Chaffee team wins robot competition at Southeast

For three Chaffee High School teams who competed in the FIRST Tech Challenge Competition on Saturday, being rookies in the all-day robotics tournament wasn't an issue -- beginner's luck was on their side.

Team Furious George from Chaffee proved to be the hot shot of the robot competition at Southeast Missouri State University, beating 33 other teams and securing a spot at the national FIRST Robotics Competition in Atlanta in April.

Students in Chaffee and at schools around the region began building their robots months ago, when the WIRED initiative of the Workforce Investment Board of Southeast Missouri provided $1,500 to each team signed up to compete. The task required mechanical, electrical and computer engineering skills.

Chaffee, Missouri students Jared Walker, 15, Mitchell Dirnberger, 16, and Tucker Burton, 16, from left, members of Team 3630, named Furious George, compete in the final round of the The Cape Girardeau Regional FIRST Tech Challenge Competition at the Student Recreation Center in Cape Girardeau on Saturday, February 27, 2010. Team Furious George took first place in the competition, which involved constructing robots to compete in a basketball-like activity. (Kristin Eberts)

Chaffee High School industrial arts and technology teacher Jaron McMurry said he was extremely proud of his students because the work wasn't always easy and took a lot of time.

"It's nice seeing that it paid off," he said.

Like all the teams, Furious George competed in four qualifying matches, where in two and a half minutes their robot, which was designed to pick up and throw white Wiffle balls, must score as many points as possible in three goals.

Mitchell Dirnberger, a sophomore for the Chaffee team, said their robot had an advantage because of its ball capacity. Once it starts to load the Wiffle balls, the robot's hopper holds up to 40 balls. Agitation from the motor below the hopper keeps the balls from sticking together and allows the robot to shoot the Wiffle balls continuously.

"It took a lot of time. There were a lot of things we had to overcome," Dirnberger said.

In the morning and early afternoon, teams went through a serious of qualifying matches, competing four at a time. The first 30 seconds of the match was an autonomous period, when the students weren't allowed to use their remote controls.

"Each robot has a set of preprogrammed operations that it's going to run through before they pick up their remote," said Doug Koch, an instructor at Southeast.

In the last two minutes of each match, teams operated their robots by remote and attempted to score points in a low goal, a high goal in the center of the playing field and in an off-field goal around four feet from the main ring.

In the last 30 seconds students attempted to score with a yellow Wiffle ball, which if shot into any of the three goals doubled the team's score.

It was the yellow ball that saved a qualifying round for Furious George, whose robot stalled in the middle of a semifinal elimination match. With less than five seconds left, it came back to life, swept up the yellow Wiffle ball and landed it in the off-field goal. That same shot won the team its match in the final round.

"Our robot had a lot less moving parts on it. It's simpler and more efficient," said Chaffee senior Darren Lee.

Prototype Robotics team members, from Cape Girardeau Area Home School Organization, said their robot's shooting accuracy gave them an edge in the competition. They were ranked No. 1 going into the elimination round late in the day Saturday.

With the help of a small motor, Prototype Robotics' robot swept up the balls with a series of zip ties. On being lifted into the robot, the balls were dropped into a metal tray, which was angled to dump them into a cannon made of PVC pipe. The cannon, team member Jon Eftink said, "allows us to fire two at once, even three if we get close to the goal. It's just getting the robot into the right spot."

John Dudley, an instructor at the college, said the competition, held in the Student Recreation Center, overall ran smoothly. Any difficulties were computer-related, he added, and didn't hinder the event.

"Our aim here is to have the [FIRST] program grow," Dudley said. "We have met our goal, I think, in increasing interest in math and science in Southeast Missouri."

ehevern @semissourian.com

388-3635

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