Sweera Kshitij Sharma, 14, has been building robots for years.
It started with a programming toy – a mouse that could navigate simple mazes – her father gave her when she was just five years old. But it wasn’t until two years later when she took a STEM exploration class where she really discovered her love for building physical robots.
“I really enjoy anything technical and mathematics, so robotics was like the perfect fusion of those two,” the Neuqua Valley High School freshman said. “I find it super enjoyable. It’s solving problems, and that’s one of the things that I really love.”
That love of building became more serious over time for Sharma, who competed in her first robotics competition at 10 years old. Her father, Kshitij Sharma, subsequently found himself roped into that world as her coach, driven to build a U.S. team that could compete with other countries that have built names for themselves in the field.
“I felt like I needed to do a bit more for our kids here in the U.S.,” said Sharma’s father, who also recently co-founded the robotics organization Launchpad Robo Lab.
That hard work paid off. Sharma, alongside her teammates Ananyaa Karthik and Hamsini Chennupati, captured 4th place at the World Robot Olympiad Americas Open Championship last month, where the girls competed in the robosports category. The competition, held in Panama this year, brings together teams from all over the world. It is the first time a team from the U.S. reached the semifinals at the competition.
The team of girls from Naperville, who call themselves “Robot Penguin,” were also the only all-girls team in the competition this year (they call themselves “Robot Penguin” because they say they all really like penguins).
“In my mind, they’re no longer ‘Robot Penguin.’ They’re ‘Mighty Penguins’ because they impressed a lot of people,” Sharma’s father said. “There were so many coaches and parents who were coming and saying, ‘Oh, these girls are really good. Your team is strong.’”
Karthik, 15, and Chennupati, 14, had similar stories for how they got into robotics, with both of them discovering the field and a love of technology early in life.
“I loved it since I was a kid, but also the world is really growing around robotics now, and I was really curious to see what the future might look like and how I can be a part of it,” Chennupati, an eighth grade student at Crone Middle School, said.
This was the first year the girls competed together as a team. They started building their robot together in June in preparation for the World Robot Olympiad U.S. Open in DeKalb, which was held in August. There, the girls played against other teams in a game of robot double tennis for the robosports category.
In that game, each team has two robots on the field that move autonomously. During the match, there are eight orange balls and two purple balls. Orange balls are worth plus one point while purple balls are worth minus two points. The goal is to keep as many orange balls on the opponent’s side as possible while keeping the purple balls on your team’s side. The team with the lowest score wins.
To do that, the girls had to code their robots in a way that the robots would be able to detect which color balls to keep and which balls to push to the other side. They also had to incorporate a flipper that would launch the orange balls to the other team.
Robot Penguin got second place at the U.S. Open, securing them a spot for the international competition in Panama in October. There, the girls would compete in the same tennis game, but the competition was going to be more fierce as they were going to have to face countries – such as China, Taiwan and Germany – known for strong robotics teams.
On top of that, new variables can get added into the game at the last minute, which means that teams have little time between games to change either the code or physical design of the robot.
“It’s hard for kids to handle if they’re not well prepared,” Sharma’s father said. “And preparation takes months and years to get to a level where at an international stage they can compete against these teams from Asia … and from Europe.”
In-between the U.S. Open and the Americas Open, the girls built an entirely new robot, building off of some of the mistakes and challenges they encountered at the Illinois competition. They added a camera so their robot could better detect the different colored balls as well as an arm that could better keep the purple colored ball on their side.
All three girls said the robot they worked on together for the Americas Open was their favorite robot they have ever built.
“The way we built it, we put in so much effort, but it didn’t feel like something where I just felt like stressed every single time,” said Karthik, a sophomore at Neuqua Valley.
But it wasn’t just the robot that was more advanced – the girls said they also advanced as people.
“Something that’s important to know is that we’re in this together as a team,” Karthik said. “So even though I’m feeling nervous, I think we all are feeling it together. And it just helps knowing that I have someone who’s experienced what I felt. And because of that, we can understand each other and comfort each other.”
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That team dynamic is also what drove them as far as they went in Panama. Sharma’s father noted that two teams in particular – the Venezuelan team and the Vietnamese team – had robots that were particularly advanced, which can be intimidating to compete against.
“But guess what? They beat both those teams,” he said. “So it’s not just about what’s a good looking robot. It’s everything put together – a constant focus and not giving up. That gets you over the line and that’s what they were able to demonstrate.”
The new season starts up again in January, which is when the World Robot Olympiad announces the challenges for that year. As soon as those challenges are announced, the girls will begin working on a new robot for the season.
“They did more than just reach these semifinals,” Sharma’s father said. “I think they set the bar for themselves, so hopefully they will do even better next year.”