The Spain Park BEST Robotics Team has its regional competition on Friday, October 26th at the North Alabama BEST Hub at Wallace State. With recycling as the theme, the team is tasked with making a robot that can travel across a beam, which is referred to as the current, and pick up water bottles and ping pong balls (which represent the “pollution”) from the “ocean gyres.” The robot’s gripper, which has a clamshell bucket design, is responsible for the scooping up of the waste, and it can attain the correct angle in order to execute its function through the use of servo motors. The gripper is attached to an arm, and the arm is attached to a lazy susan, which enables it to rotate in any direction so that it can effectively perform. Upon picking up the pollution, the robot must dispose of it into a box on the playing field. An obstacle instated by the organizers of the event is the instability of the current; to overcome this, the team has placed PVC supports that engage under the robot so that it can lock onto the current, thus rendering the robot ready to compete.
The event, a multi-part competition, also consists of a marketing side. SPOC, or Spain Park Ocean Conservation, was chosen as the company name, and a team of 8 presenters must face a panel of judges as they showcase their potential to be the most efficient at eliminating ocean pollution. A one-minute-long sales pitch will go on concurrently, in which a company exhibit will disclose information about the company goals, the robot, and the outreach to those who are interested in learning more. Programmed using Labview and MATLAB, and solid modeling on SolidWorks, the robot is sure to be taken interest in by judges and onlookers.
Be sure to wish the best of luck to our Spain Park BEST Robotics team, and let’s bring home the 1st place trophy!
