June 19, 2025 • 6 mins
Kyle Costa and Nico Peach are members of First Robotics Competition Team 7153, known as The Aetos Dios, joins us live from the Travelers Championship in Cromwell. The team builds and programs a robot every year to compete in challenging regional and world events.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm Alison de Merz. You're listening to Community Access. I'm
at the Travelers Championship in Cromwell. My guests right now
are Kyle Costa and Nico Peach. They're with the first
robotics competition seven to one to five to three through four.
H it's atos dios? Is it seventy one to fifty
three or seven to one to five to three?
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Uh, it's whatever really rolls off the tongue for you.
We get it all the time, different things. But I
versus saved seventy one fifty three.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
So tell me about this competition. The season is over.
How did you guys do?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
All? Right?
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Oh, so this season we actually did very well. We
basically built our robot from scratch entirely and we made it.
We were second in the district and then we made
it to Worlds.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Wow. Yeah, so this year we were very successful. We
had we ended off ending the season with five goal
with five medals, which is, i'll be one of the
best records we've had in our years of being a team.
And uh yeah, we're very proud of ourselves, especially this year.
(01:12):
But every year is always a gift because we're always
fighting to be you know, a team, it's very expensive
to be on the team, so there's always like the
the robot costs, we have the cost to just stay afloat.
We have competition costs, and we we we just end
(01:35):
up making it such a great time. And with the students,
we're all learning, so we have different subgroups, different people
like personally me, Nico and everybody else on the team.
We have everybody just learning, mostly like about the team.
You don't I when I joined the team, I didn't
know what to expect. When he joined the team, I didn't.
(01:56):
I don't know he didn't know what to expect.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
So I want to know what happens. It is a
robotics competition and a team.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
So so basically so basically, starting in January and normally
the first Saturday, we have what's called kickoff where we
all get together we brainstorm ideas for the robot and everything.
Then over the next six weeks we start building our robot,
testing things, programming it until we have a functioning robot
in only six weeks. And then we go into competitions,
(02:26):
which are six weeks of them, and then we go
to two and then there's districts and then Worlds come after.
It's basically a rundown of it.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
So this was your first year, Nico.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
Yeah, this was my first year on the team, and
I was on the build subgroup and then I ended
up being one of the drivers on the robot.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Did you have a good time, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
It was a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
So tell me about your robot.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
So, our robot this year, its name was Barnacle and
it's basically our robot was built. It had an elevator
to go up to different levels on the reef for
our theme Reefscape this year, and it had a It
was basically all built by scratch and just through trial
and error.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Yeah, so I also want to add so I think
you used to put some background before we talk mainly
about the robot, background.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
About the.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Competition aspects. So you have what's the total time two
minutes two minutes on the field. You have your first fifteen,
which is autonomous, where our programmers program our robot to
control itself and move and complete certain tasks on its
own for an elevated amount of points. And then after
(03:40):
the fifteen is up, we have a few different scoring opportunities.
We have either scoring on the reef, which is a
big choral reef at the center of the field on
our side and on the opponent's side. And what we
do is we collect these PVC pipes that are cut
to thirteen inches and we place them on different points
(04:03):
of the reef, high and low for different types of points.
And then we also have to take off algae from
the reef, which are these to and like these big
gym balls that they're green, and we pull them off
of the reef and we can either score them up
like seven feet tall, or we can score them down
(04:24):
low for a few points in cooperatition with against our rivals.
And then at the end of it, our last thirty seconds. Ye,
we have what's called endgame where we can either continue
competing or we could go set up our robot for
endgame where we can either park in the middle of
the field or we could climb this cage that's either
(04:47):
low towards the ground or high towards the ground. And
basically what we do is we had to design a
robot that's like over one hundred pounds, pick itself up
on the cage and hold it elf for when the
game is over for five seconds, I believe, yeah. With
with the with the introduction to that game, we had
(05:10):
to at January build a robot completely from scratch with
no knowledge. We'd have to go into the manuals they
sent out and we read the manual thoroughly. We figure
out the constraints out and we figure out what parts
we can use, will order all the parts, and it's
a rush rush to order parts because other teams are
(05:30):
ordering parts and the few suppliers that are out there
they run they run out quick. So we're always rushing.
So it's good to have fundraising early because once we
get into the to the competition, we have to buy
everything quick.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
So it's the end of the season now. If people
would like to donate, they can go to f RC
that would be the first robotics Competition seven one five
three dot com again f r C seven one dot com,
or they could go to Travelers Championship dot com. Because
you're involved with the Birdies for charity and for every
dollar you raise, Webster Bank is going to give you
(06:09):
fifteen cents and your robotics competition is going to be
better than ever. How old are you, guys.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
I'm fourteen and I'm eighteen.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
And if anybody would like to find out more, they
just go to the website.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
They can go to the website or we also have Facebook,
Instagram and Twitter. Atosdos a e t o s d
iOS seventy one fifty three fantastic.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
I'm speaking with Kyle Costa and Nico Peach from the
first Robotics Competition seven one five three through the four
h program. It's the atosdos. Thank you both for being
here and thank you for serving the community.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Thank you, thank you.
