Robotics students headed to state tournament
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RONAN — A battle of warrior robots that rumbled Ronan high school students into a fourth place finish at a Nov. 15 state qualifying competition might sound like a dramatic clash reserved for stereotypical tech geeks, but that isn’t the case.
Instead of building machines meant to destroy things, a dozen students spent the past four months designing a robot that will complete a number of different mechanical engineering feats.
The students involved aren’t cast from a sequel of “Revenge of the Nerds,” and that’s a good thing, Robotics Instructor Jesse Gray said.
“We’ve got a good mix of kids,” Gray said. “It’s not just the ‘nerdy kids’ or ‘geeky kids.’ We’ve got athletes and other kinds. Different perspectives help us be successful … I’m always amazed by the ideas and strategies they come up with.”
Italian exchange student Tomasso Pieroncini said the opportunity to participate in robotics was something that his country doesn’t offer.
“We don’t have anything like this,” Pieroncini said.
The teenagers are presented with a challenge that changes every year and would make most adults’ heads spin. This year, the team has to design and build a robot from scratch that will move small, two-inch yellow blocks from either end of an arena into baskets perched precariously on a plank. If that’s not enough, the plank is mounted on an axle that causes it to teeter.
In a two-minute time frame, drivers that control different parts of the robot separately have to work with extreme care to not only make sure that the blocks make it into the basket, but also balance and not spill out.
Extra points are given for driving the machine up a ramp and making it do a pull-up on a bar.
The team is divided into programmers, builders and drivers. The group usually tests several different designs that are kept in a daily journal. A process of trial and error helps guide the team in which elements of design to keep, and which parts to trash.
“You take 12 kids and assign different parts and getting all of them to come to a consensus can be quite hard,” Gray said.
Each part of the design process has its set of hurdles.
“There’s a lot of difficulty that goes into each thing,” said Cody Bear, Ronan senior and vice team captain.
The trouble is worth it when the robot first moves.
“It really is a rush because you get all of the suspense seeing if it’s going to work,” Bear said.
Some teams show up to competition without a robot that moves, but Ronan is not among them. The school’s team went to the World Championships in 2010, and the competition knows that the Ronan team means business.
Still, Ronan students often help other teams improve their robots at competition and have gone so far as to lend motors and other equipment so schools can compete. Sportsmanship is part of the scoring, as is an interview with engineers.
Ronan’s team hopes to improve upon its current design that won fourth place earlier this month in a regional qualifier. The state competition will be held Jan. 31 in Bozeman.
