Red Rock Robotics in Idaho

Robotics! 

Considering how pivotal robotics has been in Eli's life, I've blogged embarrassingly little about it. In truth, I haven't been witness to the vast majority of what happens. For months on end, Eli has spent almost every weekday afternoon, many weekday evenings, and some Saturdays in the robotics lab. He comes home, hops on the computer, and continues designing in CAD because he loves it so very much. During peak season, the robotics advisers have seen far more of Eli than we have. I'm grateful to them for doing a great job of raising our son.

And so, it seems appropriate that I borrow from the words of the Alison Bulson, physics teacher and robotics mentor extraordinaire, to outline the success of Red Rock Robotics. 

Idaho Regional Recap

March 30, 2026 

Dear Robotics Team(s) Parents,

 

Thank you for entrusting your students to us for our trip to the Idaho regional! Although the end result was not what we hoped for, we all learned a lot (as always), bonded, and even had some fun. I’m sure your student is exhausted, and I hope they will be able to quickly catch up on sleep and missed school work (I hope the same for myself).

 

Our veteran team, Red Rock Robotics finished 3^rd out of 35th after qualifying rounds.  Our rookie team, Red Pebble Rebels finished 31st out of 35th. 

Although the competition was in Idaho, many teams came from out of state, including teams from Utah (5), Taiwan, China, Canada (2), Montana, Nevada, Arizona (3), Oregon, and Hawaii. 

 

Here’s a summary of what happened with 3006:

Our team had an extraordinary day 1 during qualifying matches.   We finished the day undefeated with a 6-0 record, putting up the top two scores of the tournament.   

Day 2 plagued our robot with mechanical and electrical problems, and bad luck that resulted in three defeats, with a catastrophic failure during the first round of playoffs that ultimately ended our play in the tournament early.  We were the alliance captain of the 2 seed alliance in the playoffs.  We selected alliance partners from Missoula Montana and South Jordan (Bingham High.)  Our alliance ultimately was defeated by the 4 seed after a close match in the third round of playoffs.    

Here is a video of our robot performing at the end of day 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLglUOxRkiQ

You'll see our robot scoring a lot of fuel.  It does this by using auto aim, and shoot on the move, both controlled by software programmed by students.  It utilizes april tags located around to the field to acquire its position.  The dye rotor design allows for rapid fire shooting, and making us virtually indefensible, as seen in the match video. 

We ended up with an expected point average of 151.5, ranking us first in Utah and 121 out of 3746 in the world (97th percentile). 

The team won the Industrial Design Award. We were recognized for our dye rotor mechanism. A complex and effective mechanism that is rarely implemented.

Here is a graph of how we rank among Utah teams:

And a summary of 2726’s experience:

This year, we started a JV style rookie robot team to give new team members more opportunities to participate.   They built a giant robot (maxing out the legal limits), that could dump tons of fuel into the hopper.   Day 1 saw the team undergo a series of minor hardware and software issues which led to the team getting better and better each round.  By day 2, the team was maximizing its robot's potential.  Here is a video of the team leading their alliance to victory (look for 2726 - the BIG RED robot) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyB9tGi6vkI

SO! Now we pick ourselves back up and prepare for the next battle: Utah Regional, April 17-18! We will have some more late-night shop nights coming up and we (those who’s schedule allows) plan to work through spring break.

I will email you all again soon with details about ways you can help with the late nights and Utah regional.

 

Sincerely,

Alison Bulson

And here are the photos that were sent with that e-mail. While Eli primarily worked with the veteran bot 3006 (Gustav), he also helped design the intake for the rookie bot, 2726 (Barb). In case you are wondering, BARB stands for Big Awesome Red Box, or something close to it. As the announcer explained, this bot has 'big aspirations.")

Here are the members of 3006 with their Industrial Design award. Eli's looking mighty proud in the middle of the pack.

And here's Barb's team. It's pretty impressive that West has managed to design and program two functional bots, allowing so many more students to learn and participate in the process.

The drive team.

And here's 3006 with their alliance.

***

And now for the Idaho experience from our perspective as cheerleaders. We drove up on Friday, stopping in Rupert to see Grandma Hansen.

Talia, Grandma Hansen has certainly downsized, but your Covie is still there!

 

3006 was already competing as we worked our way up to Boise.  It was so fun to listen in as their undefeated bot won match after match. The announcer  repeatedly described Red Rock as "hoovering up" all the fuel. As we arrived in Nampa, it was pretty evident that their bot was one of the very best in the field. Their number 1 slot was well-earned!

As for Eli, he enjoyed showing us around the tent where all the last minute repairs and tune-ups happen.

So proud of you, Eli!

That night we enjoyed a delicious Indian dinner before making our way to the hotel. I forgot to take pictures, but Grandma Susie and Grandpa Charles joined us, driving all the way to Idaho to cheer Eli.

The next day the magical spell broke a bit as 3006 became "injured" when the raspberry pi mother board  unexpectedly fried. This computer automatically programmed the shooter, so without it they had to rely on manual targeting which is slower and less accuarte. While 3006 was still captain of the number two alliance, in the end they didn't place as highly as anticipated nor did they qualify to compete at the World Championships in Houston. Even so, we couldn't have been more proud of the team for their hard work and persistence, particularly in the face of disappoinment.

