Robots Test Teens’ Mettle

By Richard Cowen, Staff Writer
NorthJersey.com
Sunday, March 1, 2009

Three groups of North Jersey high school students with a knack for technology spent Saturday showing off their “perfect” robots — while building a better future for themselves.

The students from the Pascack Valley Regional High School District, Garrett Morgan Academy in Paterson and Mahwah High School joined nearly 300 other East Coast students — and their robots — at the Sovereign Bank Arena in Trenton for the New Jersey FIRST Robotics competition.

Preparation began right after the Christmas break, with each school receiving the same robot starter kit in the mail.

“We built this whole thing from scratch,” said Marc Rodriguez, 15, a sophomore at Garrett Morgan Academy. “It took a lot of teamwork.”

The 61 teams used computers to design blueprints, then cut metal and welded mechanical frames together.

Then they attached a wireless receiver, wheels and a drive train, creating a working machine from what could have been a pile of junk.

Saturday’s competition tested the robots’ speed, dexterity and sturdiness — as well as the students’ ability to communicate with their creations in a game called Lunacy.

During Lunacy, the robots are wheeled onto a low-friction surface and operated by remote control. The robots must maneuver around each other and pick up foam rubber “moon rocks” within a 2-minute period. The one with the most rocks wins.

“I think our robot worked really well,” said Ethan Hayon, 16, a member of the Pascack Valley team, the Pi-oneers. “It did everything we asked it to.”

Pascack Valley’s robot, named Apollo, turned left and right when prompted by the wireless joystick controller. The robot stopped on a dime when it had to, and it held onto the rubber moon rocks seemingly as easily as a human would grab a basketball.

And best of all, Apollo didn’t fall prey to the static electricity buildup on the floor that caused short circuits in many robots. When several robots went down early in the competition, the Pascack Valley kids tied a piece of copper wire to Apollo’s frame, safely grounding the robot.

“We had a plan for this robot and it worked,” said Kevin Killian, a math teacher who helped the 50 kids on the Pioneer team build the robot.

Pascack Valley and Mahwah advanced to the quarterfinals before being knocked out. The winner was a three-team alliance, Team Overdrive, which was made up of students from Yonkers, N.Y., Bridgewater and Plainsboro.

This is the first year for the FIRST competition, which was founded by inventor Dean Kamen, president of the DEKA Research and Development Corp. in Manchester, N.H. The competition, designed to encourage students to seek careers in high technology, has more than 42,000 participants. The national robot championship competition will be held in Atlanta in April.

E-mail: cowen@northjersey.com