High school team’s robot ready for battle

Submitted photo

Nathan Richner works on the FIRST robotics program robot.

By Jean Reid Norman (contact)

Monday, March 23, 2009 | 12:52 p.m.

For 42 days, the Boulder City High School robotics team brainstormed and built their creation, testing and trying various techniques to bring life to a 5-foot-high plexiglas box they call Eagle 1.

Three days before Eagle 1 had to be turned in for the FIRST Robotics competition March 26-28, the 15 students of the High Scalers team watched nervously as he got his first test on a course similar to the one he will tackle later this week at the Thomas & Mack Center at UNLV.

"It was neat. The robot did really well," said John Richner, an electrical engineer who is leading the team.

There was just one problem.

"We found out, oh man, we're overweight."

Try 50 percent over.

The teenagers who knew Eagle 1's nuts and bolts better than anyone headed back to their lab at Boulder City High — a converted broadcasting room with black walls and blacked-out windows they call Skunk Works — with their work cut out.

"We had three days to work as many hours as could to redesign and rebuild to get the weight down," Richner said.

Eagle 1 got a makeover from top to bottom. His base was redesigned. Heavy items in his structure were replaced with lighter weight material. He had holes drilled in any area that didn't have to be solid.

"It was a killer couple of days, but we think we're OK now," Richner said.

On Feb. 17, Eagle 1 was shipped off to the FIRST Robotics Competition. His creators will see him again March 26 when they show up at the Thomas & Mack for one day of practice runs before the elimination trials begin March 27.

The international competition, sponsored by the nonprofit FIRST Robotics group to encourage students to study science and engineering, gives all teams the same amount of time to design and build their projects from identical kits they purchase with the help of sponsors.

All teams received their kits Jan. 3 and all had to ship their robots off on Feb. 17 to be stored until the competition.

The 48 teams from around the nation that plan to compete in Las Vegas will have waited five agonizing weeks for their shot at bragging rights. Fourteen of the teams are from Clark County.

Once they take the low-friction field, the robots will race to collect "orbit balls." If they place them in trailers attached to opposing teams' robots, they score. Human players positioned around the perimeter can also score by tossing balls into robot payload trailers.

The team the collects the most balls wins.

The High Scalers are not just chewing their fingernails while waiting for that ultimate test. They still have work to do, Richner said.

There are drawings to complete, management plans to write and safety manuals to produce. They are meeting almost every night until the competition to get it all done, he said.

"The FIRST program is about the whole process, not just building and competing," Richner said.

It is also about attracting students to science and engineering, Eric Sandgren, dean of UNLV's Howard Hughes College of Engineering, which is sponsoring the competition locally.

"FIRST is not only an ideal way for students to learn real world engineering skills," he said in a statement. "It's also a great platform to introduce new students to the field and show them that careers in engineering can be both rewarding and within their reach."

Since UNLV began sponsoring FIRST Robotics five years ago, it has attracted 20 former competitors to the school. More than 40 percent of FIRST alumni say they plan to major in engineering in college.

Richner is seeing that in action with the Boulder City team, which is joining the competition for the first year.

"The kids are learning control systems and how to fabricate stuff at the same time," he said. "It should be a lot of fun."