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‘Just Plane Crazy’ about robots



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By: MICHELLE WILLARD, Post Staff Writer
Posted: Sunday, November 2, 2008 6:47 am
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‘Just Plane Crazy’ about robots | RCS, LIVING

McFadden student William Page test drives the robot on a mock competition course. TMP photo/Kelly Hite
The McFadden Mustangs are passionate about one thing in particular – robots.

The Rutherford County magnet school supports its Robotics team like most schools cheer for their football teams.

“We have a Spirit Team that makes spirit sticks and last year some other students actually came painted up for the competition,” Robotics team member Kelsey Henderson said.

Last year the school’s support was so vocal, they actually lost points, she explained.

Mascots, cheerleaders and hundreds of fans cheered the team on and with good reason.

Last year McFadden Robotics placed first in the second annual Music City BEST (Boosting, Engineering, Science and Technology) competition in Nashville and fourth in the regional competition at Auburn University against other middle and high schools from Alabama to Connecticut.

And McFadden looks to have the same level of success this year.

McFadden Robotics is made up of 30 middle school students who are interested in science and math.

“The whole idea is to introduce kids to engineering and show them engineering can be fun,” explained Marc Guthrie, McFadden Robotics advisor.

The students are having fun this year designing, constructing and operating a robot for competition. The robot must be constructed from a kit of parts provided by BEST. This kit includes parts such as wood and PVC, along with the RC components necessary to control the robot.

“It’s a good process to go through to figure out what’s going to work and what isn’t,” said Lori Brown, mother of presentation booth designer Nick Brown.

The students then work out a design together and build a robot.

The final robot must weigh less than 24 pounds and fit in a 2-foot cube at the beginning of each round of competition; once a round has started, the robot can expand to be bigger than this size with retractable arms and so on.

Each team then uses its robot to complete an assigned task.

“We’re trying to assemble an airplane and hang it in a hangar,” Bronwyn Mullen, 13, said, adding the team gets points for assembling the airplane and moving its various parts around the field.

Henderson said the team went to watch a competition in Birmingham and no team succeeded in the task within the three minutes allotted.

“Only one team has done it so far,” Guthrie said.

That is until McFadden gets their shot.

The students feel like they’ve come up with a solid design, which they are unwilling to share with the public because there’s a certain amount of industrial espionage that goes along with robotics competitions.

It’s because students take it very seriously, Guthrie explained.

“It’s competitive but the kids get into it,” Guthrie said.

The students were so worried about other schools spying; they didn’t want any pictures of their robot or their presentation booth taken.

In previous years, they’ve taken decoy robots to demonstrations and even the local competition at David Lipscomb University.

They’re not sure they’ll try the same tack this year at the Music City BEST competition Saturday, Nov. 8 held in Lipscomb’s Allen Arena.

BEST is a nonprofit volunteer-based organization that holds the annual six-week competition designed for middle and high school students to encourage them to pursue careers in engineering, science and technology.

In 2006 the Lipscomb University Raymond B. Jones School of Engineering sponsored a hub and named it Music City BEST. Lipscomb, with help from Nissan, North America, provides materials and equipment free of charge.

Michelle Willard can be contacted at 615-869-0816 or mwillard@murfreesboropost.com.
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Tags: LIVING, RCS
Member Opinions:
By: JM325 on 11/4/08
Are airplanes involved? Or should this be Just Plain Crazy?


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