Creating a robot that can play basketball is no easy feat, but TJ’s FIRST Robotics team is up to the task.
Photo by Becca Hansen
“FIRST Robotics is about kids across the country—and across the world—getting together to build robots that actually accomplish the goal of the game,” said Scott Lessard, who is the coordinator for the Thomas Jefferson High School’s Robotics Club. “The game this year is shooting baskets. You can build a robot that shoots basketballs, you can build a robot that picks up basketballs, or you can build a robot that blocks baskets. But really, what it’s about is getting a bunch of kids together that think this is cool, and exploring science, technology, and math in a hands-on experience.”
Lessard said that the only requirement necessary to join is enthusiasm, but members learn a whole lot more. Teamwork, mechanical skills, programming and design, and project management are all part of the creation process.
The club divides itself into three groups: electrical, which works on the motors and wiring; mechanical, which builds the chassis of the robot; and programming, which writes the program to drive the robot.
Senior Cody Anderson is the head of the mechanical team, and says he really enjoys working on the robot. He explained his team’s purpose, saying, “Mechanics is when you have to hook everything up and put all the pieces together to make it go. It’s about making things work, and that’s what FIRST Robotics is all about.” He admits that he came into this project with little knowledge. “I have experience with Legos, but that’s about all the experience I had going into this.”
Anderson was one of the main collaborators in producing the team’s ball-launching mechanism for this year’s game. “We had to work with two parts, getting it to shoot the ball and getting it to reload the ball. The final mechanism has an extended scoop that loads it into a barrel based off a football launcher that uses spinning wheels to give the ball motion.”
The final product is a robot that can compete in a challenge. This is TJ’s second year competing in FIRST Robotics, and last year the team was a finalist. Last year’s game was hanging inner tubes on posts suspended in the air. TJ’s team robot was designed to block. Lessard said TJ had a good driver and the robot was heavy enough to stop other robots from positioning to hang inner tubes.
“This year we’re hoping for a good driver, a robot that runs, and is fairly durable. Once we get that down, we will move to the second part which is, can it shoot a basket?” stated Lessard.
Photo by Becca Hansen
Stacey Fornstrom is the teacher sponsor and leader of the club. There is a scrimmage on February 18th, which is the first part of the competition. The robot is then packaged up and sent off. The team does not see it again until the competition which is usually at the end of March. The club meets Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays for as long as the students feel they can. “We want the robot to be able to move within the next few weeks, so we can program it to move with a joystick. Once that is done we will actually start working on making it able to play basketball,” said Fornstrom.
Lessard emphasized, “It’s the only time in your high school career that you’ll get the opportunity to do this kind of hands-on mechanical stuff in school.”
FIRST Robotics competes on an international level. Important people are involved in FIRST Robotics: the CEO of Coca-Cola and the CEO of Apple both spoke at the kickoff last year.
To make the robot, the team receives a “parts box” from FIRST Robotics. “We can add to it but we have to document what we add,” said Fornstrom. However, there is a limit. For instance, the team can’t start with a remote-controlled car and build on that. Note that no dangerous weaponry is allowed, so no spikes, chainsaws, flamethrowers, etc.
Creating a robot is an amazing learning situation. Working with a team to create something so fantastic is a wonderful experience. We can only wish the team good luck in a couple of weeks and see how far their hard work—and motors—take them.
