My Robotics Club

Hello there Steemit! I am here today to tell you all about the school club that I participate in: Robotics!

source
At my school, there is a very large variety of clubs and sports, but I have decided the be in the robotics club. It's a very fun and interactive club where we get to go on yearly competitions and go against the other teams. I am currently in the middle school robotics club (I am in 7th grade) but we also have a highschool club (more on that later)

In the middle school robotics club, we use the Lego Mindstorms technology to build a robot to compete in competitions. This is called FLL, or the First Lego League. In these competitions we need to complete certain assigned challenges and try to gain as many points as we can in 2 and a half minutes. Each year has its own theme: This year was called FLL Hydro Dynamics, last year was FLL Animal Allies, and there's a list going back. We are given these so that we have an idea of what we as engineers can do in the future to protect nature using the current technology.

We also use this theme to come up with ideas to protect nature effeciently. Because this year's competition was about Hydro Dynamics, we needed a project based off of water. Our team, like many others, chose a water filter. However, every project we saw had its own unique aspects. Our team for instance made a straw filter using cheap materials so it was not only efficient but also affordable. While we did this, another team used things like UV rays and other things to filter it.

source

As mentioned earlier, we also have a highschool team. All though I do not know much about their themes or competitions, I do know that they use the VEX technology. They create a lot of custom parts and use wireless connections to control their robots from controllers, and their robots each have a clamp arm on them. I find it really cool that they make custom parts and can control their robots, and really look forward to joining the club in 2 years!

source

Now on to our FLL Competitions. There are some rules to these competitions. First off, we have to have our robot small enough to fit in the base. Of course when I say small enough it still be pretty big. The base for these competitions is not that small, so we have room to spare. However, the robot cannot be more than 12 inches tall, but as long as it fits in base can be as long or wide as you want. However, if the robot is too big and breaks a part of a challenge, the piece cannot be put back on the bot until after the run is over. Also, if you touch the robot after any part of it is outside of the base, you get a penalty. This year a penalty was -5 Points to your score, but is subject to change in the future. You also cannot touch a piece that breaks off of or falls off of the robot once it has left base. Doing so results in no points from a completed challenge, or -5 Points to your score, or both.

However stressful trying to create a robot that fits all of these is, the club is still really fun! We get to go on trips out of state, get to talk to other people and make new friends, or even create things with old friends. In this club, we go off of our 8 core values, making sure that what we do doesn't violate them.

1. We are a team
2. We do the work to find the answers together with our coaches.
3. Nobody has all of the answers: We work together.
4. We honor the spirit of friendly competition.
5. What we discover is more important than what we win
6. We share our experiences with others.
7. We display gracious professionalism and coopertiton (cooperative competition)
8. We have fun!

source

If you would like to learn or find out more, be sure to follow us and check out our weekly (ish) posts about what we're up to! Next weekend we will be showing you a bit of what we've done throughout the year, and some of our creations!