Athletics Engineered
Valpo's Robotic Football Team Competes in the Curious Collision of Engineering and Sport
On Saturday, April 13, 2024, a crowd gathered at Valparaiso University for a football game like no other. Teams from Ohio Northern University, the University of Notre Dame, Calvin University, the United States Naval Academy, and, of course, Valpo were set to compete for the Brian Hederman memorial trophy in an all-day tournament.
There were some notable differences between this version of football and what the spectators were used to seeing. First, it was held at Homer Drew Court in the Athletic-Recreation Center (ARC) with goalposts only 90 feet apart. Second, teams scored points for things like a successful pass or snap.
The biggest difference, however, was that the game was being played by remote-controlled robots.
“Robotic Football is a large, competitive team where we build, update, and maintain around 20 robots to compete in American-style football,” says Lauren Kadlec ’24, a bioengineering graduate and the 2023–2024 co-president of Valpo’s Robotic Football program. “Because of the nature of football, it’s a dynamic activity with constantly changing engineering, driving, and strategic techniques.”
Games of the Collegiate Robotic Football Conference (CRFC) National Championships are played between two teams of eight machines. The machines themselves have some visual variety depending on their position and function, but most look extra-large, extra-fast Roombas with nets, arms or other attachments bolted to the top.
Robotic football is a relatively new sport, and one that Valparaiso University has excelled in since first joining the CRFC in 2014. During the 2024 tournament, the team was defending their two-time championship streak, fighting to become the first-ever three-consecutive-year champions in the organization’s history. That tournament, however, was just the latest chapter in a years-long story for both Valpo and the CRFC as a whole.
Joining the CRFC
The origins of robotic football begin with tragedy. In July of 1995, University of Notre Dame engineering student Brian Hederman lost his life in a car accident. Numerous friends and family members contributed to a memorial fund, which, at his family’s request, was used by Notre Dame for scholarship purposes.
Years later, in the early 2000s, Brian’s father came across an odd sketch among his son’s former possessions: a robot playing football. The idea stuck in his head, and it became the basis of a new, robotic football competition to be played among college engineers. Notre Dame shifted a significant amount of the original memorial fund toward supporting this new sport, and the original sketch was worked into the Brian Hederman Memorial Trophy, which is awarded to the tournament champion each year.
Sami Khorbotly, Ph.D., chair and professor of electrical and computer engineering, was a part of bringing robotic football to Ohio Northern University and, upon joining faculty at Valparaiso University in 2013, saw an opportunity to enrich the experiences of Valpo students.
“When I came here, I saw we had plenty of engineering students that were also on the football team,” Professor Khorbotly says. “So, I believed this would be a good place for engineering and football to come together. I had seen in my previous job how fun it is and how it’s a good place to combine hands-on engineering with the fun, creativity and innovation.”
Valpo was no stranger to machine-based contests, already having a robotics club that participated in events like the Midwestern Robotics Design Competition and the annual VEX U competition, but robotic football was something new, and something fairly costly. According to Professor Khorbotly, each robot can cost upwards of $800, and with eight to 10 robots required to compete, those costs added up quickly. Fortunately, then-dean of the College of Engineering and current University Provost Eric W. Johnson ’87, Ph.D., saw the merit of having Valpo join the CRFC, and the funding was found.
The team’s first year in competition had its fair share of challenges. With only nine robots, they frequently took the field short-handed due to malfunctions and damages. However, in their first CRFC appearance in 2016, Valpo was able to take home the championship trophy and cement themselves as serious competitors in the young sport. That success was just the start of the team’s story.
Playing the Game
Robotic football shares a number of similarities to traditional American football. Players snap a ball to a quarterback, then attempt to move the ball into opposing territory to earn either a first down or a touchdown. The defense, meanwhile, attempts to stop the offensive robots from gaining ground until possession of the ball changes via “tackles” (as recorded by special sensors inside the robots). A touchdown is still worth six points, and a field goal is three. Penalties such as rushing the kicker, offsides, and pass interference also work the same way as they do in traditional American football.
