U.S. FIRST Teams Ship Their Robots Today

By Doug MacPherson on Tuesday, February 19, 2002.

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Today is shipping day for U.S. FIRST Robotics teams across the country. That means today is the day that more than 600teams of high school students must pack up the robots they've created and ship them off for inspection before regional competitions begin next month. "FIRST" stands for "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology." The program was created in New Hampshire to encourage student interest in engineering. NHPR's Doug MacPherson visited the FIRST team at Pinkerton Academy in Derry.

To reach the Pinkerton team click here:
www.team241.org
To learn more about U.S. FIRST, click here:
http://www.usfirst.org

TAPE: OPEN WITH SFX: MECHANICAL ROBOT SOUNDS

GREG JAMISON IS AN 18-YEAR-OLD SENIOR AT PINKERTON ACADEMY IN DERRY. HE PROUDLY POINTS OUT THE DESIGN FEATURES OF HIS FIRST TEAM?S ROBOT.

TAPE GREG JAMISON 134 basically an aluminum frame made out of one inch angled aluminum, it?s about 30 by 36, it has 6 wheels driven by four motors. /// 141 and to get them to work together you have to gear them down so that they?re within 20 or 30 rpms of each other, otherwise one will end up driving the other one and that?s not good. (:27)

THE ROBOT IS OPERATED BY REMOTE CONTROL. THE STUDENTS HAVE DESIGNED IT TO BE ABLE TO PUSH TWICE ITS WEIGHT ACROSS A SMOOTH SURFACE. IF ALL GOES WELL, IT WILL COMPETE AGAINST OTHER ROBOTS AT A REGIONAL COMPETITION IN NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT, ONE OF 17-SUCH COMPETITIONS NATION-WIDE. IN ADDITION TO BEING ABLE TO PUSH ANOTHER ROBOT, IT MUST BE ABLE TO PUSH AROUND A GOAL AND HELP ITS TEAM SCORE POINTS BY DEPOSITING SOCCER BALLS INTO THAT GOAL. SOUND CONFUSING? WAIT TILL YOU HEAR PINKERTON ACADEMY SOPHOMORE STEVE ANDERSON DESCRIBE THE SCORING SYSTEM.

TAPE STEVE ANDERSON 028 your score becomes double your opponent?s scores, so that if they score nothing you score nothing also. So you want to win by enough to get more than them, but you don?t want to have too much more and not have them have any b/c you won?t have any points. ( :13)
WHATEVER. THE POINT IS TO ENCOURAGE FIRST TEAMS TO BUILD ROBOTS THAT WILL OUT-PERFORM, BUT NOT OBLITERATE, THEIR OPPONENTS? ROBOTS. ABOUT 30-PINKERTON ACADEMY STUDENTS HAVE BEEN WORKING ON THAT GOAL SINCE THE FIRST SATURDAY IN JANUARY, THE DAY THAT MORE THAN 600-TEAMS RECEIVED AN IDENTICAL SET OF PARTS FROM FIRST, ALONG WITH INFORMATION ABOUT THIS YEAR?S CHALLENGE AND SCORING. IT WAS ALSO THE DAY THEY RECEIVED SEVERAL KINDS OF COMPUTER-AIDED-DESIGN SOFTWARE TO HELP THEM DESIGN THEIR ROBOT. AT PINKERTON, FRESHMAN PATRICK CLEARY IS USING THAT SOFTWARE TO ENTER A PARALLEL COMPETITION FOR ANIMATION. CLEARY IS A TALL, SLIGHTLY BUILT, 14-YEAR-OLD WITH INTENSELY BLUE EYES. RIGHT NOW THOSE EYES ARE GLUED TO A COMPUTER SCREEN, ON WHICH A CHARACTER HE CALLS ?AN ALIEN?
HAS JUST DISCOVERED SOME BOXES JUST LIKE THE ONES PINKERTON RECEIVED FROM FIRST.

TAPE PATRICK CLEARY 283 so he turns to them and opens them up/// 285 and then the pieces all fall out and he looks around and builds ? you see it build the drive train, but you assume it also builds the rest of the robot. Then what it will do, I?m not to this part yet ? is, it will go around, scoop up all these little balls and put them in the basket.
( :22)

JUST LIKE THE ROBOT CLEARY AND HIS TEAM-MATES ARE BUILDING. CLEARY?S ANIMATION MUST BE 30-SECONDS-LONG, AND MOVE AT A SPEED OF 90-FRAMES PER SECOND. CLEARY SEEMS SOMEWHAT AMAZED TO BE ALMOST FINISHED.
TAPE PATRICK CLEARY 310 I have one kid on the team who?s helped me out a ton this year. I couldn?t have done this without him. ( :07)

THE OTHER KID IS AN UPPER CLASSMAN. ANOTHER FRESHMAN, 15-YEAR-OLD GREG KELLY, BUILT MANY OF THE TEAM?S PROTOTYPES FOR THE ROBOT. KELLY SAYS HE, TOO, HAS LEARNED A LOT FROM UPPER CLASSMEN.

