Robot Freeze Tag had Students Programming Champions

Cheers went up in class as the final teams of robots faced off to see which one would win the Robot Freeze Tag Tournament.

“The robots were made from a kit by VEX Robotics,” said Electronics and Robotics teacher Mr. Chris Pietris. “This particular kit is called VEX EXP.”

Students have been working for approximately four weeks to build and program the robots used in the competition. Using metal bars, screws, motors, wheels, and a “brain,” the box that controls the actual robot based on student programming, the students created robot vehicles that drive forward, backward, and spin. Students remotely command their robots with a handheld, video game-style controller. 

“They built the robots and programmed them using VEXcode EXP,” said Mr. Pietris. “They also changed out the wheels to determine which ones performed best, and there were different controller settings so they could see which ones they liked to use. There was a little experimentation throughout the whole process.”

“It took about a week to build it,” said senior Lorenzo Viscogliosi. “Then we did a lot of testing.

The competition took place in heats, with two teams, made up of two robots each, facing off together in a head-to-head freeze tag match in a six-foot by four-foot walled grid arena. The robots, each controlled by a different student, had to push a red and black button on the back of the other robots. When a robot’s button was pushed, they were tagged, and the “brain” screen flashed red, freezing the vehicle for five seconds—all steps that were programmed by the students. The robot team that was tagged the least times during each round was the winner and moved on to the next heat.

“We started from scratch, and we used the metal to build the base,” said junior Chris Curry. “Once we had our base, we added the motors, then we used a drive train and put it inside a motor so that when the motor spins, it makes the wheels turn. The back wheels do all the work. The front wheels just spin.”

While all the robots fought valiantly, a few took hits that were too hard and ended up out of bounds or stuck in positions they couldn’t recover from. Those robots were penalized with an additional five tag points. Some robots sustained damage in the heats, losing wheels in the fight and needing to be replaced. After five heats, the final two teams faced off for a chance to win the tournament and bragging rights.