noble.
They are two out of the six teams from the Region 4 area, which encompasses schools across central and southwest Texas, going to Worlds from May 3-5 in Dallas, where teams from across the world will compete.
The VEX game changes every year — “That way everybody has to build a new robot every year,” Noble explained — and this year’s game is called Tipping Point. Each year, part of what the team works on is analyzing the game and figuring out what strategy they want to use.
The premise of the game consists of two alliances (one red and one blue) composed of two teams each that compete in matches consisting of a 15 second pre-programmed (autonomous) period followed by a 1 minute 45 second driver-controlled period.
Along with 72 rings, there are seven mobile goals on the 12’x12’ field: two red goals, two blue goals and three highly-contested yellow goals that are neutral and can be scored by either alliance. Each alliance also has an elevated platform on their side.
The object of the game is for one alliance to get the highest score by scoring rings onto goals, moving either their red or blue goals to their alliance zone, and balancing their robot and goals on their platform for additional points.
Teams also have the ability to scout for alliance members to team up for matches.
Daniel driving Flare during a practice ‘skills’ run at an after school practice. Photo by Brittany Anderson.
This year, the Ranger Robotics teams have built robots Scrap and Flare. Each team builds their own robot from scratch using the VEX system for the year and programmers on the team help code the robot, which assists during the autonomous period.
“It’s totally kosher to copy other designs and adapt them, or do any crazy thing you want,” Noble said. “People will make fun of Flare because it’s super simple, but they’ve built it like a tank. It’s basically the base design that VEX shared, but they’ve enhanced the design and built on it and improved it to the point where it’s a really simple but very good robot.”
Teams have to abide by certain VEX rules — their robots cannot exceed 36 inches, and they can only use VEX motors, batteries, metal, wheels and gears. Noble said that this helps level the playing field, especially at the middle school level.
“I think it’s really great. … There are teams that have more money that can buy fancy parts and afford to really tear it up, but VEX limits you to basically only using their subsystems,” Noble said.
The team said that the games can get intense — with four robots on the field at once there’s a lot of pushing, and one team member said that some of the robots can be “terrifying” — but that with this year’s game, there’s a lot of good chaos and interaction involved.
Of course, there’s also some friendly rivalry that goes on between the two Ranger Robotics teams. One of Scrap’s builders proudly said he managed to flip Flare over and unplug its battery during a competition.
The new season begins every year after Worlds in April, so teams have one year to plan and execute their robot for competition. For the 2021-2022 season, however, Ranger Robotics had significantly less time to prepare, as they didn’t start until mid-September.
Noble halted the program when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and this year, all but two students were new to the team. Noble said that he is “very happy” with what the team has been able to accomplish, despite some of these challenges.
“I push these guys really hard to build super sturdy robots,” Noble said. “There are some coaches that would say that I’m too involved in the process. There’s different styles of coaching. So long as the kids are building it, and they’re the ones moving the tools and coming up with the design, I provide feedback. That’s my philosophy.”
The team is sponsored by Fox Robotics out of Austin, but are hosting two fundraisers in the coming weeks to help fund their trip to Worlds in Dallas.
If you would like to support Ranger Robotics, the fundraisers will be held in Kyle Crossing at Chick-fil-A and Mod Pizza, who will donate a portion of their sales that day to the team. Mention “Wallace Robotics Spirit Night” at Chick-fil-A on Wednesday, March 30. Use code MODF5208 at check out or mention Spirit Night at Mod Pizza on Monday, April 11.
More information on VEX Robotics can be found at www.vexrobotics.com. Keep up with the Ranger Robotics team on their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/RangerRobotics.
