By Salvatore Noble ’24 and Joseph Valenza ’24
When you think of Don Bosco Prep, what comes to mind immediately? Probably the sports, and deservedly so. With dozens of League, County, and State titles in a myriad of sports, as well as National Championships, Don Bosco Prep is widely known for its athletic activities.
Our home-away-from-home also includes other activities that require skill, teamwork, and camaraderie, as well as providing a chance for success and national recognition.
The chief among these is the Robotics program.
For over a decade, Don Bosco Prep has been the home of a constantly growing and adapting Robotics program. This past summer, the program relocated to the newly established and furnished Forgione Engineering Center on the 3rd floor of Savio Hall. This year, the program had over 6 teams running simultaneously in an array of competitions. The paramount team, the Varsity FRC team, was comprised of over two dozen Juniors and Seniors this year. For the 2023 season, the team competed in the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) game Charged Up, setting its sights on an international championship right out of the gate.
It was a year of triumph and tribulations, victories and defeats, and the constant ebb and flow of ideas and knowledge passed from instructor to recipient. Without further ado, let us start our overview of the 2023 season of Charged Up, through the lens of our accomplished Ironmen Robotics Team 4653.
Charged Up!
Our Ironmen Robotics Team competes in the FIRST Robotics Challenge, run by FIRST, a non-profit organization that organizes various robotics competitions at several age levels. Running since the early 1990s, each FRC season revolves around a different game. This year, the game was Charged Up. The game involved transporting small cones and cubes filled with air. These cones and cubes were then relocated to several different places around the game zone, each with a different number of points awarded for completing the task. Last year’s game, Rapid React, included shooting balls and climbing with the robot, requiring multiple mechanisms that perform difficult tasks with maximum accuracy. “This year’s game seemed quite simple at first, especially in comparison to last year’s game,” Scott Riccio, our team Captain, remarked. However, the differences between the two scoring objects, as well as the creation of a new but technically challenging drivetrain, created plenty of work for the team.
Meet the Team
In order to have a successful season, a team, regardless of the nature of the competition, must have a combination of direction while retaining creativity, as well as structure while staying flexible. Most importantly, everyone must be ready and willing to do his part throughout the season. To quote our lead mentor, Father Lou, “Robots don’t build themselves.”
The Ironmen Robotics team, in order to adhere to these boundaries, split into various subteams, with even more subteams splintering off of those as was deemed necessary. Overall, each of the smaller, specialized groups can be placed within one of the three main subteams which were utilized this year: mechanical, electrical, and programming.
3 subteams
Mechanical- Led by Scott Riccio ‘23
The mechanical subteam focuses primarily on designing and fabricating the robot. This year, seniors Scott Riccio and Joshua Miraz spearheaded the effort in developing mechanisms to overcome most of the mechanical challenges of the game. The beginning of the season consisted of brainstorming and 3D modeling prototypes for different mechanisms. “Most people see the mechanical team as essentially large-scale Legos. However, it’s a lot more than that,” Scott observed. “It requires a good deal of creativity to solve problems, both before and after the initial design.” After tirelessly repeating the cycle of design – implement – see a problem – and repeat, the robot was finally built for competition and was gingerly passed over to the electrical team.
Electrical – Led by John Deluca ‘24 and Julian Matos ‘23
The electrical team is responsible for implementing the lifeblood of every robot – the cable work and circuitry. With a few days before the first competition, the electrical subteam needed to quickly connect all of the systems of the robot so that it can be properly tested and passed onto the drive team for practice to commence. The majority of this feat was accomplished with the combined efforts of John Deluca ‘24 and Julian Matos ‘23.
Programming – Led by Brady Williams ‘23
The programming subteam has arguably the most difficult task in any given robotics season, mostly due to time constraints. As quoted from multiple alumni of DBP Robotics teams, “2 months, 2 days, 2 hours.” This maxim refers to the time that each subteam gets to complete its job: two months for mechanical, two days for electrical, and two hours for programming. Thanks to the programming efforts led by Brady Williams ‘23, the robot was brought to life and tested before the competition. In the time that they had before they got their hands on the (almost) finished robot, the members of the programming unit worked tirelessly to create a Swerve-Drive drivetrain. Swerve-Drive runs on 4 wheels that have 360 degree turning capabilities, drastically increasing the agility of the robot; these capabilities proved to be integral in competition.
