WE ARE
the
Robo Rhinos
We are the Robo Rhinos, FTC team #11254, from Novi, Michigan. Our 2023-2024 team is made up of thirteen 8th graders from Novi Middle School.
We are a second year FTC team! BUT, many of us have participated on FLL and FLL Explorer teams in the previous years.
We work great together as a team and have areas of focus such as programming, chassis & arm building, game strategy, and marketing & outreach.
When we're not busy with robotics meetings and outreach events, we are also involved in many activities, such as soccer, volleyball, tennis, field hockey, and music.
We appreciate all the help we have received from our coaches and mentors.
2023 - 2024 FTC Season
For the current season, we are working hard to use what we learned about FTC last season, how to build a robot out of metal parts, GoBilda motors, and use block and Java programming. We are using this year to learn as much as we can about FTC.
As a second year team, we hope to continue to build on our experiences and achieve excellence throughout this season!
We are passionate about robotics and love finding time to inspire younger kids to pursue STEM experiences.
Our
Hartland Results-
As an 8th grade team with this being our 2nd season, this competition, we were working hard to get our robot competition ready. We continued to work on our robot and program during the competition itself. Even though our robot didn’t perform as well as we hoped, we knew we had strong outreach, and we will continue to connect with our sponsors. Out of 8 awards, we managed to win 3 this competition, including the Inspire Award, to get to states!
We won these awards!
2nd Place Inspire Award
2nd Place Think Award
1st Place Motivate Award
Our
Lake Orion Results-
In our second competition this season, we continued to work hard on perfecting our robot drive. We still ran into issues with our robot during competition, but we’re proud of our last match, where we completely re-built the way our robot hangs at the end of the match --- AND it worked! Our iteration on-the-go was great! Out of 8 awards, we managed to win 2 awards this competition, including the Inspire Award.
We won these awards!
2nd Place Inspire Award
1st Place Innovate Award
2023 Season Robot (CenterStage)
Our Robot in Action
Auton
Teleop
Outreach
We do outreach because we want to help others in our community.
We also educate others about FTC and FIRST robotics because
we want to inspire younger kids to get involved.
We learn for ourselves during outreach, as well. For example, we learned about coding from high school students with Frog Force, and about CAD from a mentor at AutoDesk and OHM.
Inspiring Others &
Promoting FIRST in our community
The Robo Rhinos were invited to present and demo our robot to different kids around our community. We presented to more than 500 third and fourth grade kids in schools like Village Oaks, Orchard Hills(4th grade), and Amerman(3rd grade). We showcased our robot and presented about FLL and FTC. The kids and teachers loved it!
Inspiring Others &
Promoting FIRST
in India
Our team connected with 2 schools in India. For the Little Flower School, Loni, Maharashtra, India we did a combination zoom and in-person outreach with a presentation and Q & A session from students and teachers about how the robot works, how we code it, etc. Our whole team answered questions through zoom, staying up past midnight to talk to the kids!
We also had the goal to provide more STEM activities to the students. We got many micro bits kits to donate to the school and taught them how to code and use them. Avaneesh was able to show them mini programs to do and how they can be more creative and could do many projects while learning. They were very excited and interested too!
Hosted Pixel Art Competition
Our team hosted an event at the Novi Middle School gym for robotics teams in and around Novi, to participate in a fun pixel art competition. Our team wanted to “Put the A in STEAM, ” aligning with this year’s FIRST theme.
Our goal of the event was to bring art into the robotics programs in Novi and also get Novi teams together before the competition season to talk and showcase their robots with each other. We wanted to showcase coopertition and gracious professionalism and how we can be better by sharing with each other.
For our pixel event, the intention was to have robots from the teams participate in creating a fun piece of art. If teams didn’t have a robot ready for the event, they could still participate with their hands. Teams were given 5 minutes to plan and model their pixel art using the pixels you brought in white, purple, green, and yellow. After the 5 minutes they had 10 minutes to actually have their robot place the pixels to crate art on their backboard.
We spoke with the Frog Force 503 FRC team from Novi High School to get volunteers to help judge our event. Teams were judged by 7 members of the Frog Force robotics team, in the categories of: compositions/design, Robot execution, Teamwork, Creativity of art, Creativity of title.
Every team received a unique certificate for their pixel art, and one team received the overall award. We designed a trophy in CAD and 3d printed it in multiple colors for the winning team.
Our Promote Award Video Submission for the 2023 -24 Season!!
Community Service
During the season we also completed outreach to help and positively impact our community. For the 2023-24 FTC season, we:
- Assembled and donated 100 pre-packaged lunch bags for Food Gatherers' Lunches with Love program to help fight hunger.
