Robotix team drives into FIRST
Wins N.J. regional for third straight year
BY JENNIFER AMATO Staff Writer
With the second-highest score in the country, the North Brunswick Township High School Raider Robotix team rolled over the competition at the New Jersey Regional event Feb. 28 through March 1.

The robot "Evil Machine VI: Jughandle" is designed to hurdle 40-inch inflatable balls over a 6.5-inch bar during competitions.

Held at the Sovereign Bank Arena in Trenton, the event drew teams from New York and New Jersey, and as far as Florida and Canada. However, the 40- plus members driving "Evil Machine VI: The Jughandle" placed first for the third straight year in a row.

"It was exciting, Exhilarating," said team member Kristian Calhoun.

The students collaborated with engineers from Bristol-Myers Squibb to build a mechanical robot based on specifications set forth by the For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) organization. The robot is designed to participate in a certain game in which points are scored.

This year's event, FIRST Overdrive, was "NASCAR meets horse soccer," teammate Shane Ogunnaike said. The 5-foot robot had to hold and lift 40-inch inflatable balls, which weigh anywhere from 7 to 10 pounds, and transport them around the track and across a finish line, or hurdle them over a 6½-foot bar.

The team began planning their design in January along with Squibb engineers Michael Lubniewski, Walter Suchowiecki, Tony Kukulski, Kevin Durham and Brian Bender.

"We're really thankful to Bristol- Myers Squibb for their support and the time and effort these guys put in to make a really strong robot," Calhoun said.

However, Lubniewski, a process control engineer, said the students are the ones who put in a large amount of work into their project.

"We come up with a good solution to the game. We have, sometimes, one to two weeks of idea sessions and brainstorming," he said. "We listen to all their ideas. To me, the students don't have any limits. That young idealism. We try to design and come up with solutions for their ideas."

The engineers are responsible for the physical construction because of the use of machinery, but Lubniewski, who has been helping the students for the past nine years, said the students produce the software, technology and control.

"Bristol-Myers Squibb provides the mechanical solution but the students make it work," he said. "Every year they find something to do with the robot I never would have even thought of."

This year, the team focused on the hurdling aspect of the game because that feat acquires the most number of points.

"We want to do one thing but do it really well," Calhoun said.

Another point of interest was the use of infrared technology, with the help of Infrared Remote Solutions of New York, which allowed the team to drive the robot with a television remote. Team member Alexa Stott said their sponsor helped them work through a different frequency to avoid interference when remotes are next to each other, which helped make a stronger robot.

The students also used Japanese CIM motors, at 5200 rpm, to make the robot strong and fast. Because the guidelines changed this year and the robot could only have four motors total, Ogunnaike said the motors had to be redesigned and combined to compensate for a loss of speed.

"Every year our pride and joy are our mechanics. We build it to be the strongest," he said.

However, the team did encounter some problems, such as the field not being built to the expected specifications, a lower bar than expected and an infrared interference. Yet they overcame their obstacles, and even helped some other teams with their infrared problems.

Their success this year comes after almost a decade of winning seasons. The Robotix team won the N.J. Regional in 2000, 2003, 2006 and 2007. They were national finalists in 2003 and 2006, and were national champions in 2000.

"I think we've built a really strong relationship between the students and all the mentors with their strong ideas, and I think we're getting to build some strong robots," Stott said of the team's dominance over the past few years.

The students said they learn from past mistakes and figure out what works, which gives them an advantage every year. They also credit their scouts, whose software includes rankings, point tallies, offensive and defensive statistics and pictures of other teams' robots.

"We seem to find some hidden talent in a robot that no one else seems to find," Stott said.

Their next venture is the Hawaii Regional from March 27 to 29. The veterans of the team fundraised and received a $6,000 grant from NASA. Twelve programmers, pit crew members, drive team members, scouts and public relations representatives will travel with their chaperones to Honolulu.

"We're still competing, we're still doing our work," Stott said.

They chose this particular competition because the Raider Robotix uniforms have always been Hawaiian shirts, and because teams from Hawaii have visited the New Jersey event.

Also, Calhoun said, since Hawaii is relatively new to the robotics field and traveling to the mainland is expensive, they want to keep Hawaiian teams interested and motivated by supporting their events.

Yet overall, the fun and games are based on hard work and a goal of expanding interest in science and technology.

"A lot of teams don't get the credit they should, and I feel we're finally getting the recognition we want and we need so we can take this one step further," said Pit Crew Captain James Schroeder. "Just the fact of engineering and kids getting to learn at a young age … we can take advantage of programs like this so we learn and experience everything we can experience."

For more information, visit http://raiderrobotix.org.