Chesterfield County, Virginia Chesterfield Behind the Mic, 15 Jun 2022

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From YouTube: Episode 21: Entering the World of Library Bots

Description

On the latest episode of Chesterfield Behind the Mic, we talk to members of Library Bots, a team of local high schoolers who meet at Central Library and compete in FIRST Tech Challenge robotics. Their “coach” and two team members talk about their experience of building the robot and competing against other teams, including how important the term “gracious professionalism” matters in all that they do.

Credits:
Director: Martin Stith
Executive Producer: Susan S. Pollard
Co-Executive Producer: Teresa Bonifas
Producer/Writer/Host: Brad Franklin
Director of Photography/Editor: Matt Boyce
Camera Operator/Promotions: Vernon Freeman
Graphics: Debbie Wrenn
Promotions and Media: J. Elias O’Neal

Music:
Hip Hop This by Seven Pounds
Inspiring Electronic Rock by Alex Grohl

Guests:
Kasey Tross, Mentor/Coach
Kayla Dotson, Build Team
Tyson Tross, Build Team

Filmed on location at Central Library

Production Assistance Provided By: I & L Event Production

Chesterfield.gov/podcast

Follow us on social media! On Facebook, like our page: Chesterfield Behind the Mic. On Twitter, you can find us at @ChesterfieldVa and on Instagram it’s @ChesterfieldVirginia. And you can also watch the podcast on WCCT TV Thursday through Sunday at 7 p.m. as well as on weekends at noon on Comcast Channel 98 and Verizon Channel 28.

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Good morning, good evening, good afternoon, wherever it is that you are wherever you may be, thank you very much for making us a part of your day. I am brad franklin, creative content right here in chesterfield, and I'm very glad to tell you that cheshire behind the mic is on the air. Once again, as you can see, we are no longer in the confines of our comfy uh studio over in the admin building.

A

Instead we're here at central library we're here to talk about library bots, which is a pretty cool program that I'm really excited to feature on the podcast. First, I want to welcome casey tross, who is a mentor coach uh person who helps all the kids welcome to the podcast casey.

A

How are you I'm great thanks for having us very glad to have you obviously for folks who are new to this we're going to try to do our best to explain it and by us I mean you, um I'm gonna do my best to stay out of the way um in a general sense. What what's going on back here right.

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What what goes on in in this space for for these kids for this team.

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Okay, so what we have here is a first tech challenge, team and.

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Are part of a team that's under the umbrella of first there's.

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Robotics challenge first lego: league first, tech challenge is for kids that are in 7th through 12th grade right, so it works really nicely for a community team like this one, because we have kids from middle school and high school over here and basically what they do is every year in september, first issues their tech challenge for the year.

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And what the team has to do, starting in september once they learn what the game is, that.

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Their robot has to play.

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Then they have to design the robot that can play that game, so it'd be kind of like if they said well. We want your robot to be able to play basketball, but it's never a normal game like basketball. It's.

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A game that they.

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So this year it involved delivering blocks and balls to a three-tiered stand. It also uh involved some things with rubber ducks. We we have kind of an abbreviated version going on on the field here behind.

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But yeah they had to design a robot that.

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Do all the tasks needed to earn points in the game all.

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Right now, year to year for the kids who come back, how similar are these challenges year to year.

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um They they can vary widely. So, for example, this year we had some obstacles on the field, so they had some bars on the field that the robot had to get over, along with delivering uh the the blocks and balls.

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There have been games in years past where the robot has to hook onto an object and lift itself up. Oh.

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Times when they've had to climb up an incline, stack things on top of each other, there was one year like giant lego blocks. They had to stack on top of each.

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Yeah, so it's it varies widely, but they try to make it so that every challenge is somehow kind of a version of something that robots might need to do in real life. Right.

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This year's challenge was called freight frenzy. Okay, um so we know that there's a lot of issues with shipping going on right now I was.

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Going to say very topical.

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Very uh they they usually try and do that, and so they uh decided to make a game that involved shipping elements and.

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Might need to deliver various shipping elements um to you know different places.

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Right in terms of the robot itself, how much time ballpark between when they get the challenge and when you actually get to a place for competition.

