Technology is always evolving in ways where people can do more with machines in everyday. It has provided people with ways to complete tasks more efficiently. For the Newton Robotics team, technology has provided them with ways to create a robot that will be used to compete with other schools at the Robotics Regional Tournament in Olathe, KS.
With regionals around the corner on March 20 and 21, the Robotics team continues to work tirelessly to complete their robot. Junior Megan Watkins has been hard at work helping the design team come up with ideas for parts that will be used for the robot.
“I use Autodesk to help make parts of what we are going to be using for the robot,” Watkins said. “I can help build the robot and help make prints from machining and listen to electronics to make mounts for them as well.”
Even when facing program difficulties, the robotics team continues to find ways to solve their problems. For sophomore and machining captain for the robot, Bryant Childs, the team will need to display unity in order to construct their designed robot.
“Everyone has to play their part, in design they have to be able to design a good robot program has to be able to actually get a good program script and all that,” Childs said. “Then we have to be able to build this robot and machine parts, really good.”
The robot must be able to perform a set of tasks that will help determine the winner. The team must be able to successfully design the robot to complete all of these tasks. Some tasks can even gain you extra points.
“This year, there’s three parts, you make some type of shooter and you have to shoot a ball into three different targets and then there’s a climbing mechanism where you have a bar that’s on one pivot and you got to get multiple robots on there, if you get on a level that’s even more points,” Childs said. “Also there’s this color wheel that you can manipulate and you turn it to specific colors or three times in a row.”
Watkins and Childs describe their time on the team as a positive one and believe that students really benefit from joining robotics. Watkins hopes that people continue to sponsor the team as it has proven to be very successful in the past and that others can remain informed as to what the team does.
“We just really would like to have people know what we do, and to help sponsor us to keep this team going because it does help kids throughout their high school and younger careers because there are different teams that you can join,” Watkins said. “There’s also a lot of scholarships in it, so it’s really helpful for teenagers.”