Jan 31 2011
Seven students from the Yelm High School, who will be participating in the FIRST Robotics competition, have won second place at a state level contest for creating an 18-inch robot.
The robot has been designed primarily to collect miniscule plastic batons or bits with the help of a plastic bucket. The bits will be picked up using a conveyor belt that is fabricated from material that looks like foam and is generally used to cover shelves. The bucket is small enough to be used as a pen cap. The robot can balance precariously on steep hills and stop when confronted with a steep precipice. At the moment, the team is trying to modify their creation.
Other competing teams at the FIRST competition will come from Washington, British Columbia, New Market Skills Center based in Tumwater. Yelm High School is also based in Tumwater.
The team belongs to the After School Robotics Club started by the school a year ago, and its efforts are financed by the State Office of the superintendent of public instruction. Doug Meyer, who is a teacher of pre-engineering and computer networking at Yelm High School, is guiding the students.
Eric Stokely, a maths and science teacher at Tacoma’s Bellarmine Prep, has been organizing robotic competitions at the state level through a nonprofit group called the FIRST Washington, or FIRSTWA. According to Stokely, about 1,800 FIRST Tech teams across the US, and 65 from the state and British Columbia participate in the annual competition. The program has been started to offer students an opportunity to choose a career.
Student members of Team Odin have been devoting about 50 h to the project, including constructing a robot from scratch. They also programmed it so it could do jobs while moving along an uneven path riddled with obstacles. The track was about 12-foot-square long. The students work in pairs so they learn how to work in teams.
Source: http://www.ycs.wednet.edu/