I'm Alison de Merz. You're listening to Community Access. I'm
at the Travelers Championship in Cromwell. My guests right now
are Kyle Costa and Nico Peach. They're with the first
robotics competition seven to one to five to three through four.
H it's atos dios? Is it seventy one to fifty
three or seven to one to five to three?
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Uh, it's whatever really rolls off the tongue for you.
We get it all the time, different things. But I
versus saved seventy one fifty three.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
So tell me about this competition. The season is over.
How did you guys do?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
All? Right?
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Oh, so this season we actually did very well. We
basically built our robot from scratch entirely and we made it.
We were second in the district and then we made
it to Worlds.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Wow. Yeah, so this year we were very successful. We
had we ended off ending the season with five goal
with five medals, which is, i'll be one of the
best records we've had in our years of being a team.
And uh yeah, we're very proud of ourselves, especially this year.
(01:12):
But every year is always a gift because we're always
fighting to be you know, a team, it's very expensive
to be on the team, so there's always like the
the robot costs, we have the cost to just stay afloat.
We have competition costs, and we we we just end
(01:35):
up making it such a great time. And with the students,
we're all learning, so we have different subgroups, different people
like personally me, Nico and everybody else on the team.
We have everybody just learning, mostly like about the team.
You don't I when I joined the team, I didn't
know what to expect. When he joined the team, I didn't.
(01:56):
I don't know he didn't know what to expect.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
So I want to know what happens. It is a
robotics competition and a team.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
So so basically so basically, starting in January and normally
the first Saturday, we have what's called kickoff where we
all get together we brainstorm ideas for the robot and everything.
Then over the next six weeks we start building our robot,
testing things, programming it until we have a functioning robot
in only six weeks. And then we go into competitions,
(02:26):
which are six weeks of them, and then we go
to two and then there's districts and then Worlds come after.
It's basically a rundown of it.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
So this was your first year, Nico.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
Yeah, this was my first year on the team, and
I was on the build subgroup and then I ended
up being one of the drivers on the robot.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Did you have a good time, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
It was a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
So tell me about your robot.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
So, our robot this year, its name was Barnacle and
it's basically our robot was built. It had an elevator
to go up to different levels on the reef for
our theme Reefscape this year, and it had a It
was basically all built by scratch and just through trial
and error.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Yeah, so I also want to add so I think
you used to put some background before we talk mainly
about the robot, background.
Speaker 3 (03:15):
About the.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Competition aspects. So you have what's the total time two
minutes two minutes on the field. You have your first fifteen,
which is autonomous, where our programmers program our robot to
control itself and move and complete certain tasks on its
own for an elevated amount of points. And then after
(03:40):
the fifteen is up, we have a few different scoring opportunities.
We have either scoring on the reef, which is a
big choral reef at the center of the field on
our side and on the opponent's side. And what we
do is we collect these PVC pipes that are cut
to thirteen inches and we place them on different points
(04:03):
of the reef, high and low for different types of points.
And then we also have to take off algae from
the reef, which are these to and like these big
gym balls that they're green, and we pull them off
of the reef and we can either score them up
like seven feet tall, or we can score them down
(04:24):
low for a few points in cooperatition with against our rivals.
And then at the end of it, our last thirty seconds. Ye,
we have what's called endgame where we can either continue
competing or we could go set up our robot for
endgame where we can either park in the middle of
the field or we could climb this cage that's either
(04:47):
low towards the ground or high towards the ground. And
basically what we do is we had to design a
robot that's like over one hundred pounds, pick itself up
on the cage and hold it elf for when the
game is over for five seconds, I believe, yeah. With
with the with the introduction to that game, we had
(05:10):
to at January build a robot completely from scratch with
no knowledge. We'd have to go into the manuals they
sent out and we read the manual thoroughly. We figure
out the constraints out and we figure out what parts
we can use, will order all the parts, and it's
a rush rush to order parts because other teams are
(05:30):
ordering parts and the few suppliers that are out there
they run they run out quick. So we're always rushing.
So it's good to have fundraising early because once we
get into the to the competition, we have to buy
everything quick.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
So it's the end of the season now. If people
would like to donate, they can go to f RC
that would be the first robotics Competition seven one five
three dot com again f r C seven one dot com,
or they could go to Travelers Championship dot com. Because
you're involved with the Birdies for charity and for every
dollar you raise, Webster Bank is going to give you
(06:09):
fifteen cents and your robotics competition is going to be
better than ever. How old are you, guys.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
I'm fourteen and I'm eighteen.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
And if anybody would like to find out more, they
just go to the website.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
They can go to the website or we also have Facebook,
Instagram and Twitter. Atosdos a e t o s d
iOS seventy one fifty three fantastic.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
I'm speaking with Kyle Costa and Nico Peach from the
first Robotics Competition seven one five three through the four
h program. It's the atosdos. Thank you both for being
here and thank you for serving the community.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Thank you, thank you.
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