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um Well, let's see so they start in september. They.

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Start off meeting once a week: okay,.

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Just be real, honestly start off meeting once a week for three hours um september. I would say the first few weeks is a lot of design and prototyping right.

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That's you know 12 hours or so of that, okay.

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In october, they start going whoa. We better get this robot together.

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So we might meet twice a week right so six hours, business picks up.

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A little bit another 24.

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Hours or so in november and december, that's when we usually have our first competition.

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We will be in here every day for three hours a day.

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It's it's a quite time intensive thing, but it's great for the kids, because they have to learn a lot about time. Management.

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Right yeah for sure- and I would imagine too, that that it's not just um you know coming together and building something it's doing it as a team right.

C

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Of the big points of of this whole entire thing- I I know in our previous conversation you mentioned that it's not just about you know. The competition aspect is not just what you do on the field. There's also the way you do. It talk to me a little bit about sort of uh gracious professionalism and why.

C

That's such a big deal. Yeah gracious professionalism is one of the core tenets of first and you'll notice. When you're at a first competition that you're not going to see anybody yelling at a ref you're not going to see team members get mad at each other.

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Because gracious professionalism is, is the standard by which every team is judged.

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Gracious are you professional.

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um So we try to cultivate that atmosphere here.

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As we're working, because we want that to translate to competition right.

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So if you're at a competition, another team, their robot, isn't working, you might offer some help. You might.

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If somebody says hey, we forgot our duct tape. Can we borrow some you'll say absolutely right and again. This is just another way that first tries to mimic a real world environment, you're.

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Survive long professionally, if you're yelling at your your colleagues, that's.

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Yeah, so it's it's a really great way to prepare them for real life.

A

Right now, in terms of the materials I'm curious, you can, can you essentially when they give you the challenge? How how specific are they in terms of what the robot should be are all of them? When you see them at a competition, are they just all vastly different? Are they very similar they're.

C

All vastly different, that's one of the fun things about going to a competition because we're you know working in our own little bubble for the first. You know couple of months and then.

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Get out there and we, you know your eyes just get open like. Oh, we never thought of doing it. That way,.

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A really cool way to collaborate, um but they do have very specific rules about what is allowed materials.

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Are allowed and there aren't.

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So there's a few different um brands that they that we use there's tetrix and uh I can't remember the other one off the top of my head but um yeah, but then there's also a list of prohibited materials right. um There are certain kind of magnets that you can't use.

A

And things like that could interfere with other robots gotcha now, in terms of for folks who are watching or listening, um how do you control the thing like what goes into? Not just you know, building it to make it do whatever it does for that specific challenge, but I'm just curious: how would you explain what goes into the controls of the actual robot.

C

See that's a really good question, I'm going to be honest with you. I I don't know anything about robots. I.

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But this is again.

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Another great thing about first right.

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I am a mentor and I help them with with marketing and outreach. So that's another aspect of first, but I.

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You to ask them when they come up.

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For sure about how the robot works, I do know.

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That it involves a phone, it.

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Involves a phone yes,.

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I do know that much, and I know that involves wi-fi yeah and that's all that I know well.

A

Then, let's, let's focus on this yeah. How did you get involved in this? How did you become a mentor right.

C

So my son, when he was it, was the summer before seventh grade, he went to a uh a governor's school for robotics that they had and it was just a summer program and he did a robotics thing. There was just for like a week or two, um but he came out of it. Just love loved robots.

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Wanted to you know, he's always loved building, always with lego, um and so we were at a fair, a craft, fair or something, and I.

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Library bots had a table set up there and we met.

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We realized- oh they're, really close, so um I started just dropping him off at meetings and I had no idea what they were doing with him there. I just was glad that he was you know having fun every.

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Home he had a big smile on his face um and then I went to the first competition and I was like. Oh, I get it now like.

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Is really cool.

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So I got excited about it and then um I started helping out with the team because again I'm not into robots really.

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It got me excited about it because of the things that it was teaching him and the.

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It was giving him, and I just saw that the way you know the positive interaction that the kids had, and so it was something I knew I wanted to be a part of.

