Robots compete in first match (FitN)

[Clark Gilbert]

http://www.kokomotribune.com/story.asp?id=1875

Robots compete in first match

By KATHERINE LEWIS
Tribune staff writer
Monday, March 15, 2004

The only place to go is up.

That's the attitude of Kokomo High School's TechnoKats and Western High School's PantherTech teams, which opened their competition season over the weekend with a regional match in Ypsilanti, Mich.

This year, the teams' robots push 13-inch balls into a goal.

A human player shoots the balls into another goal.

The robot also places a 30-inch ball on top of a goal.

Some of the goals stay in one place, but the robots can push around the other goals -- and the other robots.

The robots earn extra points for pulling themselves up onto a bar 10 feet above the ground.

This last task is easiest if the robot can climb a platform.

"We did okay, not as well as we wanted to do," said Andy Baker, an engineer at Delphi Electronics & Safety, who works with the TechnoKats.

Of 62 teams, the TechnoKats were seeded 10th after the first round.

During an elimination round, the TechnoKats were paired with a high school from Texas and one from Michigan, but the locals lost after removing a hook, which caused the gripping arm of the robot to fall off.

"It was a bad judgment call on my part. We had it fixed during the next round and hoped that our partners would win so we could move on, but they didn't," Baker said.

PantherTech had a better day, getting the fourth seed of 62 teams, but a mechanical error kept the team out of the championship round.

Western teacher Joe Reel said PantherTech's robot blew a fuse, which knocked it out of competition.

"There needs to be some slight changes. We had some mechanical problems that didn't allow us to do what we needed to do," he said.

"We are working on the programming for the trigger ball, trying to improve on the ball pusher itself.

"This robot acts different from the one last year, which is one of its stronger points."

Kokomo High senior Kyle Bush, a four-year veteran of the program, said the first regional is helpful because it makes a team better.

"The first regional you go to, it allows you to see what can be fixed and what can be improved on," he said, adding that he would like to see the team cheer harder because the they are judged for team spirit.

Nick Boyce, a freshman TechnoKat, said the team also needs to look at mechanics.

"We need to check the automodes and make sure we don't have as many errors that are simple stuff that we can check," he said.

Still, Baker said the point of the first competition wasn't to win.

"We had 10 people working on the robot all at once. It was a neat time. I am proud our team worked together. It was a great effort. We're not satisfied with how we did, but we'll do better," he said.

The teams will next compete in the Midwest Regional on March 26 and 27 at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.

Greg McCoy, the electrical leader and arm operator on the TechnoKats' team, said the team is in good shape.

"We did pretty well. We learned a lot and I think we have a lot of potential for [Evanston] in a couple of weeks," he said. "We are further along this year than we have been in past years. I see a lot of good things going into [Evanston]."

Reel said his team expects to do fairly well.

"It surprised us this time that we did as well as we did. We had a good week. Everybody felt good with the way it came out," he said.

Katherine Lewis may be reached at (765) 854-6740 or via e-mail at kate.lewis@kokomotribune.com