By Linda Brenckle
Algonquin Regional Robotics Team, Photo courtesy of Michael Roman
Contrasting the silent, immobile work of robotic circuitry last Monday night, was the animated activity of Team 1100, the T-Hawks, in their quest to finish constructing a robot before a midnight shipping deadline. The brightly lit room in the back of Algonquin High School, strewn with tool- and part-covered tables, hanging award medals, and robots of yesteryear, hummed with snippets of conversations as small groups worked against time to get this year’s robot in gear– “If we figure out what that is…” “But we know how to…” “You know what we can do…”
On Thursday March 4th, Team 1100 will travel to Manchester, New Hampshire to
William F a senior at Algonquin High School, Photo courtesy of Michael Roman
compete in the FIRST BAE Systems Granite State Regional Robotics Competition. According to its website, FIRST is a not-for-profit organization devoted to helping young people discover and develop a passion for science, engineering, technology, and mathematics, meanwhile improving self-confidence, and communication and leadership skills. It holds annual competitions for elementary through high school students, including the two regional FIRST Robotics Competitions in which Team 1100 will participate.
Team 1100, a club of students and their mentors interested in robotics, is comprised of 34 students from Algonquin Regional High School, Westborough High School, Massachusetts Academy of Math and Science at WPI (Mass Academy), and St. Peter-Marian Junior Senior High School. One of the nine team mentors, Dan Strickland, sees the advantage in opening the team to a number of schools, “We’re able to offer this to students who don’t have the opportunity. It’s an expensive endeavor so not every high school will have a team.” Team 1100 is fortunate to have the backing of Rohm and Haas, National Grid, the Society of American Military Engineers, and Draper Laboratory. This year, the students also raised funds selling coupon books and soda.
Each year, teams start fresh. A description of the game is announced at the beginning of January, and then teams have about six weeks to design and build a robot made from a common kit of parts and any others that are allowed. The game this year, “Breakaway”, is a modified game of soccer in which robots must score goals but also scale zone-dividing bumps, hang from posts, or suspend other robots.
Part of the challenge of participation is robot design and construction. As mentor and Algonquin Applied Arts and Technology teacher, George Clarke, showed a student how to line up a metal plate for drilling, he said, “there are a wide variety of [team] levels—first year teams will have simple robots and experienced teams will have really complex robots.” Team 1100, which has been competing since 2003, raised the bar this year by building a robot with Omni-drive to enable it to pivot and move sideways. This required expertise in software and mechanical engineering and industrial arts, all of which mentors bring to the team and impart to the students as they work together to construct a robot to play the game.
Besides the input of mentors and changing student make-up from year to year, availability of equipment also influences student experience. Maggie Serra, a student from Mass Academy, appreciates the opportunity the metal shop provides, “Team 1100 is one of the more hands-on teams, it is more of a challenge to use hand-operated tools rather than CAM software [for designing and cutting robot parts].”
There are other aspects of successful participation in the tournaments. Team members also design and build a team booth, plan their travel, discuss game strategy for robot and human players, scout other teams for potential alliance partnership in the final rounds, find ways to develop team spirit, and market themselves to other teams. Finally, let’s not forget the cheering they do.
As in years past, it has been an intensive six weeks and Team 1100 is anxious for the game to begin. Thursday will be a day for team travel, set up, and robot inspection, but then, on Friday and Saturday morning the team will participate in seeding matches. They hope to make it to the finals on Saturday afternoon. If not, they also plan to try their best at the Boston Regional competition at Agganis Arena, Boston University, on March 25th -27th. The competitions are open to the public and fun to watch. Go Team 1100!
For more information:
“Breakaway” video: http://robotics.arc.nasa.gov/events/2010_frcwebcasts.php – animation Go to the table at the bottom of the page and click on the link for the way you want to view.
FIRST: http://www.usfirst.org/default.aspx
Granite State Regional Robotics Competition http://www.baesystemsfirst.org/regional/
Boston Regional Robotics Competition: http://bostonfirst.org/
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