A

Right now, in terms of you know, mentoring and being a you know, kind of a team leader for for the group um you mentioned marketing and outreach. um Tell me a little bit about just what that side of of the mentoring is.

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So the cool thing too, about first, is that we all know that technology is really finicky right right.

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You can do all the work in the world and get out there on the field, and then just something goes horribly wrong that you never could have prepared for.

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Be really frustrating.

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Part of the first program is that there are ways that teams can advance.

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Directly and like have to do with how well their robot performed on.

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So um some of those include how well you connect with your local stem community, so.

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Of the programs that we have is called library bought for a day. Okay, we invite professionals that are engineers or scientists or some you know something in the stem community. We.

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Them to come and be a part of our team for a day, and what that does is it lets the kids get to know um the kinds of opera job opportunities.

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And career opportunities.

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That are available in stem.

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But it also is great for them because they get a new, a fresh face in there and.

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They can be.

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Like we're having this issue with our robot.

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Even if they don't know exactly how their robot works, they're usually really good. At asking good questions and making good um comments, we had a an engineer. Somebody who worked on aircraft carriers.

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Systems for aircraft carriers and she came in, um and they were talking to her about how they were having a hard time with they had to rebuild some motors on.

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And she said to them: well, how confident are you in your rebuild and they kind of looked at each other and she's like you might want to think about that, and so you know you get that real world perspective right.

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So that's great and then the other aspect of it is outreach in our community right. So we try to make sure that we are letting people in the community know that this program exists.

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Those kids that are growing up that might not be into traditional sports. They know that there's a place for them right.

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And so outreach is a big part of that. Our community outreach um and also giving them opportunities to just have fun with stem.

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Being the library it's great, because we have a lot of opportunities to do that, yeah.

A

Now, in terms of the the the growth so to speak, we, I know you guys just went to competition which we'll talk about in a minute, um but I'm just curious that you've seen you know not just your own son but but the other team members throughout the year. Right from that or from those early september days. When.

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Kind of as pressing, and then all of a sudden you get to the winner, and it's like okay, we kind of need to get moving on this. How have you seen them grow and change, and what do you feel is the best thing about sort of this program that brings out of those kids.

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I think one of the best things for us this year, one of the things that you you notice throughout a competition season. There are a lot of ups and a lot of downs.

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And I think it really teaches the kids resilience they learn how to ride those ups and downs. They learn how to say: hey. We did a great job on this.

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Know what we could work harder on this and I see how the setbacks they don't get disappointed that they're initially disappointed, but then they go. You know we can do better right.

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Excited and they want to to try harder, so I think it really fosters that growth mindset they're, always trying to think ahead um and it's exciting to watch that process happen even.

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Things don't go their way, they're, just always looking for a way to improve and make it better and and having each other. I think really helps because they really kind of support each other. In that.

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Way, I can imagine, through everything that has happened in the world these last few years, the opportunity to have them back together. You know to be able to do something like this, that not just a sense of normalcy, but that sense of connection was really good for him. How would you kind of compare what you've seen from them this year compared to maybe previous years.

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Well, this year has been fantastic because again, we've had we're able to have at least one normal competition.

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Our district championship.

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Was a normal competition, um but in the past years? uh Well you know the last two years: it was just really challenging.

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I could tell that they, they missed that.

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um Having them back together, it was just kind of like a breath of fresh air. We.

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Into the library- and we looked on the sign-in sheet- and we were the last ones here in march of 2020-.

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Our last sign and we're like oh look there we were, um but I you know at the same time they exhibited that same resilience over.

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Couple years they did everything over zoom or over discord.

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But it was challenging there wasn't that, because they weren't able to interact with other teams, especially.

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There wasn't that motivation that was pushing them to do better.

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They would go to a couple competitions that you know only three or four team members were allowed to go um and then it was or we did them remotely, and it just was not that.

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Same feeling, yeah now you mentioned districts. I want to talk about this hardware here all.

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Take me through sort of how the team did and and what we've got here.

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Okay, so the team qualified for the district championship because they earned the second place in the inspire award at one of the qualifying competitions. Now an inspire award, it's kind of like the award that gives that is awarded to the team. That is like a model first team.

