The REACH Robotics Team. Right to left, top to bottom. Alan K. (game coordinator), Caleb W., yours truly, Carlie S. Caleb I., Jesse I., David M., Daniel U. (oral presentation mentor), Naomi W., Dustin W., Bailey C., Nancy R. (hub coordinator and national BEST secretary), Mikayla P., Tom U., Dave U., and Nik K. This was taken on kickoff day, when we found out what we would have to do. BEST, Boosting Engineering Science and Technology. Puts on an annual robotics competition. They invent a game and set up the rules. The game involves a robot you must build using the hardware they provide you with. These materials include PVC pipes, plywood, nuts, bolts, screws, tape, and a variety of cool stuff. They also give you four motors, four servos, a brain (or programable receiver) and a controller (or transmitter). This years game involves a theme of industrial manufacturing and making sure that defective products are not shipped out. It is aptly named Total Recall. It is a challengingly complex game. This is why I will not attempt to describe it to you.
We along with 24 other teams participated in the local Bison BEST hub competition. The competition does not simply involve a robot and the game. You must provide an engineering notebook that includes what methods were used for designing and building the robot and also included, there must be a research paper that incorporates the game theme. Other optional things you can do, are the marketing presentation, where you basically sell your robot to a panel of judges, and the team exhibit, that is a booth dedicated to information about your team and robot. You are also judged on how you perform as a team, and if you have good team spirit, and good sportsmanship. So I was somehow elected to kind of head up the homeschool team I am a part of. It has been a huge honor.
We started before we even knew what the game would involve, by doing fundraising. Our main fundraising was to go to a local pizza factory to make pizzas. This took care of half of our funding the other half came from getting sponsors. The other things we did were to find out what teams we would need, and who would head up those teams.
After the kickoff for the competition, we knew what we had to do and worked the next six weeks to do it. Before we knew it, competition was here.
These were 2 very cool days. The first was the exhibit and oral presentation day. No robot competition. Day two they had the robot competition, it was totally awesome. Our robot performed its tasks the way we wanted it to, most of the time. We did have a couple rounds that hurt. The culminated in us taking home awards for Most Robust Robot, Spirit and Sportsmanship, Best Website (which you can visit here), Third in the BEST competition, and Second in Total Recall. It was a pretty great day. And all this means that it is not over, and we are now gearing up for competing at regionals down in Arkansas. God has really blessed me with this experience, it is some of the funnest times I have ever had. If you want to know more about the competition, just visit here.