TAPE GREG KELLY 230 pretty much everyone on the team is very helpful to the younger kids, like, freshmen, because they know that in a few years they?ll be the ones helping the other kids and they want them to know all that they can. ( :10)

THE STUDENTS ALSO GET HELP FROM ADULT ENGINEERS AND SCIENTISTS, INCLUDING RANDY JAMISON, THE FATHER OF TEAM MEMBER GREG JAMISON. THE ELDER JAMISON IS AN ELECTRICAL ENGINEER AT SEABROOK POWER STATION. THIS IS THE THIRD YEAR JAMISON HAS VOLUNTEERED TO HELP THE STUDENTS.

TAPE RANDY JAMISON 179 they get experience building things. They get experience working with a team. Hopefully they get an idea of what science and technology can do, so that, maybe they?ll go into engineering and maybe someday work were I work. Cause there?s just a shortage of technical people out there. ( :16)

PINKERTON?S TEAM ALSO GETS ADVICE FROM TRACY UNTIET (UN-TEE) , A CAREER EDUCATOR AT PINKERTON. UNTIET HAS VOLUNTEERED HER TIME IN THE AFTERNOON, AT NIGHT, AND ON WEEKENDS -- MORE THAN ONE-HUNDRED-HOURS, THOUGH SHE ADMITS SHE?S LOST COUNT. UNTIET SAYS THE PINKERTON STUDENTS ARE MUCH MORE FOCUSED ON SEEING THEIR ROBOT WORK THAN WINNING THE COMPETITION.

TAPE TRACY UNTIET 421 they feel: this is mine, and I got it from nothing, from this box of parts to a running machine than can perform goals or aspects that they set out for it to perform. And that?s achieving their own goals. ( :15)

OF THE 30-STUDENTS ON PINKERTON?S FIRST TEAM ? ONLY FIVE ARE GIRLS. UN-TEE HOPES TO ATTRACT MORE FEMALES NEXT YEAR. MORE IMMEDIATELY, SHE HOPES TO ATTRACT MORE SPONSORS. FIRST ROBOTICS ISN?T INEXPENSIVE. IT COSTS FIVE-THOUSAND DOLLARS TO ENTER A FIRST ROBOTICS TEAM. IT COSTS MORE THAN TWICE THAT TO TRANSPORT THE STUDENTS TO NEW HAVEN AND FEED THEM AND HOUSE THEM FOR THE THREE DAYS OF THE COMPETITION. THE PINKERTON STUDENTS SELL CANDY, WORK EXTRA JOBS, AND TRY TO CONVINCE PARENTS AND BUSINESSES TO SPONSOR THEM. SO FAR, THEY?RE STILL THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS SHORT.

FIRST TEAMS IN MORE URBAN LOCATIONS ARE GENERALLY MORE FORTUNATE. SOME COMPANIES DONATE CLOSE TO ONE-HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS TO A SINGLE TEAM ? AND ASSIGN FULL-TIME ENGINEERS TO WORK WITH THEM
AT FIRST HEADQUARTERS IN MANCHESTER, BOB HAMMOND, WHO DIRECTS THE ROBOTICS COMPETITION, IS WELL AWARE OF THE DISPARITY.

TAPE BOB HAMMOND 365 we do struggle with rich teams who have corporate sponsors. obviously the rich teams have access to larger machine shops, more engineering, they can buy more complex parts or machine them, they can buy more spare parts. ( :18)

BUT HAMMOND ALSO SAYS SOME OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL FIRST TEAMS HAVE NOT BEEN WELL FUNDED.
FIRST WAS FOUNDED IN 1992 BY DEAN KAMEN, PRESIDENT OF DEKA RESEARCH AND THE RECENTLY CELEBRATED INVENTOR OF THE SEGWAY.
HAMMOND SAYS IN ITS FIRST DECADE, FIRST HAS SUSTAINED AN ANNUAL GROWTH RATE OF 35-PERCENT.

TAPE BOB HAMMOND 298 one of our goals is to teach young people that there are
outstanding engineers and they are people who should be put on a pedestal. Not just sports figures or rock stars or things of that nature. /// 302 and we hope to make it as prestigious for a student to be the captain of the robotics team as they would to be the captain of their high school basketball team or soccer team or any other sport. ( :28)
AT PINKERTON ACADEMY, FEW STUDENTS DESCRIBE PARTICIPATING IN FIRST ROBOTICS AS ?PRESTIGIOUS.? BUT SOPHOMORE STEVE ANDERSON HAS NO DOUBTS THAT ITS FUN.

TAPE STEVE ANDERSON 017 it?s definitely worth the time that it takes. You really do have to sacrifice your social life for about 6 weeks, but the payoff is definitely great.
TAPE MACPHERSON what?s the pay-off?
TAPE ANDERSON 020 looking at: this is what we have to accomplish. Figuring out how we?re going to do it, what we?re going to do it with. Creating that, and then doing it.
And the competition atmosphere is just like a football game times ten. It?s just amazing, the energy and the excitement in there. ( :28)

PROVIDED IT CAN RAISE THE FUNDS, THE PINKERTON ACADEMY FIRST TEAM AND ITS ROBOT ARE SCHEDULED TO COMPETE IN NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT THE FIRST WEEK IN APRIL. FOR N-H-P-R NEWS, I?M DOUG MACPHERSON.