That, however, is where most of the similarities end. Teams are able to score for a variety of other successful actions, including successful short and long passes, successfully kicking from the tee, and being able to bring the ball into snapping position from the ground with no direct, physical contact by a human driver.
There are also a slew of new rules meant to ensure the safety of the participants and spectators. As Andrew Webb ’26, a civil engineering major and project manager for the Valpo Robotic Football team explains, robots can become disconnected from the control mechanisms giving them directions, often with the result that spectators in the front row should watch out for their feet and ankles.
“If you’re using the controller and telling it to drive forward, sometimes the controller will disconnect, but the robot keeps receiving the ‘go forward’ command,” Andrew says.
Every robot is also required to have an easily accessible “kill switch” on top of the device so that a rogue player can be deactivated before causing too much harm. A robot that loses control multiple times in a game may be ejected for the remainder of the contest.
The game lasts for two, 20-minute halves with a brief halftime, lasting no longer than one hour and 15 minutes of real time. In the event of a tie, the game will follow NCAA overtime rules for football.
As a relatively new sport, the rules of robotic football are constantly being reevaluated based on the results of the previous season, and are always subject to change from one year to the next.
“Coaches meet every summer to find ways to make it attractive to fans while keeping it feasible for new teams to join,” says Professor Khorbotly.
Coaches meet every summer to find ways to make it attractive to fans while keeping it feasible for new teams to join.
Building a Team — Literally
While the Valpo Robotic Football team barely had enough players to field a whole team in their first year, the current organization has enough machines on-hand to fill their side of the field three times over. Of the 24 individual robots that make up the roster, two are quarterbacks fitted with throwing arms capable of launching the ball up to 20 feet, and one is a dedicated center (though all the robots have center programming installed), designed to be able to pass the ball to the quarterback to start a play.
The remaining robots are used interchangeably, and they can be fitted with different lids, or tops, to equip them to do various tasks. A lid with an attached net allows the robot to catch a pass, while flat lids are used for linemen whose only job is to slam into opposing robots. While they can all perform various tasks, Lilly Blanton ’26, one of the lineman drivers, describes some robots as faster, others slower, and some dubbed ‘uber-pushers,’ boasting extra motors capable of exerting greater force on opposing robots.
According to Andrew, the process of building a new robot is an intensive collaboration between two primary groups: the coding group and the mechanical group. Working in the Gellersen Engineering and Mathematics Center’s Project Lab, the two groups put their heads together to figure out new ways to improve and turn those ideas into reality. Sometimes, that process is easier said than done.
“One of the biggest challenges is getting all the parts to work together, and having the people doing the coding and doing the mechanical parts understand each other and what’s going on,” Andrew says.
Lauren has also been an active member of the build team, having developed a fascination with robotics from both high school extracurriculars and her father’s prostate removal via DaVinci Surgical Robot.
“We normally have a concept of what the robot will be. Our running back, for example, has a completely different frame and function than our standard models,” Lauren explains. “Once we have the concept, we manufacture the baseplate, make the part, then put it together. The interesting part is how we adapt our models, and the extra functions we give them, like the throwing arm for the quarterback.”
Once a robot is built, it’s handed over to the drive team, who spend their scrimmage and practice time trying to break the new member of the team in as many creative and destructive ways as they can on the field, all to make sure that, come game time, the robot can take the abuse. Far from feeling bad about seeing the fruits of his team’s long labor repeatedly demolished, Andrew finds enjoyment in the continual process of upgrading.
“I like getting to try out new things, see what works, and fixing things when they break,” Andrew says. “When they break, you can see how to improve it so it’s less likely to break in the future.”
With the robots built, destroyed, and rebuilt (often several times over), the day of the CRFC Tournament arrives.
