Katy robotics team competes at world championship

“Ironclad,” the robotics team of Harmony School of Innovation-Katy, will compete in the First Tech Challenge World Championship April 17-20 at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston.

“This competition is the largest and most difficult we have ever participated in,” said Ramazan Ozdemir, team mentor. “The furthest any of the teams at our school have made previously was Super-Regionals, so being the first team at our school to make it to Worlds is daunting. However, Worlds has been a dream for many of our members since starting in FTC so the excitement we all have is indescribable.”

The Katy team advanced after its performance at the Southeast Texas First Tech Challenge Championship at San Jacinto College on Feb. 23. The 13-hour tournament consisted of 45 qualifying matches followed by 12 high-performing teams picked for the alliance playoffs. Playoffs consisted of four alliances each with three robots competing in best-of-3 matches in the semifinal and final rounds. Katy’s alliance team won the finals earning it one of the five advancing spots to the FTC World competition.

Ironclad also received the Control Award because its robot’s functionality stood out among the rest for its use of sensors and software.

“We were rewarded the Control Award due to the fact that we use a special artificial intelligence algorithm during the robot game,” explained Ozdemir. “During the first 30 seconds of the game, when the robot is expected to perform certain varying tasks autonomously, the robot uses its equipped webcam to analyze the orientation of certain objectives in the game. Depending on what the robot sees, it uses the AI algorithm to execute a specific instruction set so it can score the most points possible.”

According to Southeast Texas First Tech Challenge judges, “The team demonstrated innovative thinking in the control system to solve game challenges such as autonomous operation, improving mechanical systems with intelligent control, and/or using sensors to achieve better results on the field.”

Ozdemir said the team is changing its robot, which it named Shokree, to make it more competitive in the world championship.

“First, we are switching to a mecanum drive train, which allows us to strafe left and right without turning the robot,” he said. “Currently, we have a tank drivetrain, which only allows us to move forward and backwards, and to move in other directions, we have to turn and face that direction. We are switching to mecanum to increase our maneuverability and efficiency on the field. We are also switching to a lighter chassis so we can move faster on the field. Along with that, we are making a few modifications to our pivoting arm system that will make it more stable and easier to use while driving and in time-sensitive situations.”

Ozdemir explained that one of games’ objectives is to carry minerals and deposit them into the top of the lander. “Currently, we can do about 16 minerals in 2 minutes, but we believe that in order to be competitive at world championships, we want to be able to deliver at least 25 minerals in 2 minutes,” he said. “So all the changes we’ve made to the robot have been made with achieving that goal in mind.”

The team has been working since February on making the changes to better compete later this month.

“Our communications skills have become extremely important in preparing for Worlds, as there is so much excitement and work to do that it often is difficult to actually get work done,” said Ozdemir. “We created many to-do lists and had meetings where we discussed how to move forward with the robot. We also had to get decorations before the competition for our booth. Our goals for the competition are to have as much fun as possible because this is a moment many of us have dreamed of since starting in FTC. We also hope to advance as far as possible and do our very best in our robot game. Spreading the ideas of gracious professionalism and FIRST throughout our community is extremely important to our team.”

Three students joined this year’s team but they already were friends with the team members so working together wasn’t a problem. The students call Ozdemir “Mr. Oz” their biggest asset.

“Mr. Oz has put in many hours to make sure we are as prepared as possible, often staying very late to supervise and help where he can. We could improve our time-management skills, as we often procrastinate our building and notebook creation. We spend so much time discussing plans for robots and designs that the building is often rushed, making it harder for our programmer to do his job.”

But this being the first time the team has competed at the World Level, Ozdemir added “We’re all really excited!”