Suttons Bay Public Schools’ Norsemen Robotics team members, which also consists of students from neighboring schools like Lake Leelanau St. Mary and Northport, are readying for their first match of the season on March 9-10 at Lake City High School. With just a little more than a week left, the 10 team members are feeling a mixture of excitement and nerves.
“Our robot should be ready to compete at the first match. There is still a lot we have to improve on and fine-tune,” said Anthony Grant, an 11th grader on the team from Lake Leelanau St. Mary. “As we continue to go through the season, our understanding of the game will progress, and with that, our robot will as well.”
“We are not in the best spot we would want to be right now,” said Suttons Bay senior Casey Porter. “We need to get our drive team ready and finalize what we have not completed, to get it to a usable place.”
This year’s challenge is called “Crescendo!” and requires the robot to pick up “notes,” or foam rings and to score them into goals called “amps and speakers.” In the final portion of each match, robots must be able to move on stage by hanging from a suspended chain. The team must also develop an autonomous program that allows the robot to move and score independent of human control at the beginning of each match.
Koen Kruk, a Northport 10th grader, and Alex McCormick, a Suttons Bay 9th grader, are both participating in robotics for the first time this season. McCormick said he wanted to get involved with the build process because he likes robots and building, adding that he has multiple Lego builds at home that use motors. For Kruk, he said his dad coached robotics before and always thought it was an interesting concept to design and build a robot to play a game.
The team’s golden rule is to “keep it simple,” but like every other school in the competition, team members are building a robot from the ground up. Brainstorming for the challenge started right away after the team kicked off their season on January 6, when they traveled to Boyne City to view the much anticipated 2024 game reveal video. While students are enthusiastic for a number of reasons, the camaraderie, 11th grader Jacob Gulley said, is one of them.
“I’m excited to see someone score in the trap (one of the goals). It’s definitely the most challenging aspect of the game,” Grant said. “It will be interesting to see what other teams do to achieve this.”
“I’m interested to see how much they have made the human player necessary for winning,” Porter said.
Everything from whiteboards and cardboard to scrap wood is utilized in the design and prototype process. After numerous discussions and fine-tuning several prototypes, the team reported in their latest update that they dove headfirst into fabrication. Other team activities have included building mock goals to practice scoring, brainstorming match strategy, analyzing competition scouting tools, researching various fabrication elements, and more.
Grant said all members of the team are incredibly involved with the build process, but his favorite part about it is the design aspect.
“In designing the robot, you really have to be creative but also open to different ideas no matter how out there they may seem to be at the time,” Grant said. “Communication is definitely one of the biggest elements because you have all of these parts and pieces you need to have come together, and often different individuals will be contributing different elements.”
Gulley usually works with the electronics side of the robot, noting that he’s learned about things like how the different fuses go with the correct wires, as well as how the thickness of the gauge of the wires makes an impact.
Porter, who is the only senior on the team, said that he’s been able to work on all parts of the robot.
“My leadership skills have gotten a lot better, and I’m trying to pass on my knowledge and experience for the other members to carry forward into the next years,” Porter said.
After the first district competition wraps up at Lake City High School, the Norsemen will have their next match on March 15-16 at Traverse City West Senior High School. These competitions are free and open to the public.