- Promoted positivity in our school district's 5th-6th grade school by writing encouraging sticky notes and placing them on the lockers of 1,000 students at Novi Meadows
- Volunteered for Forgotten Harvest, using our robot to collect donations for Thanksgiving meals at Busch's.
- Collected 53 board games to support Bridgepointe (a local charitable organization) and the holiday party at the Academy of Americas in Southwest Detroit
Community Service Outreach!
Community Service Outreach
Connecting with Engineering Community
03
Relocation Services
Got a new job and relocating to a new place? We can help.
The Robo Rhinos team has done many engineering based classes. We did a CAD workshop with an employee of OHM. We also took basic and advance programming classes from Frog Force FRC robotics team. We participated in the FTC Kickoff at Novi Middle School. Our team did workshops in building, programming, and marketing.
We researched about each of our sponsors and their engineering services. Red Zone Robotics connected with us to show their robots, and we were able to ask lots of questions to their engineers. It was very interesting!
We hope to connect with more engineering companies in our community in the future.
We were able to connect with our sponsors via zoom. They were very supportive and appreciative with us, personally reaching out to them. Their comments really helped us improve and grow our presentation.
OHM Advisors:
“The kids are definitely impressive with all they learned and accomplished. Major kudos to them. Thanks for the invite to attend. I enjoyed it!”
Sally Bos, P.E., Project Manager, OHM Advisors
“Nicely done! I want to learn JAVA Script after hearing about what they learned. The kids have a bright future and I now have the need for some robotics!!”
Jon Kramer, P.E. President, OHM Advisors
“For a rookie team they are impressive. A force to be reckoned with! Can't wait to see how far they go.”
Ron Cavalaro, P.E. Vice President of Michigan, OHM Advisors
Redzone Robotics
“It was a pleasure to be on the call and support the team. Supporting kids in the field is our passion. Let us know if we can help support outreach and awareness in the future. We will get our support for this team posted to our social media soon!”
Jeffery Griffiths, Redzone Robotics, General Manager, Central Region
Please fill out the form below to contact us or get sponsorship information! Thank you!
You can also email us at RoboRhinosNovi@gmail.com
Our Blog
Inclusion
Inclusion is including everyone and never leaving anyone out. (Click to read more!)
Teamwork
Teamwork is when your team comes together to work as one. Your team works together to get things done and help each other. (Click to read more!)
Impact
The way our team knows, and embraces Impact, is the difference you make to other people or things with what you show, tell or teach them about, and how that improves the world. (Click to read more!)
Core Values: Discovery
Discovery is a very important core value. When trying to find what solution works best for whatever you are designing/creating, you have to discover all possible solutions and how they work for your design.
Our team used Discovery with our programming, strategy, and CAD this season. Using programming we newly learned and discovered tenser flow machine learning this year to use for our auton programming. We used a webcam to scan spike marks and recognize if our team object is there and act accordingly. We took many videos, labeling the object and also showing things that aren‘t our team object. Over time this trained the AI to recognize our object.
We realized our strategy this year is to maximize points in this year‘s CenterStage Game, our team‘s strategy included implementing the team prop with machine learning, adding a drone and a winch worm gear system for rigging. We also knew that it is essential for our robot to be able to pick up two pixels at once, be able to go underneath the stage door, and be quick for maximum efficiency.
We used CAD four our robot and outreach. We 3d printed a trophy for an event we hosted and for our team prop. For our team prop we made sure to design a prop with rotational symmetry, pattern and texture so that no matter how the prop is placed on the field, our camera is able to recognize it. OHM, one of our sponsors helped us learn more about CAD.
Core Value: Innovation
Innovation is making changes to something already there or introducing new ideas and methods. Our team innovated many things this season.
With the challenge of having to pick up and place pixels we had to come up with the idea for an intake and claw for the robot. We started by looking at many videos to see what works best. We found an idea we really liked for the intake system but didn’t follow any manuals or videos and decided to completely innovate the claw and build it ourselves. We had to use a lot of trial and error with our design.
We created a Scissor Lift and Winch system as a way to carry the hook up during the endgame so that the robot can hang from the truss. We tried this system numerous times in our last competition games but it was unable to lift and stay hanging. During our last competition we noticed that teams used a simple but effective design for their robot to be able to hang. We decided, on the spot, to iterate our hanging design by removing and replacing the scissor lift and winch system with two quad blocks attached to the linear slide/arm. We only had one chance to test this new design before our last match, so when we tested it, the robot was able to hang and lift off the ground.
