JAY — The Spruce Mountain Area Robotics Team consists of Spruce Mountain High School Students and a number of community mentors. The team is preparing for the first Robotics Challenge to be held at Worcester Polytechnic Institute March 8-10.
This year’s challenge is called “Rebound Rumble” and the team must build and program a robot to pick up 8-inch foam basketballs and shoot them into regulation basketball hoops at three different heights. The robot also earns points at the end of the match by balancing with another robot on a pivoting bridge in the center of the playing field.
Robotics recently began with a full group meeting in the Spruce Mountain High School North Campus Technology Lab with Mr. Lemieux reviewing shop safety, followed by a safety quiz for team members. The team split into four different groups. The first group finished the display for J.C. Penney and delivered it to the store in Auburn, where it is now hanging.
The drive train team finished the base and installed the wheels, drive chains and drive motors. The electrical team mounted and wired the electrical components to a board, which was then mounted to the robot. The drive train of the robot is now ready to be programmed and then driven.
Finally, the basketball launcher team spent a lot of time debating designs for the ball launcher. They constructed a wooden mock-up of a prototype for collecting the foam basketballs and dropping them into one of the hoops.
The build season ends on Feb. 21, when the robot must be completed, bagged and tagged for delivery to Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
The Build Team met Jan. 24 and the whole team will meet Saturday, Jan. 28. For more information about SMART and to track the team’s progress, “like” them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SMHSrobotics.
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