Gary Moskowitz
By about 7:30 a.m. Saturday morning, Clark Magnet High School
robotics team member Artia Moghbel was immersed in a conversation
about infrared scanners, aluminum chassis and robot circuitry.
For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, a
nonprofit educational organization, on Saturday morning released
guidelines for its 2004 robotics competitions. The organization will
host its Southern California Regional competition March 25 to 27 in
Los Angeles.
Robotics teams from Clark Magnet and Crescenta Valley high
schools, which will participate in this year's competition, met at
their respective schools Saturday to go over 2004 guidelines and
begin talking about how they will build their competition robots.
"I think my favorite part of doing this is the teamwork," said
Artia, 17. "If we don't work together, we don't succeed. And each of
us has to survey the pros and cons of every possible situation. It's
fun."
Robotics teams from each school will spend the next two months or
so programming their robots with computer technology to perform tasks
in a compe- tition playing field that is 48 feet long and 24 feet
wide with a seven-foot high wall.
Student robots will have to move different-sized, plastic balls
around the playing field using robotic arms, turn in different
directions and perform a sort of robotic "chin up" by pulling itself
up onto a bar and hanging, said Matthew Mackey, one of Crescenta
Valley High's robotics team coaches.
Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineers are working with teams from
both schools to assist students with building and programming their
robots. Robots are made up of an aluminum chassis that operates with
the use of motors, batteries, circuitry and valves.
"I never had anything like this when I was in high school," said
Mackey, whose wife, Diana Brown, teaches at CV High. "You have to
think of these things like a remote- control car on steroids. And
students have to build the robot to do what it's supposed to do and
do it safely."
More than 40 CV High students met in Win Saw's math classroom
Saturday to brainstorm ideas about their plans to design a
competition robot.
"We've got a big idea pool here," joked Kevin Edmonds, a senior on
CV High's robotics team. "The first thing we need is a blueprint,
then we design it and get it to operate. We've never really been as
much about winning here as we are about learning."
CV High's team robot earned an award for best drive system in
2003. Clark Magnet's team earned a second-place award in 2003.
