Intellectual spark on display at high school robotics competition

The bulky-but-nimble robot-on-wheels swivels across the surface, dodging bumps and obstacles before extending its arm to pick up an inflated cube.

It's not people or controllers who are guiding it. It's an artificial intelligence camera, trained to spot, retrieve and return objects in the name of fun.

Students at Bishop Ryan Catholic Secondary School spent six weeks developing the green-plated robot, which debuted at the FIRST Robotics Competition at McMaster University over the weekend.

There's a little computer in that camera and we trained it on 10,000 images of game pieces, so it knows what they are and where to take them come game time," said Brendan Simons, a professional engineer and lead mentor of Celt-X," Bishop Ryan's 30-member robotics team. A lot of work and hours went into this."

Celt-X was one of 36 robotics teams from high schools across Ontario to show their stuff at the competition Saturday and Sunday.

Hosted at Mac's David Braley Athletic Centre, the event featured what you might expect at a youth basketball tournament: pinstriped refs, hundreds of fans and pounding music. But the differences lay in the playing surface - an enclosed grid instead of a court - and the makeup of the players, which is a little more brain than brawn.

It's my fourth year doing this and it never gets old," said Christian Femia, a Grade 12 student at Bishop Ryan and Celt-X's programmer. Every year there's new challenges and it's very competitive."

Haas Automation presented this year's energy-themed competition. In each match, teams had two-and-a-half minutes to remotely control their robots, which would place energy pieces (pylons and cubes) into towers that acted as power grids.

Seems simple enough, right? Except in the first 15 seconds of those matches, students couldn't touch their controls, the robots had to move and retrieve pieces themselves.

That's why the artificial intelligence camera stands out with our robot," said Femia. It's smart enough to recognize the pieces from our training and grab them on its own."

The remaining time on the game clock built on the match's antsy, programming-reliant start. Robots weaved across the playing surface in pursuit of coveted game pieces, often bumping into each other.

I can't lie, it's super fun to control a giant robot smashing into things," said Celt-X's Grace Emerson, who drove her team's robot with an Xbox controller.

Even a poor outing in a match brought excitement to the competition's players. While impressive with its new set of swivel cast wheels, Emerson noted Celt-X's robot had kinks when it drifted.

That meant a trip back to the team's pit, where students use their science and engineering skills to quickly strategize and come up with solutions.

It'll be fixed up and ready for the next one," said Emerson.

Sebastian Bron is a reporter at The Spectator. sbron@thespec.com