Swarm Robotic Cheer Team for Robotic Football

As part of the ongoing Valparaiso University robotics efforts based in the College of Engineering, an adjunct effort to the primary focus - robotic football is currently being pursued. As an analog to the traditional cheer or pep squad seen in collegiate and professional American football, the Activitybots will be used to generate crowd enthusiasm through a variety of synchronized movements. The Activitybots are equipped with hardware that can relay signals between themselves to communicate timing as well as position during their routine. The Activitybots are also equipped with hardware to play music, provided to the team by a current student in Valparaiso University\u27s College of Arts and Sciences. The project has a focus of combining both arts and engineering into an aesthetically pleasing as well as functional product. The Swarm Robotic Cheer Team is heavily involved in both the arts and engineering in order to create a half time show equivalent to that of one for an American football game, but on a much smaller and robotic scale. Through this research, the team has learned about how to communicate between persons of different professions who have varying views and ideas on how or what the finished item is supposed to look or do. The goal of this project was not just for an aesthetically pleasing pep squad, but also for students to hone their communication skills and practice their chosen profession