OCCRA Teams - where do you build?

[Phil 33]

Our school's OCCRA team (Team 33 The Kiler Bees - Notre Dame Prep) is getting ready for the 2004 OCCRA season. This will be our second year competing. Last year we only had a few kids on our OCCRA team, and I was really hoping to attract more people to it. There was one major reason (I think) why there were so few students on our team last year. Allow me to explain the situation....

Our school is officially a "liberal arts" high school. They don't offer any trade classes such as shop, auto repair etc. Thus, we don't have a wood shop, or workroom, or any place to build a robot. We thought we could just build the robot in an art room or science lab. After all, it's mostly just assembly work - plus some simple drilling and hacksawing. Back when Team 33 was a combination of Notre Dame Prep and Avondale High School, the Avondale OCCRA team used to build the robot in an art room - they didn't need a fancy shop or anything. So we figured we could do the same. We were wrong.

Our principal told us that building a robot in a classroom that wasn't designated for such activity was in violation of OSHA regulations. We were not allowed to use a science lab, or an art room to build our robot. We were forced to build our robot in the garage of some elementary school miles away from our high school. This is the problem. Since we were not actively seen in the school, we were not attracting anyone to join robotics. I think that if we were able to work in the school, we would be able to generate a much greater student interest. If people never see what OCCRA is, they will never join. Most people didn't even know the team existed. It's still not recognized as an official school club.

Myself a few other students worked against a lot of bureaucracy and worked against many opposing forces just to get this team started last year. So when we were told we had to build our robot in that garage off campus, we didn't really press the issue, we were just happy to be given approval to have a team. But now, if we ever want our OCCRA team to grow into an officially recognized and sponsored school team, we have to generate more student interest. To do this, I feel we must be allowed to work inside the school where we can get people interested. Despite our BEST efforts last year (announcements, posters, word of mouth advertisement, all attempts at recruitment) we could not generate much student interest, and we could not get anyone to come to the competitions. I'm convinced the ONLY way to get people involved is to let them SEE for themselves what we are doing in OCCRA. And we must put ourselves in a position where we can be seen.

So, here's my questions for you OCCRA teams out there:
1. In what type of facility do you build your OCCRA robot? In a shop, a classroom, a student's house etc.?
2. To the best of your knowledge, would building an OCCRA robot in an art room or science lab be in violation of any city, county, state or federal health or safety regulations?

I'm hoping that if I get enough responses, I can create a report about where other teams build their robots, show it to my school's administrators, and they'll give in and let us use a classroom.

If you have any ideas that might help us out, by all means, post them here or PM me. Thanks.

[Dstiebel]

I don't see why building a robot in a science room would violate any laws. Perhaps your principal does not understand what you are doing. Maybe he/she thinks that you are welding and doing all sorts of crazy high tech sci-fi stuff.
Sawing, drilling, and assembling is definitely not more dangerous than mixing toxic chemicals together in beakers with the possibility of explosion. A chemistry teacher will argue that he is in control of what gets mixed and so he can prevent any explosions. A robotics teacher can argue the same with regard to building a robot.
I think you and your principal should take a close look at the law in question. If it forbids robot-building, perhaps it forbids chemistry experiements, too. If so, you should ask your principal to make all chem classes drive a few miles down the road to join you in your garage.

[greencactus3]

Originally Posted by Phil 33

So, here's my questions for you OCCRA teams out there:
1. In what type of facility do you build your OCCRA robot? In a shop, a classroom, a student's house etc.?

i dont think this reply will help you at all, but i will answer your qs.
so, we started out with a decent amount of people, but by the first matches, we only had enough people to fill ONE hand of fingers... so we were much to busy to try to recruit anyone. BUT since we built the robot in the hallway of our school,(classrooms have carpeting and janitors dont like aluminum shavings all over the carpet... the halls are tiled), we seem to have many new kids interested for this year.. hopefully they will remain interested..
and, since our school is too lazy to allow us to work on the robot after school, i brought it home into my garage almost everyday. that is mainly where we built it. since occra doesnt allow 'precision tools', the only tools i brought from school was basically the normal pliers, files, hacksaws, and bolts/nuts... rolls of duct tape, sharpies, and one chopsaw. thats all we used... so making a FIRST robot in my garage would be difficult, but the OCCRA one was relativly easy..

2. To the best of your knowledge, would building an OCCRA robot in an art room or science lab be in violation of any city, county, state or federal health or safety regulations?

well, for health, i would make sure i have decent ventilation.. ESPECIALLY when letting a newbie solder... make sure they dont have plastic they seem to want to melt....
and a fire extinguisher.. a MUST... we never needed it during OCCRA season, but we have relied on it once...
and as i have mentioned earlier, aluminum shavings.... they are a pain to get from the carpet, and also very dangerous as they may be sharp and WILL hurt when you fall on them.. and of course, oil is never a good idea to spray on the floor...
and janitors seem to dislike having rubber burnout marks all over the hallways too. when testing on tile, wrap electrical tape or duct tape around the tires... it helps... but it wont help you learn how to drive the thing
other than that, NEVER test a robot with glitches in front of the assistant principle just because you want to give him what he deserves...

In general, we're in the same predicament as you.

IA is supposed to be highly academically focused so- no shop, no machines, etc. We've gone to a few different facilities in the past to build our robot. (Oakland Unversity, Lahser High School, Motorama in Farmington, Ex-Cell-O). Currently we don't have a location to build at.


Last year we built our OCCRA robot in a professional business with some extra space. In fact, the same place that we built our FIRST robot. (Ex-Cell-O machining in Sterling Heights). In a worst case, if your school continued to not let you work in a classroom; is there anything keeping you from building your OCCRA robot where you built your FIRST robot?

We still managed to get lots of participation, despite all members living about half an hour to an hour away from Ex-Cell-O. The key is making the robot seem exciting- drive an old robot around during lunch. Usually people respond better to a working robot than just seeing people working on one. Then invite them to a meeting. They'd be more interested to see what's going on if they knew what the end was like.

As for finding a location- check with parents and see who they know. Maybe someone on your team has a connection to a machine shop or other location that could give you space.

And otherwise, I know absolutely nothing about the laws. But I hoped that helped a little, and that you find somewhere to build!

[Pat McCarthy]

As far as I know now, the hot team won't be participating in occra this year because our work area (shop) is still under reconstuction...

[greencactus3]

Originally Posted by PCPat

As far as I know now, the hot team won't be participating in occra this year because our work area (shop) is still under reconstuction...

WHAT!?!?!? students' garages are fine. you dont need a shop to build a robot!!

[Mike Martus]

I would suggest that you have your FIRST Team leader - Jim Zontag talk with the school administration on this issue. I am sure the school is very proud of your teams accomplishments and want them to continue. His influence may be the key as they would not like to lose their sponsorship of the FIRST Program.

As far as I am aware there are no regulations regarding building of the robot within a school or classroom. As long as eye safety and fire safety are followed by the students there are little if any risks to the facility. Add to this the fact that there is NO PRECISION machining required or allowed the handtool operations are usually safe.

I might suggest that you offer to have an adult present when you build to ease the fears of the school (the adult cannot build, design or fabricate).

[Chriszuma]

This year our (clarkston) shop that we used for the robot in previous years got turned into a classroom due to overcrowding, so now we're reduced to building our robot in the storage room and hallway around our advisor's classroom. It's really not that much of a detriment, except for the annoyance of using a hacksaw instead of a bandsaw. Oh, how we long for the bandsaw...

~Chris Hammond, 61