By Jimmie Covington , Memphis Commercial Appeal
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Little Richie the robot struggled quite a bit Wednesday, but he and his operators made progress during three run-throughs to collect and move parts of a model airplane to an assembly site.
Tyler Schingle, 12, operates the remote control to Little Richie as Sam Lusby, 11, gives the robot an assist. The members of Team Frez at Sacred Heart School [Southaven, MS] have entered Richie in the robotics competition at Mississippi State.
A drum line played and students cheered during a practice session in the Sacred Heart School gymnasium.
The school’s Team Frez was preparing to compete in the annual Bulldog BEST robotics competition Friday and Saturday at Mississippi State University.
If the team and Little Richie rate high in the contest, they will move on to regional competition later this year at Auburn University.
This is Sacred Heart’s fourth year to enter, and, in the three previous years, Team Frez and its robots advanced to Auburn.
The Sacred Heart robots in previous years were Bomber, Rosie and Grace. They will be part of Sacred Heart’s display at this year’s contest.
The competition is designed to promote an interest in engineering and science technology.
Frez stands for “Flames Robotic Engineering Zealots.” The team members design and build the robots.
This year’s competition is called “Just Plane Crazy” and the goal is to have battery-powered Richie — who is operated by remote control — come out of his storage area and move to a warehouse, throwing a large light and door switch on the way.
He must also remove a barrier to the warehouse doorway before entering and using a flat “raiser” arm to pick up the plane parts.
All the activities are to be completed in three minutes.
Work on the pick-up arm had not been completed Wednesday and the warehouse operator had to operate the arm manually.
A student assembly was held in the gymnasium for Wednesday’s practice. Richie had trouble with the large switch and picking up and moving the parts.
Larry Robins, 13, a seventh-grader, was the operations manager on the first trial assisted by the “warehouse manager” Zachary Hodge, 9, a fourth-grader.
After the effort, Larry said, “We did OK. It probably could have been a lot better. We just have to learn to control the robot a little more.
“Right now, we haven’t gotten that far with the arm. We just assembled it today. When we get to State, hopefully we will be able to move it with the controller. … I think we are going to be ready when we get there.”
Tyler Schingle, 12, a second-grader, operated Richie on the second practice run with Sam Lusby, 11, a sixth-grader, as the warehouse manager.
Tyler said, “We did all right. We have a lot of work to do on it. … It is a lot of fun. Auburn is just so amazing. It is really fun when you get to go there.”
Larry and Zachary returned to guide Richie in the third trial.
The team’s teacher leader, Jennifer Hodge, said Team Frez placed second overall last year at Mississippi State although most of the other teams were from high schools. However, at Auburn, she said, “We got blown out of the water.”
In addition to the robot activity, the competition includes display, notebook, an oral and PowerPoint presentation, Web page and spirit and sportsmanship. Members of the drum line will travel to Starkville with the team and perform during the competition.
Nine teams from across Mississippi and one from New Orleans will be competing this year. Two other area schools will send teams — Horn Lake High School and Holly Springs High School.