Driving a robot around cones while blindfolded, controlling the robot’s shooting of balls and scouting competing teams were only a few of the tasks the robotics team, Team 5045, took on while competing in the 2022 Ozark Mountain Brawl. Battling against teams from around the world, Team 5045 and its alliance came out on top after engaging in a series of contests.

“[When we found out we won], most of us were in the stands, and we were absolutely going crazy,” Kevin Chang (12) said. “Our whole alliance just went mad when the final score came out.”

Constructing this robot from scratch, named Eudoxus, was no easy task. For about five months, Team 5045 spent hours after-school and even during the weekend designing Eudoxus to make sure it had all the necessary components to compete.

“Usually, during build season, we go every day except for maybe Sunday,” Eva Raffel (10) said. “We usually stay until like maybe [6 p.m.], and additionally [8 p.m.], and on the weekends, I think we try to do maybe [from 10 a.m.] to [8 p.m.].”

During the initial rounds of events, Team 5045 scouted the other 16 teams, looking for teams that seemed to fare well while competing. Forming alliances with teams matching their caliber was essential to advancing onto the final round.

“You watch all the matches, collect data, figure out how many points [each team] earned, figure out how many balls they made into the goal, or how high they can climb, and using that data, you can rank the teams and figure out which ones are the most beneficial to pick for your alliance,” Chang said.

While this was an off-season competition, the pressure was still on. Team 5045 experienced numerous setbacks while competing but rushed to fix them while keeping spirits high.

“Stuff breaks all the time,” Jason Niu (10) said. “We had our battery fall out, we had our motor fall out … it’s pretty stressful, but you know, you just get back and just rebuild it.”

Many robotics teams receive generous funding from their schools; however, Team 5045 has to fund itself. COVID-19 took away two build seasons, leaving the team with many inexperienced members. These factors led to a lack of confidence among the robotics team going into competition; however, as Team 5045 won round after round, the team started to notice what set them apart.

“What it really came down to is we were a better defense bot than some of the other bots,” Chang said. “A lot of the other bots were really light … however, we actually had a really heavy robot which is really good for defense, because it makes you immovable, and it also helps you ram into other robots better and prevent them from doing what they want. ”

During this competition, Raffel became the first female driver for the robotics team. Stress and excitement became one as Raffel maneuvered Eudoxus to help her team advance on to the next round.

“It was really exciting, [and] a little stressful just because I was the first, but I mean it’s a lot of fun,” Raffel said.

Winning their first competition in four years, Team 5045 is now planning to compete in two regionals next year, and with the knowledge they gained from this competition, hope to build a superior robot.

“My favorite part is just being able to design something from scratch,” Chang said. “This literally went from zero to a robot, and I’m still really proud of that fact.”