We researched different designs for the drone launcher and we adapted them to create one that is lightweight and compact, using a superspeed servo, custom made parts to hold the airplane, a rubber band to launch the drone, and gusset angle mounts. The team tried different drone designs and picked the most consistent one. We then modified the launcher to better hold and launch the drone.
Core Values : Impact
Apply what you’ve learned to make a difference in the world
The way our team knows, and embraces Impact, is the difference you make to other people or things with what you show, tell or teach them about, and how that improves the world.
For us impact is one of the most important core values. We use this core value, every time we outreach, code, build, strategize, and present what we have learned to schools, organizations, and judges. This core value is utilized in literally everything we do. Some of the biggest moments where this core value has been shown, were when we presented to 3rd and 4th graders about FLL Jr., FLL, FTC, and FRC. We showcased a 15 minute presentation, along with a demonstration of our robot and how it works. Afterwards, they were able to have a Q & A session with us, where we answered 50+ questions per presentation.
Another outreach moment like this where we showcased the core value impact, was during the Trunk or Treat, for the Village Oaks Elementary School. Here we had almost 400-500 people visit us, where we demoed our robot for them, and even answered a few of their questions. Additionally, we had a very large impact on the Forgotten Harvest Food Bank. In this instance, we packed over 100 lunches for the food bank, helping people in need.
We also had the goal of promoting robotics and FIRST outside of our community. We connected with 2 schools in India this summer by both zoom and in-person. Avaneesh traveled to India, and we simultaneously hosted a zoom meeting. We answered so many questions through zoom, staying up past midnight to talk to the kids. We donated microbit kits to the students and taught them how to code and use them creatively. We also prepared 25 sets of solar powered house kits to younger students, bringing ART with STEM to them.
Core Value: Inclusion
Inclusion is including everyone and never leaving anyone out. Our team includes everyone in making decisions like the logo and team shirt designs. We include everyone during meetings so everyone has something to do and are helping the team. When we went to elementary schools in our community we included all the kids and let them all ask questions. Inclusion is important so everyone feels like they are a part of the team and are important.
One of our outreaches, The Pixel Art Competition and Robot Showcase Event, We really wanted to embody this year’s STEAM theme by creating an artistic event to bring teams in Novi together. We hosted a Pixel Art Challenge where robots placed pixels on the backdrop to create art. We had the Novi HS team judge the art on design, creativity, temawork, robot execution, and creative title. We presented the overall highest scorer with a custom 3d printed trophy. We ended up hosting 5 teams and about 80 people from Novi and Northville.
Core Value: Teamwork
Teamwork is when your team comes together to work as one. Your team works together to get things done and help each other. It’s important to use teamwork because it provides you with help and growth. Your teammate/ partner can help exceed potential.
Our team uses teamwork all the time whether we are coding, building, presenting, or strategizing. Our team was packing lunches for a food bank and used teamwork throughout the process. We had created an assembly line and each teammate was responsible for making sure they were doing their part to help everyone else.
We explored a new style of Teamwork this year. We specialized. We met in subgroups and then we would have weekly full team meetings to debrief and share ideas. Specialization allowed us to Include everyone and be more efficient with our time and efforts.
Teamwork is a really important core value because you can use it not only in robotics, but anywhere you go. It helps show that your team is helping and doing what's best for everyone. Teamwork can help make people better at working with others and improve their social skills. Our team uses teamwork when presenting too. When someone is struggling with answering a question, teammates will help them find the answer. You also have to use teamwork when driving the robot. The robot is controlled by two different people with two different controllers. These people have to work together to make sure the robot is working correctly and synchronized.
Core Values : Fun
Enjoy our learning experiences together throughout our journey
Fun is one of the core values that we take seriously and use almost everyday. Every SINGLE meeting we have, we get some time to goof off and act like the children we truly are inside. Our fun experiences vary differently from playing tag after our outreaches to listening to One Direction music during the Engineering Workbook meetings.
We use this core value when every time we just need a break with coding or building the arm, to recharge our focusing capabilities. Some of the biggest moments where this core value has been shown, was when we had a pizza party after our first outreach where we presented to 3rd and 4th graders about FLL jr, FLL, FTC, and FRC.
Another outreach moment like this where we showcased the core value of fun, was during the Trunk or Treat, where we drove our robot to hand out candy. Here everyone had a chance to drive the robot HOWEVER they wanted.
Additionally, we had lots of fun in general, learning new information about topics we are passionate about such as CAD and Design and Marketing and Design.
In our last year of FTC we made sure we had fun in all of our efforts - but one of the best ways we did this was by documenting parts of our season on YouTube. So far we have made videos about our team and our outreach.