The Season
The journey to international glory in FRC has a few pathways. The main one is to do well enough at both of your two regular season competitions, placing you within the top about 50. This accomplishment qualifies your team for District competitions; from there, if you do well enough, you go to the World finals. Unfortunately, because the District competitions were held during the Easter Triduum, Easter Weekend, the Don Bosco teams was not be able to attend District competitions. Therefore, in order to make it to World Championships, they would need to score enough ranking points (which are attained from a combination of winning games and performing complex tasks in game) in order to bypass Districts and qualify for Worlds directly. This would require the team to win both preliminary competitions, or at least come in second place.
The first competition of the year was the FMA District Hatboro-Horsham Event, held in Horsham, Pennsylvania. After starting the competitions with four wins in a row, the Ironmen lost their next three games, including a close 62-61 in their seventh match of the competition. At the end of the qualifications, the ironmen were in rank 20, with a 6-6 record.
For playoffs, the top eight teams become alliance captains, and are able to select two more teams to join their alliance. The Ironmen were selected by the rank eight team, Team 25, Raider Robotix, in an alliance with Team 1391, The Metal Moose. The alliance made it all the way to the finals, where after winning the first game, the Ironman lost the next two in the best of three match, securing second place overall in the competitions. The Ironmen earned themselves 37 ranking points, a strong showing that still kept their hopes up for a shot at the World Championships.
At this point, the Ironmen were still in the running for international glory, but they would most likely have to come in first at the last competition in order to qualify.
“It all came down to the last one,” Scott Riccio remarked. “At this point, we all had put hundreds of hours into this robot, and we had one more chance to show for it.”
The second and final competition was the FMA District Robbinsville Event. Here, the Ironmen fought hard, making it to the playoffs as the Rank 6 team, which made them an alliance captain. After selecting Team 293, Spike, and Team 4652, the JV Ironmen robot, the Ironmen started their playoff run. They lost their first match, but stayed alive in their next match in the losers bracket. However, they were defeated in their third match against the alliance that went on to win the event. The Ironmen still amassed 29 ranking points, enough to qualify them for Districts, but unfortunately not enough to surpass Districts for Worlds.
John DeLuca summed up the season in this way: “Sure, it was disappointing, but we gave it our all, and that is what really matters. In a normal year, we would be moving on, so I do not feel as if we failed in any way.”
Going Forward
The year wrapped up with a celebration and commemoration dinner at the Mahwah Sheraton at the end of May. It was a bittersweet celebration for everyone. First, it was the final goodbyes to the Seniors of the team, who held down the team for the entire season. It was also a final goodbye for Fr. Louis Konopelski, who has been the lead mentor and guide since the creation of the DBP Robotics teams, over a decade ago. The dinner lasted over 4 hours, and was filled with smiles, tears, and cheers, all marking the appreciation of each team member.
As the Class of 2023 takes its leave for higher education, the team is being handed over to the rising Seniors, who will put their three years of robotics experience to good use in directing about two dozen team members next year. Joining the Varsity team next year are the rising Juniors of the class of 2025.
Hopes are high for this group of engineers; they displayed their potential by qualifying for the District competitions this year, the first JV team to ever qualify for Districts. The combined efforts of the rising Juniors and Seniors will be expected to create a strongly competitive team next year, whatever the game may be.
With Fr. Lou leaving Don Bosco Prep entirely, headed to Orange, New Jersey at the Saliesian house of formation, someone is needed to step up and fill such massive shoes. That man is Mr. Dylan Blanset, who joined the DBP faculty this year and has already become a student favorite. “I am excited and honored to work with everyone next year,” he commented.
Through the combined effort of the rising Juniors and Seniors, a bit of luck, and an absence of scheduling conflicts, Team 4653 will surely excel in next year’s competitions under new leadership and a drive to succeed.