Written by:  Meghan M.

Elemental Robots

In robotics, we first think of ideas for our table subject. This year, our subject was helping the elderly, so we came up with the Handy Cane. The Handy Cane is like no other cane because of how many things it can do. On the top we have a curved handle, and the curl part that we don’t use can flip up and turn into a shoehorn. We have also installed LED lights all around the bottom part of the cane. As well as installing a magnetized, sticky grabber, we have installed an icegrip that pops out of the bottom when you push the corresponding button, very much like a Bic Multicolored pen. Then, once we figured that out, we built the robot, and programmed it.

About the Team:

Cregan B. — Cregan is in 5^th grade. He is in Mr. Swanson’s class and is new to the robotics team, but he has been in the robotics club for 4 years. He likes football, math, technology class, playing video games, and building robots.

Jett R. — Jett is in 5^th grade and is in Ms. Kearns’ class. He is new to the robotics team, but he has been in club for 4 years. He likes building Legos, playing football, playing video games, being around his pet rat Bravo, being in his tree fort, and exceeding expectations.

Meghan M. — Meghan is in 5^th grade and is in Mr. Swanson’s class. She is new to robotics team, but she has been in club for 3 years. She likes drinking hot chocolate, pandas, writing, reading, and finishing work early.

Olivia E. — Olivia is in 6^th grade. She is also in Mr. Swanson’s class and has been on the robotics team for 2 years. She likes drawing, hanging out with friends, swimming, running, and doing math.

Vincent D. — Vincent is in 6^th grade. He is also in Mr. Swanson’s class and is also new to the robotics team. He has been in club for 5 years. He likes all sports, any kind of technology, trying to come up with new ideas, playing video games, and running.

Skylar F. — Skylar is in 6^th grade. She is in Mr. Swanson’s class. She is new to robotics team, but has been in the robotics club for 2 years. She likes swimming, baking, reading, being outside, and math.

Mady B. — Mady is in 7^th grade. She is in Mrs. Pearce’s class. She has been on team for 4 years. She likes penguins, tennis, hanging out with friends, robotics, doing crafts, reading, and doing math.

Maggie S. — Maggie is in 8^th grade. She is also in Mrs. Pearce’s class. She has been on team for 5 years. She likes volleyball, robotics, rock climbing, swimming, and hanging out with friends.

Anna M. — Anna is in 7^th grade. She is also in Mrs. Pearce’s class and has been on team for 3 years. She likes reading, swimming, being with her friends, doing art, and math.

Kassi T. — Kassi is in 8^th grade and in Mrs. Pearce’s class. She has been on the robotics team for 4 years. She enjoys working together collaboratively as a team and spends a lot of time perfecting her ballet moves.

Mrs. Cieszynski — Mrs. Cieszynski is the Milwaukee Montessori School art teacher, and she is also the robotics team teacher. She has been teaching robotics for 6 years. She likes playing with Tyler (her son), paint, sculpting stone, teaching, and organizing.

Stay tuned for more info!!

Thank you for visiting the Robotics Blog!  Please check back soon for 2012 Competition Season updates.

In the meantime, congrats again to the 2011 Robotics Team, Elemental Robots, for winning the 1st Place Teamwork award in the 2011 FIRST LEGO League-Food Factor, regional competition at Mukwonago High School.  The students created their innovation they called the Germassassin. The young team of 10-13 yr olds took the food decontamination technologies including uv-c lights, bacteriophages, and ozone used in food plants, and combined them into an “iron” shaped device that the consumer can use daily.

Besides winning the 1st Place Teamwork award!  They were also nominated for:

• Innovative Project Solution Award
• Presentation award
• Innovative Robot Design award
• Strategic Programming award

This year’s FIRST LEGO League theme is Food Factor! Teams from
around the world research ways to improve food contamination. The students
began their season constructing their robot that they have named, Tsubaki,
which translates to Chameleon Flower. Their robot includes an adjustable arm
that also serves the purpose as a box that can transport mission models.
Attached to the side of their robot is a bin that catches all intended bacteria
and viruses that need to return to base. Robotics team members have completed 6
missions thus far by programming their robot to complete certain tasks on the
robot mat that are universal to all competing and pertain to food
decontamination.

The robotics team also designed an innovative device for the
consumer to use to assist in the decontamination of food. Students are to
research a solution to food decontamination and create a project that can be
presented to the FLL judges. The team first began by looking at different types
of food, what types of contaminants may inhibit them, and what solutions are feasible
for the consumer. The team’s main goal was to create something for the consumer
to use and this was easy for them to create once they began looking into how
factories sanitize their facilities. The robotics team members noticed commonalities
within the use of UV lights, ozone gas, and bacteriophage within these
factories and created the “Germassasin.” This device is shaped like
an iron and has UVc lights on the bottom that pass over food and hard surfaces
to sanitize, as well as ozone gases mixed with water that are applied to the
food that leaves no harmful residue and bacteriophages that can be designated
to kill E Coli., Listeria, or Salmonella which are also mixed with water and
applied as a mist as well. The robotics team has continued their research by
meeting, discussing, and receiving expert feedback from Chubby Cheese Food
Truck, Lawford Baxter of Cut Fresh Foods, and Michael Laiosa, Ph.D. of UWM.

The season will begin the last week in August of 2011. Students will prepare their minds and robots to compete on the theme of FOOD FACTOR!! Think about how you can help preserve food, or transport food without contamination, or even make the food taste better. Think about the inventions now that can be created this fall.

Yes the UE/JH robotics club has programmed their robots to choose directions and solve the maze by reaching the end. The students utilized their Ultrasonic sensors which reacts similar to bat or dolphin sonar. The students have learned to teach or program their bots to choose the next steps to travel by what is detected in their way.

UE-JH Robotics Club has completed their first week of instruction and has exceeded all expectations. The students have been approached with a new methodology to programming that has created 18 Engineers who Observe-Plan-Design-Construct-Measure-Program-and Execute robot programming capabilities to reach their goals. The students are applying their new knowledge and pedagogy resulting in seamless robot maneuvers through obstacle courses. Students will be timed and concepts will be reviewed for improvement.

Do you know what an autonomous robot is? Autonomous robots are robots that can perform desired tasks in environments without continuous human guidance. It is a robot that has been programmed with commands which are stored in the robots brain. There are no remote controlled mechanisms and the robot is as smart as the programs it has downloaded into it. The LE Robotics club members have programmed their robots!! Construction and design took place first with planning and measuring individual moves that their robots would make. The students used mathematical equations to figure out the distance and speed their robot must move to complete and maneuver through the obstacle courses.

Engineers are designers of new innovative solutions for a task or project. The students in robotics club learned about chasiss’, axels, gear trains, and force while they constructed their robot design. Students will then program their robot automonously to preform certain tasks.