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One that all the other teams should look to so they they came very close to first, they got second okay, um and it just means that they were a high contender for all the judged awards. I think.

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Like seven or eight judged awards.

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At the district championship um they did really well well I'll. Tell you about these first, so we have here the um the connect award. Okay,.

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Is the one about how well we connect to our stem community, like I was talking about that library bought for a day program.

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So I think the judges really liked that, and so that got us the the first place for the connect award and then this one was the think award. So another important aspect of first is your documentation.

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So that was actually the award given to the team that did the best job with their engineering notebook, and so the engineering notebook is where you track all of your work, like the idea is that you're supposed to be able to hand it to somebody and they could look at it.

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And they could.

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um So they got the think award for that one um and then at the district championship there was a lot of really. There were a lot of really strong competitors there. It was so fun to get to see all of them in person again. The robot did not do as well as they had hoped.

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um It was funny. There were just a lot of really strange unforeseen things that happened. Some of them in retrospect were like okay, we probably could have prepared for that, but a lot of them. We just really couldn't you know.

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Of those luck of the draw type things right, but they did perform well, the kids kept smiles on their faces throughout and they had a really good time meeting everyone and they also ended up coming out with a third place um award. I think it was for the connect award again cool yeah, so they did really well great.

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Well last question: for you: I believe that this is your last year right, yeah.

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Well, my son's a senior I'm probably going to still come back and consult.

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Because I just really love these kids.

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Can't really just abandon them well,.

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That's okay, because that doesn't change the question I just was: I was going to it would just it would just help the question if that makes any sense, but I'm just curious as a parent to see to see your your child see your son go through this and and over the years, and what is I'm just curious as a parent? What it's meant to you to see him take part in this program.

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um It's been awesome, I'm to be honest when he was uh younger. He was awkward and not comfortable talking with people right.

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You know there's still some of that, because all teenagers have that, but I've seen how this program has really pushed him outside of his comfort zone and done it with something that he loves already and so he's been able to gain these skills. I remember being at a competition when he was a freshman and.

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I hadn't really been, as involved with the team that year, so I wasn't sure like right.

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How involved he was.

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The robot and I saw them rush the robot onto the off the field, bring it to him in the pits and they were like you, gotta fix they're like telling him all the stuff and he's like dismantling the whole thing and putting it back together and I'm just going. I did not know you knew how to.

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Do that, and I was just astonished.

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Because you know, and the you know, the kids that were sitting there biting their nails waiting for him to get it done. We're like you, know we're juniors and seniors and they're.

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Just like, oh can you do it right.

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So it's just really cool because there's that that mentorship too, they took him under their wing. So it's so much of it is kids teaching. Other kids, too cool the mentors ask the right questions, but but yeah I've seen his confidence grow, he's been in engineering program at bird. That was sparked, I think, by his love for robotics, and now he wants to go into graphic design and he's just all of these.

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These things he's been able to develop his passion and just form some really strong friendships, as well he's had so much fun with the team. Awesome.

A

Well, casey, thank you very much for coming on the podcast. I appreciate it sure.

C

Thanks for having us.

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I am now joined by two of the students here for the library bots. I got tyson. I got kayla here guys welcome to the podcast. How are you we're doing great good.

B

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Really appreciate you coming on the show and talking about your experience with the with the team. uh Let's start first and talk a little bit about sort of how long you've been doing it tyson. How long have you been involved in all this? So I've been.

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Doing this for around seven years ever since I joined a middle school cool kayla, what about you.

B

I've been on a robotics team for about six years now too, cool.

A

And in terms of um the things that you've sort of gotten out of it right, what what? What kind of lessons do you feel like you've learned tyson? Let's start with you, so.

D

Back when I joined the team, I was a very introverted person. I had a lot of trouble talking to people, but ever since I've been on here, not only have I learned about robotics and building and being a team player, but I've also learned social skills as well, because one of the big parts of competitions is being able to talk to judges and to explain your team right right. What about.

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You kayla, what do you feel like? You've really has really changed or something you've learned.

