Future Engineers build combat bots
“Mr. Chomp,” “The Darkest Fire,” “a volcano named Pom-pain” and other robots designed by K-12 students went head-to-head at Utah State University’s Future Engineers Battle Bot Design Competition.
According toDallin Treasure-Areno, vice president for the combat robotics subgroup of the USU Robotics Club, representatives from the club visited K-12 classes across Cache Valley, inviting students to design their own battle bot. Of the designs, 14 were chosen and converted into real combat robots.
“My idea was that it would be fun to take a crayon drawing of the fire breathing dragon, unicorn thing, and to make a robot out of it,” Treasure-Areno said.
According to Treasure-Areno, the goal was to get kids excited about engineering.
“We just want to show them that any of them can be an engineer, and it’s really achievable. It’s not just doing math — it’s solving problems, and you can have a lot of fun with it too,” Treasure-Areno said.
London Little is a local seventh grade student whose design was recreated by a member of combat robotics.
“We had watched a couple episodes of ‘BattleBots,’ and I knew what it was, and I thought it was super cool that I could design my own bot. I was really excited when I got in,” London said.
Her robot “Sweet and Sour” included pink bows that also functioned as spikes on the wheels and an internal Bluetooth speaker that played Taylor Swift songs during the fights.
“I wanted it to be super girly,” London said.
Other designs included robots inspired by dinosaurs, leprechauns and dancers.
The Sweet and Sour team’s battle bot is shown at the Future Engineers Battle Bot Design Competition at the TSC Sunburst Lounge on April 11.
Treasure-Areno brought second grader Ethan Mueller’s design “Mr. Cheese” to life.
Ethan based his design, a spinning blade that looks like a cheese slice, on a previous “BattleBots” first-place winner.
“I like to create stuff just for fun,” Ethan said. “I took that design, and I repeated it into a different subject.”
Treasure-Areno said the kids weren’t allowed to see their robots until the day of the competition, and he was excited to see their reactions.
Ethan Jones is a member of the club who helped bring a robot called “Pot of Gold” to life.
“I think it’s just so fun — the theme of the robot and just sticking with that and trying to make it able to fight,” Jones said.
According to Treasure-Areno, the team competes in the same sport as players from Amazon’s “BattleBots” TV show but on a smaller scale — with 1- to 3-pound robots instead of 250-pound bots.
The robots fight in an 64-square-foot arena surrounded by nearly bullet-proof glass for three minutes. Bots are classified by weight, and designers have to follow certain rules, like weapons have to be completely 3D printed. Bots are “knocked-out” if they can no longer move. Otherwise, judges determined the winner based on damage, control and aggression.
“You couldn’t just have a bot that ping pong balls around the arena randomly, but you also can’t be avoiding conflict,” Treasure-Areno said. “You’ve got to put on a good show for the audience too with aggression and obviously damaging your opponent so even if it’s not a knockout, enough points can go towards you to get a win.”
Participants and attendees of the Future Engineers Battle Bot Design Competition gather before the start of the competition on April 11.
The 14 bots fought in a double elimination tournament, and both the college and K-12 student designers won prizes based on wins in the arena and design.
According to Treasure-Areno, engineering can be a competitive field. This sort of hands-on experience gives engineers an edge.
“It can separate you from somebody with straight A’s if you’ve actually found out the hard way when it comes to making things,” Treasure-Areno said.
According to Treasure-Areno, members of the club get hands-on experience with material analysis, designing for experience, solid works, electronics and mechanics.
He said people in the industry are looking to hire engineers that have the technical intuition that only comes from trying, failing and trying again.
“My main interest is medical devices, but bioengineering is just so broad that I wanted to make sure I got some experience with a little bit more of a mechanical emphasis,” Treasure-Areno said.
USU combat robotics meets every Tuesday at 5 p.m. in the Richard and Moonyeen Anderson Engineering Building room 009.
“Anybody can do this. I’ve seen tournaments where there’s people that are ranked third nationwide, and they lose a fight to an eight-year-old,” Treasure-Areno said.