Freedom Robotics, an elective in which students build metallic war machines, enters two contenders in this year’s Southwest Bot IQ. Students in this elective design their bot based on a defensive or offensive strategy, and then enter them in a combat competition. The first bot to be disabled loses.

“We enter combat robots in the 15 pound weight division. There will be two teams this year, each with a robot,” VEKA Inc. Advisor Mrs. Beth Majors said.

Once they decide on their strategy, competitors design the concept of their robot and then travel to VEKA Inc. Once there, a local manufacturer helps students bring their concept to life by providing materials, supplies and a means to construct their design. The robot is assembled and tested until it is ready to compete, where it then enters the preliminary competition in March. If the Freedom bot designs are successful in eliminating their competition, they will advance to the finals in April.

“As long as we have a robot to compete with, it’s guaranteed that we will advance to finals,” Senior Eric Eisenbrown said.

VEKA is a relatively new group, only three years old, but they have won several awards in years past. Their first year they won rookie of the year, which means they were the furthest advancing first-year team. Additionally, last year they won best sportsmanship. Both of this year’s bots are offense based, but they differ in strategy.

The first bot is equipped with a beater bar which bludgeons the opposing bot with a fast spinning piece of metal. The other bot’s offense takes on a less violent, intelligent strategy. It is equipped with a wedge that allows it to lift and flip other robots, leaving them stranded on their sides or back. If the opposing robot is
incapacitated, or, in this case, can’t get up, Freedom wins. These parts are placed on the front of the machine and are made to be interchangeable. The parts would be tight enough not to fall off in a match but would be able to be taken off and swapped out between battles.

“Our bot features both a beater bar and a wedge so that you can interchange the weapons between battles,” Eisenbrown said. “We’ve never seen anything done like this before. This is a feat of engineering we’ve never seen in a competition.”

This year, the robotics elective had too many students to keep in one class, so they were split into two groups and asked to make their own bot. Although the concepts have yet to be constructed, Freedom’s bots are currently in the design and build stage. They will continue to correct design flaws while they start roughing their first prototype.