May 15, 2002
Robots amaze contest judges
MTA students win big at New York competition
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Creating a coin-operated robot pencil sharpener, five area students garnered a first place finish in the Robotic Technology and Engineering Challenge 2002. Another group of students, also from the Manufacturing Technology Academy, entered a robot in the maze competition and received a second place finish.
Held May 3-5 at the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, N.Y., the challenge drew student teams from around the country to show off their automated creations.
The students from the Manufacturing Technology Academy wowed the judges with their unusual idea of an automated pencil sharpener. This project incorporated robotics, pneumatics, electronics, physics and PLC technology.
"That was one of the things I think the judges liked, it was a unique application of robotics," said Tim Wheatley, an instructor in the Manufacturing Technology Academy who accompanied the students on the trip.
When their creation jammed at the last minute and required some on-the-fly repairs, the judges could tell the students knew their machine from the circuit boards up.
"Some of the other entries were really cool but it looked like they didn't build them themselves," said Kristen Bautzmann, a senior from St. Francis High School. "Ours was held together with duct tape and wire and they could tell we built it ourselves."
The idea for an automated pencil sharpener sprang from the students' everyday annoyance at the classroom's broken sharpener.
"The pencil sharpener we had kept breaking so Jack Halligan [another MTA instructor] said to build another one," said Faride Cruz, a senior at Elk Rapids High School. "So we did."
The robot maze team also scored points with judges because their robot did not come from a kit as many other entries did. For the competition, the robot needed to navigate an eight-foot by eight-foot, two-story maze. To do this, the students built a robot car that included four batteries, a sensor, two motors, two wheels and a PLC.
Their entry was noticeably larger and less streamlined then robots from other teams, but the MTA students had built and programmed it from the ground up.
"Ours didn't make it all the way through the maze but we placed higher because they could tell we built it ourselves," said Isabel Chalker, a senior from Buckley High School. "We didn't get our PLC built the day before we left so we didn't get any test runs of the maze."
Twelve students and two instructors traveled to the challenge, bringing with them the projects they have worked on since January.
Crafting their machines provided numerous real-life lessons for students: from project planning and development to budgeting, scheduling and reporting. The students from each team had to present their proposal and budget to the MTA staff for approval. Not to mention the in-depth technical skills required to construct and program their robots. Plus, in the case of the pencil sharpener, students needed other motors and supporting equipment.
"We learned all the different elements in having the whole process work, having a whole project come together," said Jason DeFever, a senior from Bellaire High School. "The whole project kind of functioned like it would in the real world."
Wheatley was proud of the perseverance members of both teams displayed at the event.
"Saturday was a set-up day and both weren't working by 10 p.m. that night," he recalled. "They just all plugged away at it, they had it working off and on during the day. It was a very cool experience for them."