January 18, 2006

Local teams gear up for robot contest

Traverse City students prepare robot plans for top regional competition in March

By Carol South
Herald contributing writer

       Immersing themselves in brainstorming and planning, students in Central High School's SCI-MA-TECH program and the Career Tech Center's Manufacturing Technology Academy began a five-week quest to build a better robot.
      These high school students willingly gave up their Saturday - the first of many future meetings - to prepare for the Great Lakes Regional FIRST Robotics Competition, scheduled for March 9-11 in Ypsilanti. Approximately 60 teams will attend that event.
      By February 21, they have to have designed, raised money for, built, written controlling computer programs and packaged for shipping a robot no larger than a five-feet on a side. Once shipped, they will not see their robot again until they unpack it in Ypsilanti.
      The goal of this year's FIRST Robotics Competition is to have the device perform tasks in a game involving balls on a court. The court will be about the size of a large classroom. The robot will complete tasks and earn points both on its own and as part of a team of three robots.
      "It's going to take teamwork, lots of teamwork," said Chris Blanchard, the project leader for the SCI-MA-TECH group. "This [project] is very, very hard, this is our first year and we're the trailblazers."
      Rookies this year in the popular competition, they hope that their efforts will qualify them for the nationals. This event, which draws teams from around the world, is scheduled for the end of April in Atlanta, Ga.
      With Hollianne McHugh, a technology instructor at the academy, facilitating Saturday's meeting, the students first decided to take an overall defensive strategy. The students also discussed ways to move the robot, which needs to navigate in all directions, and how to both gather and unload balls during the game.
      "We need to steer in 360 degrees while controlling the outputs we put on it, like a pneumatic pusher for example," said Joe Wiejaczka, a senior at Glen Lake High School and a student in the Manufacturing Technology Academy.
      Students presented a range of ideas during the meeting as they worked to nail down design parameters. They discussed different approaches and various trade-offs for handling the balls, working to maximize gathering and scoring ability while still adhering to their overall defensive approach.
      "We can do anything, it's probably just a matter of resources and engineering," added Bryan Sevensma, also a Glen Lake senior and a student in the Manufacturing Technology Academy.
      January 7, a core of 17 students from both schools went to Grand Rapids for the kick-off of the annual FIRST Robotics Competition. This year more than 1,125 teams from around the world will participate in 33 regional competitions, a far cry from the 28 teams that first met in a New Hampshire high school gym in 1992.
      The local students will build their robot using a minimal budget. Already, they received a $6,000 grant from NASA; John Failor, director of the SCI-MA-TECH program, wrote the grant. Students estimate that they will need to raise $4,000-6,000 more for the project.
      "The NASA grant is only for rookie teams, to help them get going," noted Failor.
      Joining the two programs for this venture was a natural synergy, one that will leverage the strengths of each team.
      The project also aligns with the Manufacturing Technology Academy's theme of mimicking the real world. With many of these juniors and seniors working in their field in internships - some netting solid job offers after graduation - the FIRST Robotics Competition's tight deadlines, minimal budget, multiple tasks and necessity for cooperation give them valuable experience that goes beyond robots.
      "Getting these kids exposure to a real world situation and how to follow timelines is the idea," said McHugh, adding of the project: "We've got a lot of work to do."