Students Gearing Up for Major Robotics Competition

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 00:35:20 GMT

By Dominic Colosimo

Dominic Colosimo
Junior Jon Reeder puts finishing touches on the JD robot on the last day of construction before the competition deadline

Members of the Juan Diego Robotics Club have had just six weeks to build their own robot to compete in the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Intermountain Regional Robotics competition at the Maverik Center on Mar. 17. They were only given a three-minute video and a rulebook to explain the competition requirements to them. The team members have to figure out the rest for themselves. Austin Trujillo, sophomore member of the club, transcribed the design of the robot onto a computer program to give the team a visual of what they would be building. The design was planned out to give them the best chances of succeeding in the competition. Parts had to be mail-ordered from all over the country to be able to assemble this robot from scratch. Dean Kamen, the inventor of the personal transport device called the Segway, started the competition in 1992. The purpose of the competition is to build team unity by coming together to accomplish a common goal. If all goes well, the JD team’s robot will pick up foam basketballs and shoot them into one of four baskets. Different heights of the baskets determine the points earned for each successful shot. Robotics is a class at JD, but is referred to as a ‘zero’ period because it does not meet during the day but after school. This is the first time it has been scheduled outside of the traditional school day. The students are graded based on how much time they spend working on the robot after school. Dr. Jim Duane and Eric Browning are the teachers and mentors for the class. They took over this challenge three years ago after the former teacher asked them to get involved. “The hardest part of the project is getting all the parts and putting them together,” Browning says. “The final product is the best part, and seeing the kids compete, learn a skill and do something they haven’t before.” Browning says the challenge the JD students face is that unlike most public schools, JD does not have a shop class that students can take to learn about model building. This forces the students to learn about the process of building a machine as well as learning the mechanics of making the robot work. The six-week time frame made the project even more challenging. They have tried to bring in parents who have engineering backgrounds to help them with the project, but most of them have given up and said the project was just too hard. Each year it is the students who put in dozens of hours of work to make their robot function. Most find the process frustrating but also very rewarding. Junior Jon Reeder is a Robotics club member and is learning skills that could help him directly in the future. “I like working with my hands and maybe want to become a mechanical engineer after high school, ” he said. Coming down the stretch, Reeder and his team spent upwards of 25 hours in one weekend to finish their robot. They had a strict deadline of midnight, Feb. 21 when they had to stop working on the robot to give out-of-state schools a fair opportunity to ship their robot to Utah. Reeder does not think he will volunteer to be the one to get the robot to shoot the baskets on the big day. “It’s too much pressure to control the robot at the competition,” he says. “I just like building it.” The moment of truth comes down to that first day of competition on Mar. 17 where they will see if all their hard work pays off. To learn more about JD’s robot and to follow its progress through the competition, visit http://3289.jdchs.org/

The Speaking Eagle

Students Gearing Up for Major Robotics Competition