Robocats 3: The Road to State

Technical

Rather than having the robot run all over the table attempting to accomplish the missions, our team used wind-up motors to push various objects into place. Through six wind-ups, we have developed solutions to seven of the missions. These contraptions, together with our robot, make it possible for us to attempt more missions within the allotted time. For missions too complex for a wind-up, we designed specialized attachments for our robot. These designs are unique to our team and are created to efficiently and effectively accomplish a specific mission. Once we had developed an attachment, we would modify it in order to connect it to our robot. Our next step would be to write, through trial and error, a program that incorporated the attachment and allowed it to solve part of the challenge. Overall, this combination of wind-up motors and unique attachments has led to our team's successful accomplishment of many missions. We just need to practice to maintain the consistency of our success.

Research

Our team first collaborated to choose which building to analyze and then learned all we could about the Junior High’s energy efficiency opportunities. We learned that, although the Junior High, being a modern structure, was designed to be efficient, it could benefit from use of an alternative power source. After much research and analysis, we determined that using solar power, in conjunction with other energy saving techniques, would be the best option for the building itself. Through our environmentally-themed Christian Emphasis Week, we plan to ask for student donations to purchase solar panels, as this can be an immense initial expense. We then decided to move beyond our original goal of making just the Junior High more efficient to lessening the environmental impact of the entire Westminster campus. Our team learned that the cafeteria’s waste vegetable oil could be used to run the sports transportation buses. After talking to students, the school has decided to set up a vegetable oil processing facility at the Physical Plant, the campus building dealing with energy use. The planting of deciduous trees around campus is also being considered. Because of our environmental concerns, Robocats 3 decided to expand our research to cover not only the Junior High, but also the entire Westminster campus.

Teamwork

Our team found out early on in the year that two members of our team, Hailey Brown and Lilly Chin, would not be able to attend the qualifier and therefore no longer desired to be a part of the team. Hailey had been instrumental in the original design of the robot and was the only one who knew how to repair it. Lilly was in charge of research and, at the time that her conflict was realized, was the only one who truly understood the entire project. Anna Lee and Blake, whose only expertise at the time was in programming, had to work incredibly hard to learn the design of the robot and the details of the project, and, even though they were initially reluctant to do so, they persevered. Although both were educated in each area, Blake chose to specialize in research while Anna Lee continued to focus on the robot. Both now feel that, despite this obstacle, they are now a stronger and better team due to their increased knowledge of all aspects of the challenge. Thanks to their effort and continuing passion for robotics, Robocats 3, despite early setbacks, managed to beat the odds and make it to State.