High school students' robot ready to rumble at regional contest
For Diya Majumdar of Batavia, a week without working on a robotics team project is unbearable.
"It's like your water," she says of her "addiction" to the problem-solving hobby. On summer break last year, "I was like, 'I need to build something!' "
Majumdar and a dozen other teenagers from Batavia High School (and a few from West Aurora, one from Illinois Math and Science Academy and one from St. Charles North) are putting their work to the test next week, in the FIRST Midwest Regional contest at the University of Illinois at Chicago. FIRST stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.
Teams had six weeks to design and assemble a robot that could move foam orbit balls off a trailer and throw them at a target. The robot is programmed with a camera to sense the color of the target (pink or green), so the balls hit the right target. The robot is powered by a motorcycle battery (which does not count toward the weight limit).
The Batavia team ships their 120-pound solution today. No more tinkering, trying to get it to weigh less. No more welds, no more rewiring the circuit board for the control joysticks. No more experimenting with cable ties and paintstick shards for the ball sweeper. No more computer-aided design work, or animating the team Web site (methodtomadness.bataviarobotics.com), which is also part of their entry.
The FIRST organization was founded by Dean Kamen, the man who invented, among other things, the Segway transportation device. It is designed to encourage creativity, teamwork, leadership and interest in engineering and science. The Batavia team came together a few years ago at Rotolo Middle School, and entered the FIRST Legos robotic contest (for younger students).
Each of the 54 teams in the regional received the same $6,000 kit (Batavia's was paid for by a grant from NASA). The Batavia team added close to $4,000 in other parts, Majumdar says.
"We went to Ace Hardware like every five minutes" when designing and building the prototype, she says.
The group asked local businesses for money. It also put on a science day camp last summer, and had a Rock Band/Guitar Hero contest at the high school to raise the money.
It is also entering the robot in a contest in April in Minnesota. It hopes to advance to the world championship in Atlanta.
The team received advice from engineers at the Caterpillar plant in Montgomery. Batavia Web designer Bob Baty-Barr helped them with the Web site, and Dan Caldwell did some of the plasma cutting and advanced welding of the aluminum frame. The kids did the spot welding in the shop at Batavia High School.
The team has a sense of humor: The control for the ball elevator is labeled "Darth Elevator."
There's high-fives when problems get solved.
School spirit is part of the project; the Batavia team is contemplating wearing hats decorated in red and black duct tape, the school colors. There will be lots of cheering.
"We'll be hard to miss," Majumdar said.