Teams created robot vehicles and battled through challenges during National Robotics Week
In honor of the fifth annual National Robotics Week from April 5-13, Virginia Western Community College held a Robotics Invitational Competition with a packed gym of team competitors on Tuesday, April 8.
The techno-evening of robots and fun was sponsored by the Virginia Western School of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and the Engineering Program. The competition is designed for middle school, high school and college robotics teams and science classes, and features a different challenge each year.
The challenge for this year was to design a robot vehicle to autonomously navigate an oval track with obstacles. Teams were judged and graded on obstacle course completion, time, technical report and each team’s formal presentation.
Twelve teams raced the track and clock in tight competition, with Team Terminator taking high honors and Team R2D2 earning a special “best-looking design” category. Both Team Terminator and Team R2D2 consisted of Virginia Western first-year engineering students. The teams were composed as follows: Team Terminator: Chris Mullen (Roanoke), Michael Reppa (Salem) Joe Reppa (Salem). Team R2D2: Brandon Belz (Botetourt County) Smit Patel (Roanoke), Libby Rhodes (Botetourt County) Zoe Smith (Salem) and Connor Zeller (Roanoke).
Each robot’s base design started with a Parallax robot kit with specific rules on performance and a limited budget for additional parts. Each robot entry was required to contain a part made by the robotics team on a rapid prototype (3D) printer.
The Roanoke Robotics club exhibited multiple autonomous robots and automation projects as a “halftime show.” The intermission was introduced by a master of ceremonies robot with a wireless camera system with both radio control and an autonomous power shutdown when an impending collision is detected.
The club’s Schilke family delighted the attendees with their full-size and functional Dr. Who Dalek robot, made available for riding inside around the Virginia Western gym.
Robotics club members and the Back Creek Cub Scout Den 224 demonstrated radio controlled sumo-bots to the cheering crowds. Sumo bots are small robots designed to push the other competing robot out of the ring, similar to Japanese sumo wrestlers.
TMEIC was the event’s corporate sponsor, and engineers from TMEIC, GE and the Roanoke Robotics Club served as judges.
National Robotics week is intended to: Celebrate the United States as a leader in robotics technology development, inspire students of all ages to pursue careers in robotics and other Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) related fields, educate the public about how robotics technology impacts society, both now and in the future and advocate for increased funding for robotics technology research and development.
