ELLISVILLE, MO – A west county based robotics team called “Action Robotix” was one of at least 10,000 teams from over100 countries who competed in last season’s First Lego League (FLL). Action Robotix consists of middle school and early high school students from Rockwood and Parkway school districts. 

What You Need To Know

  • Action Robotix is a robotics team from West County that competes in FIRST competitions

  • Last season, they earned second place in the Florida Sunshine Invitational, a global robotics tournament

  • This season, they'll move from Lego-built robots to metal robots

  • Participating in Action Robotix has developed teamwork, problem-solving, innovation and other core values

“FIRST is a robotics program, but it’s a lot more than just robotics,” said Adi Ganesh, a multi-year member of Action Robotix. “In FLL especially, we were graded on three aspects: core values, innovation project and robot design and robot game.”

Action Robotix took home second place globally at the the “Florida Sunshine Invitational,” a Lego robot design and game competition.

In these competitions, Lego robots that are previously built and coded by their team attempt up to fifteen “missions” to earn points. There are three games to the competition and the highest score is taken to be the team’s score.

“So either you push something or you pull something, or you use a lever to switch something up, or raise something and that would give you points in turn,” said Arnav Madhavan. 

For the robot to accomplish these feats, they’re pre-coded with a series of commands assigned to a number. 

“It’s like block code, it has pre-coded commands on there,” said Naisha Salaria, a newer member to Action Robotix this season. “You just put in how many centimeters or inches you want in there. And then it goes forward, turns right, turns left, (commands) like that.”

Each of the students say teamwork is a big reason why they enjoy the program and why they were successful. “There’s a lot of roles and we just try to get everyone to do everything,” said Arjun Arun. 

A role and certainly a challenge many may not think of for a robotics club is marketing.

“Sometimes we’ll email people and they’ll be like, 'we’ll get back to you in a couple weeks,' and they never get back to us. So, actually getting ahold of them, getting a meeting with them is the most difficult part,” said Aditi Jha, who’s led the charge on seeking sponsors for the team.

On the competition mat, teamwork and problem-solving are key to combat the unexpected errors, glitches, or “ghosts in the system” that may potentially plague their score. 

“If something didn't work, we just had think of a solution right away,” said Arun. “If we have a specific code for running this thing and it doesn’t work, then we have to think of something very quickly. Another code to use may be to just push something in and get like the few extra points we need.”

“It’s all about teamwork. If you want to start small, then FLL is a great place because who doesn’t like lego,” said Keshav Pallavur. “You get to meet a lot of new people, and you get to have coding practices, and learn about real-world problems.”

In the fall, the robotics teams participating in First Lego League or First Tech Challenge (FTC) are assigned a theme and mission for the season. For FLL, the mission is optional, but Action Robotix didn’t shy away from it. Each season, FIRST competitions focus on a real problem. Last season was titled “Masterpiece,” and teams were to find a problem in art and fix it. 

Action Robotix noted that all shoe-sizes aren’t the same. The team designed the “ActiStrap,” a new foot sizer with an 85% success rate at determining a person’s foot size. A Caleris executive invited Action Robotix to pitch the idea to them. Among the points in their pitch, they noted online shoppers could use the ActiStrap to help acquire the right size when purchasing. Also, the strap takes seconds to use and only costs $1.25 while the common shoe-sizer, the “Brannock Device,” is significantly more expensive and takes minutes. On Action Robotix’s YouTube channel, they provide instructions to make your own ActiStrap.  

The other major change from FLL to FTC is the building and coding components to the competitions. 

“For me, I feel like FLL is just small lego robot, and FTC is big metal robot,” said Pallavur.

Later this year, they’ll use Java script and construct a metal robot to compete in FTC. This FTC season is titled “Into the Deep,” an ocean theme. 

“Robot and ocean are like completely opposite, but I’m excited to see how they incorporate that to the robot,” said Naisha Salaria. Aditi Jha has mixed emotions on the switch, saying it is “kind of intimidating but I think it will be fun.”

Winning the competition, while fun, isn’t the best part for these young engineers but how FLL and FTC will help build their future. The team said the entire point of FIRST is teaching young people about engineering, teamwork, and inclusion.

“These core values teach you how to behave in not just FLL but life as well,” said Ganesh. “Everyone is like friends and we all work together to try and get the goal which is trying to advance to the world championship but it’s not just about going to the world championships, it’s having fun while you’re doing it.”