A group of students worked late last week in Windsor to solve an odd problem: How to get through airport security with a robot and its jumble of wires, batteries and motors connected to a cellphone. <\/p>\n
The students four in high school and one middle school together make up Windsor-based Black Diamonds Robotics. This past month, the team and its robot simply designated Black Diamond Robotics No. 9899 took first place at the state's FIRST Tech Challenge. <\/p>\n
That means these kids built, programmed and piloted a robot against 59 other teams from across Colorado in a high-stakes arena challenge and came out on top. <\/p>\n
The team's victory at the state competition earned them a chance to compete this weekend in the FTC West Super-Regional Championship in Tacoma, Wash. If they do well enough there, they'll advance to international-level competition. <\/p>\n
Getting a robot through airport security is just one of the many challenges they've faced together as a team. The students essentially worked as engineers to design and create a robot to solve this year's challenge. Robots in this competition had to be capable of picking up plastic balls of the correct color, launching the balls into a goal a few feet off the ground and moving a yoga ball. <\/p>\n
Building Colorado's top robot took hundreds of hours from each team member, said Joshua Rohrbaugh, a sophomore at Liberty Common High School in Fort Collins. <\/p>\n
In competition, the robots compete head-to-head in teams of two. Each team can remotely pilot their machine for part of the challenge, but rules require the robot to compete on its own for a round, operating solely on the team's programming. <\/p>\n
Just getting the robot to drive in a straight line can be challenging, said Joshua Rohrbaugh's brother, David Rohrbaugh, a senior at Liberty Common and the team's software specialist. <\/p>\n
The 30-pound plastic and metal robot functions well without a remote control. Everyone on the team agrees No. 9899's autonomous operation is one of its strengths. However, there were a lot of bugs to find and fix in the programming code, David admitted. <\/p>\n
His dad, John Rohrbaugh, helped. <\/p>\n
John and his fellow coach, Tom Schmerge both engineers spend a lot of time with the team. They enjoy it. John gets to explore engineering and teach his trade to his sons. Schmerge's daughter, Aubrey, a junior at Windsor High School, is on the team, too. She's the robot's pilot, and does much of the team's fabrication work. <\/p>\n
Brecken and Kayden Housden a freshman at Windsor High and seventh-grader at Windsor Middle School, respectively round out the team. They're the newest additions, so they do a little of everything to help and learn where they can. <\/p>\n
Black Diamond Robotics isn't affiliated with a school. The team operates out of Schmerge's garage in south Windsor. <\/p>\n
Tom and John have put in just as many hours as each of the kids at least 300, they estimate. <\/p>\n
\"I think that creates a wonderful parent-child connection,\" said John's wife, Janelle Rohrbaugh. \"It's our family hobby.\" <\/p>\n
After a bit more work and collaboration, the Black Diamond Robotics team sussed out another solution on the airport dilemma: a wooden, wheeled box to carry No. 9899 through the airport. <\/p>\n
It took a bit of work, but the team managed to get airport security and the airline to let them gate-check the robot. That way, the students and their coaches could explain to airport security what their collection of wires, motors and metal is: a solution. <\/p>\n
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Windsor-based Black Diamond Robotics prepares for tech championship - Greeley Tribune<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A group of students worked late last week in Windsor to solve an odd problem: How to get through airport security with a robot and its jumble of wires, batteries and motors connected to a cellphone. The students four in high school and one middle school together make up Windsor-based Black Diamonds Robotics. This past month, the team and its robot simply designated Black Diamond Robotics No Continue reading