By Zach Spicer
Mecanum wheels allow savvy robot designers to create drivetrains capable of moving in any direction using a standard chassis shape.
Seymour High School’s Team 31330C implemented those wheels on its robot this season, and that move resulted in an award during the second competition of the 2024-25 season.
During the Trinity VEX V5 Robotics Competition November Qualifier on Nov. 23 at Immanuel Lutheran School in Seymour, the team, consisting of freshman Matias Barrios and sophomores Nikita Cox, Leo Holle and Kellan Stanfield, was selected by the judges as the Innovate Award recipient.
The award recognizes an effective and well-documented design process for a novel aspect of a team’s robot design or gameplay strategy.
The submission of an engineering notebook is a requirement for the Innovate Award, and the team that earns the award also should be among the top contenders for the Design Award.
An interview with the judges and gameplay observation by the judges during the tournament also played into the award.
Cox said the mecanum wheels allow their robot to go in eight directions, and that applies well to this year’s game, High Stakes.
The object of the game is to attain a higher score than the opposing alliance by scoring rings on stakes, placing mobile goals and climbing a ladder at the end of the match.
“Last year, (the game field) had a barrier in the middle and it wasn’t really open for mecanum because it was just closed, but there are no obstacles in the middle (this year),” he said. “I based it off that type of field. It’s open to do mecanum.”
The team went 4-2 and placed fifth out of 25 teams in the tournament hosted by Trinity Lutheran High School.
“What I think we did was get what we called a hammer because it could clear the corners and it looks like a hammer in general,” Cox said of a unique feature of their robot. “Also getting the drive to work better because it didn’t strafe well. Now, it strafes good.”
Holle said their robot has a few features many teams don’t have.
“We just stood out a lot,” he said.
Cox and Stanfield were on a team together last year, but this is the first year for them to be teammates with Holle and Barrios.
“It’s perseverance,” Cox said of what’s good about this year’s team.
“We’re really good fixing any problems,” Barrios said.
“And if there’s a problem, we’re really good at working together,” Cox said. “We all really have a diverse skill set, but we’re more specified in one, so if someone can’t code … someone will take their place for a bit, and once they get back, they’ll be able to do it.”
The team improved its record and ranking from the first tournament Nov. 2 to the latest one, so the boys feel good moving forward.
Their goal? Score more stakes and climb higher on the ladder.
“We want to eventually climb all the way up,” Cox said, noting it would double their points from the first level of the ladder.
“We’re trying to get a hang, which will actually improve our chances for another innovation to get to the top,” Holle said.
Seymour High School had four other teams competing in the recent tournament, and Jackson County also was represented by one Seymour Middle School team and four Trinity Lutheran teams.
Other teams were from Henryville, Indianapolis, Zionsville, Washington and Floyds Knobs.
The tournament was an official state qualifier. The only team to earn a spot at state in March was the Excellence Award winner, which was Team 7701R from Zionsville Community High School.
The tournament champions were Team 7701Z from Zionsville and Team 91976A from Washington Catholic High School, who defeated Seymour’s Team 31330D and Trinity’s Team 1483C in the championship.
Team 7701Z also won the Design Award and was the robot skills champion, while Team 621B from the Marion County STEM 4-H Club received the Judges Award.
