High schools all across the country are participating in a robotics competition where a team of students must design and create a working robot to perform specific tasks designated by the competition. The team is given a standard kit of parts and 6 weeks to create their robot. The sky is the limit to what kind of robot, or how it functions, as long as it can perform the tasks. this year the task is to move a 40 inch diameter ball around a track and over and/or under a bridge. One of the teams in this article has decided to go with a fork lift concept and lift the ball over the bridge. They will be going for more points this way. the scoring is based off of speed and points. the harder the task, the more the points and the faster it’s performed, the more points.
constructing the robot is basically completely up to the students. There are mentors who help with the concepts and constructions, but for the most part it is completely up to the students. They operate the power tools, run all the electrical wiring, create the ideas and drawings, and test the robots. They even create 3D drawings and websites for their robots.
The robots are fully functional and not at all small. in the link, you can watch a video and see the students working on their robots and you can see that these are big pieces of equipment. I think it’s very impressive that these students not only give up their free time to do this, but also have the skills to wire, construct and create these complicated machines.
Video Link: http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1444170079/bctid1443771961