Most people will recognize “nothing but net” as a phrase that accompanies a “swish” shot on the basketball court. But for six Patrick Fogarty students, the phrase “nothing but net” has taken on a whole new meaning this semester, and it has nothing to do with basketball. It’s all about robotics.
This fall, Tye Carnahan, Gian Chipongian, Taylor Fischer, Hunter Lemay, Andrew Makey-Heindl and Marshall Murphy are enrolled in an Engineering Science course through the unique CAPSTONE program at the school. The students have had the opportunity to apply their learning about engineering to the challenge of building a robot to play a sport-like game. The concepts of object manipulation, speed, power, torque, mechanical power transmission, drivetrain design, lifting mechanisms and systems integration have all been used in the design of their robots, as have other principles from science, technology and mathematics.
With their creations “Chewbotta” and “Vaderbot” almost complete, the students will travel to Castlebrooke Secondary School in Brampton on Saturday, December 5, to compete against 48 other high school teams in a sanctioned VEX Robotics Competition qualifying event. The game “Nothing But Net” is played on a 12’x12’ square field, with nets positioned in two corners. Two robot Alliances – one Red and one Blue – comprised of two teams each, compete in matches consisting of a fifteen second autonomous period followed by one minute and forty-five seconds of driver-controlled play. The object of the game is to attain a higher score than the opposing Alliance by scoring your team’s balls and bonus balls into either low or high goals, and by elevating other robots in your climbing zone.
The excitement of head-to-head competition, and a serious desire to pursue engineering in post-secondary, has motivated the students to spend countless hours designing, testing and tweaking their creations.
This fall, Tye Carnahan, Gian Chipongian, Taylor Fischer, Hunter Lemay, Andrew Makey-Heindl and Marshall Murphy are enrolled in an Engineering Science course through the unique CAPSTONE program at the school. The students have had the opportunity to apply their learning about engineering to the challenge of building a robot to play a sport-like game. The concepts of object manipulation, speed, power, torque, mechanical power transmission, drivetrain design, lifting mechanisms and systems integration have all been used in the design of their robots, as have other principles from science, technology and mathematics.
With their creations “Chewbotta” and “Vaderbot” almost complete, the students will travel to Castlebrooke Secondary School in Brampton on Saturday, December 5, to compete against 48 other high school teams in a sanctioned VEX Robotics Competition qualifying event. The game “Nothing But Net” is played on a 12’x12’ square field, with nets positioned in two corners. Two robot Alliances – one Red and one Blue – comprised of two teams each, compete in matches consisting of a fifteen second autonomous period followed by one minute and forty-five seconds of driver-controlled play. The object of the game is to attain a higher score than the opposing Alliance by scoring your team’s balls and bonus balls into either low or high goals, and by elevating other robots in your climbing zone.
The excitement of head-to-head competition, and a serious desire to pursue engineering in post-secondary, has motivated the students to spend countless hours designing, testing and tweaking their creations.