Bob Jones Students Assembling the Robot

After weeks of hard work, the Bob Jones Robotics team is entering the final stages of construction on a robot. They will be competing in the 2012 Tennessee Valley Best competition. This signifies the end of a six-week long build season for the team.

This year’s challenge is Warp XX. The teams are to create a mock space elevator to simulate the process of lifting objects into space. Objects like empty soda bottles and wiffle balls represent parts of a space station. Robots must be able to grab parts from a rack, climb up a pole into “Space,” and put the parts into the space station, a bucket.

At the beginning of production, the team laid out their plans for the robot and split into smaller sub-groups to build each component separately. There was an arm, claw, body, climber, and programing group. They all assembled their different parts and got ready to assemble them. This process is not without its problems.

With only a day left before competition and some of the parts incomplete, it seems as though the team may not have a robot. Kevin Wang, a two year member of the robotics team, said about the building process, “It was a challenge, and the communication wasn’t up to par.”  Friday (October 27) was the students’ last chance to complete the robot before the competition on Saturday. Only time will tell whether or not the team will compete this year.

To learn more about BEST, visit this site. To learn more about Bob Jones Robotics visit their page.