Walking into the P-CEP engineering room in CHS, the sound of keyboards clacking and wheels spinning filled the air. The tables in the room were shuffled around to create a square barrier. Last-minute preparations were quickly ironed out by the electrical group as they got ready for the night packed with events.

The Lightning Robotics showed off its newest robot for the upcoming competitions on March 6 during the Showcase and Robot Reveal.

All subgroups of Lightning Robotics were spread out along the CTE wing of Canton. Jake Ludwig,

Canton senior and member of the Lightning Robotics electrical subgroup, said, “The idea of the entire event is showing off our robot for this year and we have all the subgroups [design, fabrication, electrical, programming, and strategy] explain what they have done.” 

Suddenly, as a thundering noise came from the hallway that led to the engineering room, a cylindrical machine came around the corner. The robot stood at about 4 and a half feet and was covered in electrical components. Ihsaan Rehman, Plymouth senior and lead of the electrical subgroup, explained, “This is our 2009 robot. We rebuilt the entire electrical board last year as a part of our training and now we use it to run our [demonstrations] and showcase how the robot works.” Rehman and Ludwig lifted the robot up by either side and placed it on the table showing off the bundles of wires and boxes. 

Again, another one of the team’s older robots rolled in just as loud as the last. The robot was a little bit shorter and had a clean blue square metal frame with smaller orange wheels on its inside that led up to a large angled opening at the top.

Ludwig explained the agenda for the evening’s event.  “People can come in and drive the [blue] robot, and we will have an explanation on the board on what we do in the electrical subgroup.”

Parents soon entered the exhibition room a few at a time. 

The robots were able to be driven and tested by visitors. 

Every year the robot has a different task to complete. For the blue robot, the task is to collect large balls and shoot them.. to demonstrate, dodgeballs were thrown on the ground by a team member near the blue robot. Two joysticks stood in front of the operator; one controlled the right side of the wheels and one controlled the left. The operator drove the front of the robot to one of the balls. One of the students with another controller in his hands started up the small orange wheels on the inside. Quickly, the robot drew in the ball and instantly shot it out of the top with enough force to launch it several feet. The human operator repeatedly drove the robot in front of the balls to collect another to launch. 

Once it started to quiet down, the groups headed off for their revealing of this season’s robot, Rhapsody. “We’re gonna bring the robot up on stage and show it off to everyone,” said Ludwig. “Then we’re gonna have speakers from each subgroup explain how they have helped the team as a whole get to where we are now.”

The state championships are being held April 3-6 at Saginaw Valley State University. More upcoming competitions and events are shown on the Lightning Robotics Calendar on their website

Lightning Robotics’ new robot, Rhapsody,  was revealed at the Showcase and Robot Reveal in Canton High School. The robots demonstrated their function of drawing in a ring and ejecting it toward a target for the season’s competitions. March 6, 2024. Courtesy of Lightning Robotics.