The 2024 CRFC Championship
The 2024 CRFC Championship Tournament kicked off with the singing of the national anthem by four members of the Valparaiso University engineering faculty. The moment was the fruit of an immense amount of behind-the-scenes work by Valpo faculty, staff and students.
“The hardest part was figuring out just how much needed to be done,” Lilly recalls. “A lot of the most difficult parts were the logistics of connecting the different organizations across campus, making sure they knew what they needed to do.”
Those organizations included the ARC staff, who needed to show the team everything from how to turn on the lights, to how to operate the scoreboard in the main gym. The Valparaiso University Police Department and the University’s Parking and Transportation Office had to be looped in as well to provide event security and direct the visiting schools as they arrived. An outside vendor had to be brought in to provide a power truck, and over 1,000 feet of extension cord had to be purchased to meet the sheer amount of electricity needed to power all the teams.
Andrew and the rest of the build team, meanwhile, were busy making sure all the robots were ready for game day, and making sure they were ready to jump in if anything went wrong.
“Our goal is to fix things as they break, and get the robots operational again as soon as we can,” Andrew says. “We had some people in the field, and some in the pit for more complicated issues.”
The Valpo team took the field to go up against Ohio Northern University in the second round of play, after the U.S. Naval Academy fell to Calvin University 36-14. Ohio Northern took a big lead in the first half of play, and, unfortunately, Valpo was unable to come back, losing the game 79-34. The team ended up taking third place, defeating Calvin 26-7, while Ohio Northern would go on to win the tournament, beating the University of Notre Dame 71-39.
Despite the loss, hosting the tournament was an overall positive experience for the team, as they got the experience of planning a large-event, and had the opportunity to play at home for a substantial crowd.
“I saw a lot of people from campus who brought their families, and also some people who were not at all affiliated with the University and weren’t even from Valparaiso,” Professor Khorbotly said.
“Both build and drive teams just want to come back strong to compete as well as we can next year and hopefully get the trophy back,” says Lilly.
The People Behind the Bots
Robotic football is open to all students at Valparaiso University, regardless of major. The organization is divided into two teams: the build team, which designs, builds, maintains and upgrades the robot competitors, and the drive team, who operate the robots during a game. Anyone with an understanding of controlling a video game can try out for the drive team, and while the build team requires participants with more specific technical skills, anyone can find some way to contribute there.
“You can always screw things in or clean grease,” Professor Khorbotly says. “But we need technically skilled people to do things like program the microprocessors and manufacture the pieces.”
While the group is roughly 70% engineering majors, students from a variety of majors, including ones in the College of Business and College of Arts and Sciences have pursued their interest in engineering work through joining Valpo Robotics. Even students without an interest in the technical side can contribute through managing public relations efforts, designing uniforms, and assisting with the many non-technical aspects of running a campus organization. Lilly, an astronomy major, has served as a project manager for the VexU team, has been heavily involved in the design of robots, and currently serves as a co-president of the Valpo Robotics executive board, and is responsible for a variety of operational duties that keep the team running smoothly.
“I like the feeling of knowing what’s going to happen and being able to feel like I’m leading our groups to more success,” Lilly says. “It’s a very encouraging role. I like the ability to look at what we’ve done, where we need to go, and figuring out how I can make our organization better.”
Lilly originally joined Valpo Robotics for the VEXU team, a group that participates in an annual design competition centered around a different game each year, which she had participated in during high school. Now a co-president of Valpo Robotics and a member of the drive team for the robotic football team, the leadership skills and responsibilities of her position have pushed her to develop qualities outside of her comfort zone.
The biggest hurdle was learning how to work through being myself,” she says. “I’m not a super outgoing person, so it’s been learning how I need to work and function to take up leadership roles. I’m not a very confrontational person, but I like managing teams, so it’s balancing those two aspects.”
Lauren had a similar experience in expanding her non-technical skills.
