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Robotics Team Earns High Praise
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MARCH 23, 2004 -- Their robot was "elegant" and their spirit "vibrant."
That's high praise from the judges and earned a team of high school and Michigan Tech students the prestigious Delphi Driving Tomorrow's Technology Award at the Detroit Regional FIRST Robotics competition. The regional took place March 18-20 at Wayne State University.
The team, dubbed Team 857--Superior Roboworks, also finished in third place with its alliance partners at the event. The team included 15 Michigan Tech students as mentors and 15 Houghton High School students.
The FIRST Robotics Competition is an international competition that brings together experts and young people to solve an engineering design problem. The local team is one of a small minority that rely on college students, not professional engineers, to coach the high school participants.
The college mentors are all part of the Michigan Tech Robotic Systems Enterprise. Most participated in FIRST Robotics as high school students.
The competition actually began in January, right after the semester break, and the team had six weeks to build a robot, using a standard kit of parts and set of rules.
The 2004 competition is called "FIRST Frenzy: Raising the Bar." Students designed their robots to race around a playing field collecting and passing 13-inch balls to human players who then shoot the balls into fixed and moveable goals. Additionally, robots may attempt to hang from a 10-foot bar.
The MTU robot is notable for it's ability to handle 30-inch diameter balls, which earned extra points in the game scoring.
After the qualifying rounds at the regional, the top few teams pick alliance partners for the final elimination rounds. Each alliance pits two of its three robots against two from another alliance.
The Delphi Driving Tomorrow’s Technology Award recognizes any aspect of engineering elegance including design, wiring methods, material selection, programming techniques and unique machine attributes. The team that wins this award must be able to describe in concise terms verbally, as well as demonstrate, the chosen machine feature.
Superior Roboworks earned praise for the way their robot could grab the large 30-inch balls and the robot's maneuverability.
The team will also participate in a regional competition in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on April 1-3.
The team is supported by Michigan Tech, DaimlerChrysler and General Motors. Local sponsors include the Michigan Tech SmartZone, the Keweenaw Industrial Council, Somero Enterprises, Hitch Engineering, and UPPCO.
Advisors are Doug Oppliger of Tech's general engineering faculty and Mary Raber, MTU's industrial projects coordinator.
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