B

I think I've learned a lot like what he said just to be more outgoing right as well with that when I was younger before I joined, I thought that I couldn't be involved in robotics.

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I didn't think.

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I was very good at math.

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It showed me that you may not think you're good at math, but you can there's like a lot more. That.

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You can do it right now. What was it about robotics in the first place like what was it about that you thought you know. I want to go. Try this out. What was it about robotics that got you interested in the first place.

B

um So a family friend she was on the team and she was like hey. It seems like something you'd be into come, join my team, so I did yeah.

A

So you got you had someone who kind of like showed you the way so to speak. Yeah.

B

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About you, what was it about that? It really drew you to it. You think so.

D

The way that I actually first found the team is that they were doing an outreach event, which is one of the big parts about robotics and just robots the outreach as well right. But I went to one of those outreach events, not even knowing they're gonna, be there right and I saw them moving this robot around and it was really cool to see like I thought, robots just moved like forward and back like cars.

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So like this one was.

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Going side to side angling.

D

Yeah- and I thought that was really interesting, so at the time I was actually doing archery as my extracurricular activity, but I was getting bored of that. So I'm like this looks like a much more fun thing. I.

A

Can be doing now in terms of the the robots you guys have designed over the years? What's been your favorite, which one was the is the one that that you that you that you think of the most so.

D

This year's robot has been very special. I mean he's really been like a robot that the entire team has put their soul and heart into right. Although I do have to say my, I do have a personal favorite, which is one the year before quarantine started, which we called napoleon blown apart, because he kept on breaking so much.

A

So why why did he break so much? What was the problem with napoleon blonomite oh blow apart.

D

Sorry problem was: is that the system that we were using to build at the time, which is called tetrix, it's a lot more flimsy compared to what we have now, which is called the gobilda okay. So we had to be replacing motors and servos because it just wasn't built to and handle the intense things right.

A

Through gotcha, and and in terms of like um I, I asked uh your mom a few minutes ago, you know the idea of you know what. How do you control the thing, and I I I realize that it's a remote control, but I'm just curious like how you guys have to basically build basically all that right. Talk me through a little bit how you can actually control the robot.

B

um There's a lot into it because we're both builders so we're not really quite sure. I don't know anything about programming.

A

It's really interesting that yeah yeah, okay, that's cool.

B

So that's a lot of it is communication with the programmers.

C

B

I know you can do something like this tell.

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How that works.

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And it's just we'll put things together and then.

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It to them and then they scramble it's a lot of communication.

D

Between the two parts, yeah, so usually the way that it works is that they'll take one of the functions on xbox controller and they'll tie it into a certain motor or.

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And then they could either have it run at like full power, half power run partially stop run again and stop so. Basically the phone that's connected to the controller. It basically talks to the module. That's on the robot.

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To and that's how it communicates.

A

Cool now, in terms of the challenges that you face throughout a season throughout a you know, you start in the fall and you're working on the robot, and then you obviously you've got competition coming and all that fun stuff. What are some of the things that happened throughout I'm guessing that thing breaks, I'm guessing. There's lots.

D

Of stuff that goes.

C

Wrong throughout.

A

um What's been the hardest thing to you know, maybe the maybe the one blowing up was probably the hardest one, but I'm just curious over the years, since you guys have done it for so long. What have been some of the most unique scenarios that you faced in terms of trying to oh man? That's not good! So.

D

This is a problem that we have, especially at this robot. Although I know back before I joined the team. They also may have had some problems with this due to different games that they've played, but, as you can see on our robot, it has a very big head and when it was driving around it had like trouble moving the head up and down because the motor just wasn't powerful enough gotcha. So we added a counterweight to the back thinking that would solve our problem.

D

The only problem was is when we went backwards and stopped the robot would fall on it.

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B

D

So we had to add a counterweight for the counterweight to counter.

A

The counterweight yeah, oh counterweight, for all the counterweights, yep um kayla in as you've done this for six years now, what have been some of the the sort of lessons that you've learned? How? How do you feel like you have uh have changed as you've gone through this? Oh.

B

Goodness, like I, don't really categorize that um I definitely know a lot more about building I joined when I was like 11 and I had no clue what.

