Robotics II by
Sean Melovidov
Playing with Legos and
experiencing a wide variety of programming technology was only the first step
for us in robotics I. Robotics II is more critical and challenging. You have to
really think “outside the box”. The challenges in robotics II take critical
thinking and patience. Aaliq Rowland, Andrew Kingwell, Bill Jones, David
Boyayok, Mr. Nance and I have all stepped up for a new challenge. The
challenges of robotics I were teamwork, variables and estimations. Robotics II
has the challenges of creativity, experiments, teamwork and patience. These
challenges are difficult to overcome especially when you only have a few months
to do it. The robotics II team will be traveled in February and March to
compete in a region and statewide competition called “first tech challenge.” A
lot of rules, studying and brainstorming was necessary for the competition, but
the MEHS robotics team didn’t hesitate at all.
Reading the rulebooks and
assigning roles was our first step. When we first got to robotics II class we
had no clue what we were going to be doing. When Mr. Nance told us about the
competition we didn’t know how much work it would take. We voted on team
captain (Sean), co-captain & book recorder (Aaliq), designer (Andrew &David),
programmer(Bill) and our advisor was already Mr. Nance. Most of our days in the
beginning of the semester were all reading the rules, searching for ideas, and
brainstorming how we were to build our robot. In Robotics I it was all about Legos,
but in robotics II it was all medal and screws. Towards February we found out
more about the competition and were about a quarter done with our robot. It had
taken us weeks to figure out a foundation model for our robot and how we were
going to make everything fit. Our robot was going to be 100% original and, as
Mr. Nance says, “K.I.S.S.” keep it simple stupid.
Designing the robot and building took a lot of teamwork, brainstorming and a
series of multiple tests and patience.
Bill Jones, the head programmer,
worked on programming for almost a month straight. Bill helped with many ideas
on the building but had to study many ways for the robot to move as well as how
to set the robot up with joysticks. Mr. Nance, who kept educating Bill with
more programs, provided a device called the “Samantha unit” that would give the
robot’s program wireless internet to the joysticks we would use in the
competition. After hours and hours of staring at a computer screen to learn new
programs, variables and statements, Bill was very competent in programming
Aaliq and I, the captains of the team, floated around the classroom to
help where we could. We suggested many ideas for the building. I spent much
time with Andrew, the head builder, putting on screws and nuts to connect the
robot’s structure together.
Andrew and David, the builders, spent most of their time brainstorming
and trying out different structures and movement methods for our robot. They
were always in a race against time to find a K.I.S.S. structure that would work
best.
The robotics II class
has many different challenges that test our ability to remain working and
focusing on the task at hand. If you like the way this class sounds than you
should think about participating in robotics I to get a feel for the techniques
and smaller challenges that will prepare you for robotics II.
