For the past 20 years, Aragon Robotics has consisted of student-led teams focused on designing robots capable of tackling land terrain. However, for the 2021-22 school year, Aragon Robotics expanded to add a third division, the Marine Advanced Technology Education Remotely Operated Vehicle team, which will explore the marine world by developing a robot capable of navigating underwater.
Robotics is the convergence of science and engineering dedicated to the construction and operation of machinery. Since the creation of the first robot in 1954, the level of technology has increased dramatically. Now, robots perform a variety of tasks, from building cars to conducting intricate surgeries.
Recognizing the importance of robotics, a small group of students founded the Aragon Robotics Team and competed in the FIRST robotics competition in 2001. As an official rookie team that year, Aragon Robotics won the “Rookie All-Star Award.” Since then, Aragon Robotics has evolved into an expansive team consistently placing in major youth competitions.
At the end of last year, senior Aragon Robotics Director Farrah Ye proposed the idea to create the MATE ROV team.
“Forming the MATE ROV team is a very exciting opportunity to explore another branch of robotics,” Ye said. “Speaking from a technical standpoint, it’s very complicated and different from building robots that can run on land.”
The new robotics team will be competing in the MATE ROV competition at the start of next year. The competition centers around robots completing underwater tasks. In the past, tasks have ranged from collecting plastic waste to treating coral reefs and traversing deep marine environments. In addition to building a functional robot, Ye believes there is another aspect of the competition that makes MATE ROV unique.
“The MATE ROV competition asks teams to act as a company, placing an equal emphasis on entrepreneurship, business skills and technical skills,” Ye said. “It’s going to be fun to see our students attempt to sell [our] ROV to a panel of seasoned engineers and business managers.”
Because marine robotics is a new field to Aragon Robotic students, numerous challenges will arise while venturing into the unknown.
“The programming is much more open-ended,” said junior MATE ROV lead Sannie Wan. “You can choose your own hardware based on what works for you. [In] FRC (FIRST Robotics Competition team) and FTC (FIRST Tech Challenge team), there are more specific guidelines. There [are] so many options of different hardwares that we could use [with] different softwares [in MATE ROV].”
Despite the difficulties, many Aragon students are eager to participate in this new team.
“MATE ROV is a research-based team and research is appealing to me,” said junior MATE ROV captain Valerie Fan. “I was really interested in learning something new and starting from scratch.”
Sophomore MATE ROV mechanical member Evan Hwang was likewise attracted to what MATE ROV could offer.
“I was originally on the FRC team, but I switched to MATE ROV because I was more interested in the topic,” Hwang said. “I was more interested in marine conservation because I saw an opportunity to apply this in the real world.”
Marine conservation is an increasingly important issue as proclaimed by the United Nations. As humanity continues to expand and advance, the ocean is taking the brunt of the consequences. From trillions of tons of trash piling up in the sea to the acidity of the water increasing, science suggests there may not be a healthy ocean for future generations to enjoy.
“If we get involved early on, later in the future, we’ll be more experienced,” Fan said. “We’ll be able to solve more problems. [MATE ROV] gives a lot of students the opportunity to get involved in making a robot that actually has some sort of [positive] impact on the world.”
Working toward holistic goals and combining a passion for robotics with their love of the ocean, Aragon’s newly formed 12 person MATE ROV team is building a watertight robot that will not only compete in the 2022 MATE ROV competition, but will also be pitched to numerous engineers as an aid to protect the oceans.
