Kernel Bye, also known as Team 2381, is a high-school robotics team made up of students from Colonel By Secondary School, which is located in the Carleton district of Ottawa. This team provides participating students with the opportunity to learn and further develop their skills in STEM (science, technology, electronics and math). The team designs, programs, and builds robots, allowing students to get involved in a large robotics community, as well as compete in a variety of robotic competitions both locally and globally.
The team competed in late spring 2018 at the Skills Ontario Robotic Competition in Waterloo using their robot, which they call "Popcorn." The event challenged students to navigate their robots to pick up blocks of wood, and then stack pipes onto the wood blocks with enough tolerance so that 1" ball bearings would be able to run through the system into a deposit. This competition proved to be a valuable learning experience for the team, where they received many praises for their build.
Protocase's Student Sponsorship Program
To build the most effective and competitive robot possible, Kernel Bye required unique equipment and tools to manufacture some of its key components. This was achieved by using Protocase's student sponsorship program, which provided the team with a level of fabrication flexibility that they did not have access to at their school.
The team competed in late spring 2018 at the Skills Ontario Robotic Competition in Waterloo using their robot, which they call "Popcorn." The event challenged students to navigate their robots to pick up blocks of wood, and then stack pipes onto the wood blocks with enough tolerance so that 1" ball bearings would be able to run through the system into a deposit. This competition proved to be a valuable learning experience for the team, where they received many praises for their build.
Protocase fabricated 16 0.125" thick, 45-degree gussets with zinc plating out of 11-gage cold rolled steel to securely hold pieces of the frame together.
"Our robot followed a 'unibody'-type construction, meaning we weren't just attaching parts onto frame, but rather the frame was part of the functioning robot," explains Anthony Luo, manager of Kernel Bye. "This meant that the frame had a lot of stress and forces put onto it, and was incredibly prone to twisting, especially since the C-channels were 0.064" aluminum with holes cut out in them."
The larger gussets built by Protocase helped to prevent the base of the frame from flexing, especially at the corners, and allowed for additional mounting onto the robot without having to worry about the gussets bending.
Luo, who had heard about Protocase online by keeping up to date with projects done in the past, says that the gussets were amazingly finished.
"The student sponsorship program has been great, communication has always been quick back and forth, and the team at Protocase has always been super helpful."
What's Next for Kernel Bye
The Kernel Bye team is looking forward to their next challenge, the 2018-2019 Vex Robotics competition called "Turning Point", which takes place in August 2018. The team is going to be split up into two large groups, each competing with their own robot. They are actively working on these robots, and are aiming for both to reach the world championships.