ESCANABA -- It's a competitive sport that doesn't rely on traditional muscle. Instead, kids are using brain power.
A team of fifteen Escanaba high school students are taking part in a national robotics competition where they're building a multi-function robot from scratch.
“Pretty much ever since I’ve been born, I’ve loved anything mechanical,” explains senior, Simon Rose. “Anything with moving parts, like electronics or blinking lights, just draws me right in, so when I heard about Robotics Club, I was like yeah, I’m doing that."
They're assisted by professionals from Escanaba manufacturer, EMP, who guide the students through the process.
"We have three mentors,” says automations engineer, Jake Denkins. “Each one of us is leading a group. We have a mechanical build, an onboard electronics group, and then we have a wireless group."
The first challenge is to engineer the robot to be able to place inner tubes on a post. Next comes a manually-driven phase. In a recent session, the mechanical build team assembled an aluminum tower.
This takes patience and teamwork.
“I'm hoping that we can all get experience with teamwork,” Rose says. ”You know, just working with other people, being tolerant of other people. Even if you don't get along with them, you know, you still have to do that."
The main objective for the high school robotics team is to have their robot be able to place inner tubes on hooks of different heights.
Seven high school teams from the U.P. will meet with other competitors in Traverse City in March.
TV Station Profiles & Public Inspection Files forWLUC