D

I was doing I just.

B

Kind of did, I would just put things together, as I was told to, but, um and I know how to build a robot now I don't.

A

Really know how to like word that.

B

A

What about the competition side because it sounds like you know: it's not just about competition right! It's there's a lot more! That goes into it. There's a lot of sportsmanship for lack for better description. Right, gracious professionalism is obviously a big focus. So I'm just curious from that standpoint. How? What have you guys learned and how do you sort of see that see yourselves applying that in like a real world sort of situation, not necessarily during competition and stuff, so.

D

Most of the time when you're at a competition like say for baseball or basketball, you're thinking like we got to take out that other team like they are our enemy here, but when you're at the competition you're seeing everyone there is like friends, you know what they've gone through because you've gone through it yourself. So it helps. You apply the idea that to treat everyone fairly, because you know that they've been putting in the work as well they've been putting in all the hours, and it helps you just understand those around you as.

A

Well now, in terms of what you guys were able to do a competition this year, I know. Obviously there were some challenges that were you guys faced that day, but take me through what districts were like this year and when you look back on it will stand out to you so.

D

This district was particularly fun because they held in this gigantic coliseum. Usually it's in like a high school gym, but this one's really special right and usually you arrive there you get checked in you, get ready for your judge's interview. You set up your pits area where you take care of the robot in between matches.

D

You go in there, you do all the judges interviews and then that's when the games start or you have you get assigned a random person to get paired up with right, so your opponent in one match could be your ally and another so and then just goes on matches throughout the day and then, once all the matches are done, they get to the elimination rounds, which is the highest scoring teams. They go against each other and from there they decide the winner gotcha.

A

So, in terms of the challenges you guys faced, what what do you feel like was the thing that helped you get through, not not necessarily the competition, but just in terms of your own, your own nerves, your own excitement. What helped you get through that without feeling you know uh angry or upset, or anything like that.

B

I think it helped a lot knowing that everyone else is nervous.

A

Right, everyone.

B

Else is a little kind.

A

Of the same yeah.

D

I got you, I got you what about you and then one of the things that really helped me is realizing. How far we'd already come, because, like this was the district's district championship, like not many teams get to be able to go there, so just being there by itself is a huge opportunity.

A

Absolutely amazing to be there all right last question. I believe you're both seniors those seniors.

B

Junior okay, you're.

A

Senior, what's it what's, what's it like to think that this is this? Was your last one right that that the thing is you know, that's your last robot, at least for for this competition, I'm guessing you know, you're going to be involved in some ways, I'm just curious. What was it like to have your last one, not.

D

Going to lie, it was pretty sad, really realizing. That was going to be the last competition I had to go to, but it was also nice, though realizing like I started off this team. When I first came and joined, I was like the kid that sat in the corner.

D

I was like waiting for a job to be done and then now here I am like overseeing a building of large sections of the robot, so it was great being able to be on the team, but also realizing that I'll be able to help mentor in the future is amazing, cool.

A

Well, I really appreciate you guys coming on the podcast and talking a little bit about uh about your robots and everything you do here thanks so.

D

Much thank you for having us.

A

All right I want to thank casey and and the kids for letting us come here and film the show today. I also want to make sure everybody out there can follow us on social media on twitter, it's at chesterfieldva and on instagram it's shetfieldvirginia. One word facebook check out our podcast page behind the mic. Make sure you like that page. You can keep up with as we go forward now. Let me tell you about all the ways you can watch the show you can watch us on our youtube channel.

A

It's on our website, chesterfield.gov podcast, an audio. Only version of the show is available there, as well as on all of the different services apple podcast spotify, google podcast, wherever it is. You can also watch the podcast on wcct thursday through sunday, at 7, on the weekends at noon. That's comcast, channel, 98 and verizon channel 28 and, lastly, check out chesterfield.gov connect with us more information for ways for we can get in touch with you. You can get in touch with us.

A

My thanks to my executive producer, susan pollard, all the folks here at communications media for making this possible, and my thanks to you for checking us out today so from all of us here in chesterfield. Thank you very much for making this part of your day see you again real soon take care.

A