On our way back home to Salt Lake, we stopped off at Shoshone Falls. While there wasn't as much water as during some springs, it was still quite impressive.

It was a beautiful place to watch the sunset.

Thanks for joining us on this robotics adventure, Annika! I'm glad you got to experience the high speed, fuel-lobbing fun that has captivated Eli for so many months.

Love you, Eli! Fueled by grit sparkled with brilliance, your engineering future shines bright. :)

Snow Canyon Spring Break

For Spring Break this year, Annika, Eli, NomiAnn and I all headed down south to St. George. Jason would have liked to come but was swamped with work, Brooklyn and Talia had school, and Papa Kay had an important medical appointment. So in the end, it was just the four of us but we had a great time.

Here we are grabbing ice cream in Beaver.

We had a little time before checking into our campsite, so we stopped off at the nature gardens on our way through St. George.

I'd reserved a walk-in tent site at Snow Canyon months earlier. While not large, it worked great for our group, particularly with the shade structure that provided some relief from the afternoon heat.

The background scenery is another fantastic perk.

Packing and setting up camp is always a lot of work, so it's nice to put your feet up once you get there.

As for Annika, she preferred the hammock.

Setting out for an evening hike. We saw a huge rattlesnake being shepherded across the road by a park employee during our drive to the trailhead. Annika was thrilled, but NomiAnn was less excited, especially since it was being guided to the side of the road nearest our campsite.

Annika may not have been permitted to pet the rattler, but she found a pet beetle to make up for it.

We'd intended to hike to the Whiterocks amphitheater but took a wrong turn and ended up here instead. A beautiful Oops.

On our way back, we took one more jaunt to the top of the Upper Galoot as the last rays of light faded. 

The next morning we set out for another adventure after breakfast. This main canyon loop went from the Whiptail Trail...

...for a quick detour along the Tortoise Walk...

...up into the Petrified Dunes...

...over onto the Butterfly trail (where we met another rattler)...

...down into the lava tubes (how had I never fully explored them before?)...

...across the Lava Flow trail...

(unlike the prickly pear, these guys are actually soft...)

...down the West Canyon Road to Red Sands...

...and finally back through Hidden Pinyon. Hidden Pinyon is  family favorite that we've hiked for years, but I guess I was tired of taking pictures by that point. But hey, here's a photo from when we were there over Jason's 40th birthday.

Meanwhile, NomiAnn hiked the Whiptail trail with us, stopped to read a book for a while, then took a bonus hike back to the campground where she overshot the turn off by a mile or two and had to walk balk. But hey, she definitely got her steps in!

Later that day, we headed into town to eat some Peruvian food at Viva Chicken (yum!), followed by a showing of Project Hail Mary from a nice air conditioned theater. Craziest thing--our seats were in the very same row as our Salt Lake neighbor Courtney Martin who was there with her grandmother! Small world. It's also a kind world. My Mom accidentally left her phone in the theater and someone turned it in. Tender mercies.

From there, we headed to Pioneer Park for a picnic dinner and some rock scrambling.

Eli took this beautiful photo.

After seeing the temple gleaming in the distance, we headed over to the St. George temple to walk the beautiful grounds. It's so much more inviting following the renovation!

Naturally Annika stopped to bond with the lowliest of God's creations.

The inscription: Holiness to the Lord, the House of the Lord.

Back to our own little wilderness home.

Eli was a great sport and got up early with me the next morning so that we could hike Cinder Cone volcano. It's just a few miles from the main canyon, but I'd never been before. Plus, the Wilhoits were hiking volcanoes in Hawaii that day, so I wanted to join the club.

Eli and I decided that a sign stating Dangerous Animals--Access at Your Own Risk sounds more like an invitation than a deterrent.

Views back into Snow Canyon from the top.

If we hadn't walked a little farther, I would have missed the crater entirely! Glad Eli was there to straighten me out.

Down in the bottom of the crater you could add your stone to the top of the mini-mountain. It felt quite Moana-esque, minus the slightest hint of an ocean.

Afterward, we had time for a leisurely breakfast before breaking camp.

But wait, the Wheelers don't vacation without embarking on every last possible hike! Before beginning the drive home, we headed out to the Whiterocks Amphitheater one more time. This time we knew which path not to take and got there by default.

We lost track of Annika for a little while. Unsurprisingly, we found her up a tree.

Gotta admit, the tree had a pretty spectacular view.

Before leaving, she told me that she wanted to hike "just one more hill." Apparently she meant the highest peak in this photo.

Many thanks to Eli for joining his sister on the journey.

They made it! Sometimes it's all I can do to stand back and marvel at these kids of mine.  I'm in awe of all that Annika's beautiful heart allows her to do, literally climbing mountains and reaching new heights. And Eli, your heart is just as miraculous--generous, insightful, and oh-so-kind. To everyone who was able to join or who would have liked to join our mini-campout adventure, we love you! Thanks for the beautiful memories.