“I’ve always been good at organizing tasks, but organizing people and inspiring people is a completely different skill that I’ve developed a lot in Valpo Robotics,” Lauren says.
Soft skills like leadership and organization play a crucial role in the growth and success of the robotic football team members. These skills are a significant factor in how the group aligns with Valparaiso University’s mission of developing well-rounded individuals.
“There’s a lot of beautiful mentorship happening,” says Professor Khorbotly. “You see freshmen, who have never seen this in real life, watching videos of old games, then talking to upperclassmen about the competition. It teaches them mentorship, it teaches them teamwork, it teaches them communication, all of these soft skills that are necessary for engineering students.”
Members of the Robotic Football Team can also be found spreading the joy of engineering beyond the field. In 2023, after winning their second CRFC championship, the Robotic Football Team was invited to Valparaiso City Hall to be honored by the mayor — partly for their achievements on the field, but also for the services that the team provides to the greater Northwest Indiana Community.
“By going out into the community, we can show kids the beauty of engineering in a way that’s more appropriate for their age group,” says Lauren. “That also makes it a more equitable field for kids who would not normally be exposed to engineering.”
The Robotic Football Team, as well as the VEX U team and the new Underwater Robotics team, bring their creations to elementary and high schools, offering students a fun and unique glimpse into the possibilities of engineering, while also helping local high school robotics teams refine their designs.. Valpo Robotics is also on-hand to greet groups visiting the College of Engineering, providing a demonstration that’s guaranteed to be a memorable part of the experience for visitors of all ages.
“Robots tend to get people very excited and interested, because they’re very cool,” Lilly says.
The program also helps to make engineering at Valparaiso University unique among its peer institutions.
“We are certainly one of the top universities in this program,” Lauren says. “Personally, I was very impressed with that when I toured Valpo, and I think it speaks to how brilliant our engineering program is.”
There’s a lot of beautiful mentorship happening… It teaches them mentorship, it teaches them teamwork, it teaches them communication, all of these soft skills that are necessary for engineering students.
“Because of the nature of football, it’s a dynamic activity with constantly changing engineering, driving and strategic techniques.”
Beyond Football: The Valpo Robotics Team
The Valpo Robotic Football program is one of the three major aspects of the overall Valpo Robotics Team. Students who are interested in tinkering with machinery, but don’t think football is for them, can still find a place with the VEX U and Underwater Robotics teams.
VEX U
The VEX U college and university robotics competition pits 300 schools around the world in a contest of engineering and problem solving. Unlike robotic football, VEX U focuses on a different game every year, and requires new, unique robots to be built for each tournament.
The 2024 VEX U game was called Over Under, and involved two teams with two robots on each side trying to put 60 triballs (acorn shaped, plastic “balls”) in designated goals, in addition to various other tasks involving lifting and placing the triballs. The game consists of 45 seconds of autonomous play by the robots with on input from the drivers, and ends with one robot on each team attempting to lift itself on a designated pole, scoring additional points depending on how high it lifts itself.
The VEX U competition is divided into regional, national, and world levels. Each team must perform well enough at each level to qualify for the next, culminating in VEX U World in Dallas Texas. The Valparaiso University VEX U team has qualified for the world competition every year, and has found funding to attend for the past two years, finishing in the top half of all teams present.
Underwater Robotics
Underwater Robotics is the newest competition for the team to take part in, and consists of tasks that are — unsurprisingly — underwater. Hosted by Marine Advanced Technology and Education (MATE), these robots need to do tasks of varying complexities, from simply retrieving an object from underwater, to opening safe doors.
Apart from the obvious challenge of creating a precision electronic instrument that functions while underwater, participants have the additional hurdle of being unable to directly see their robots to guide them through the tasks. Drivers must instead rely on cameras mounted on the robot itself, creating an additional layer of complication to their design.
The Valparaiso University Underwater Robotics team will participate in its first competition in the Chicago regional during the 2024-2025 academic year.
