Class Creates Small Robotics Drawing
Temple City High School’s Advanced Computer Aided Drawing makes robot designs.
Written by SOPHIA CHANG / Published May 28, 2010
The year is coming to a close, and sounds of whirring motors, clashing metal, and dull thumps of cardboard against wood fills the Advanced Computer Aided Drawing room.
The students, gathered around a wooden pen, root and cheer for small robots on wheels, which chase after wiffleballs and ping-pong balls, scoop them up, and toss them over a wall and to the other side of the pen.
This is the second-to-last project in the ACAD class, and students worked together in teams to design, construct, and test their model.
After sketching down their designs on a piece of paper, they created a 3D model with the 3D drawing software SolidWorks, and constructed their prototypes using Vex Robotics assembly kits.
Each side of the pen starts out with the same number of wiffleballs and ping-pong balls. Each robot must scoop out the balls and dump them into the opposing team’s side of the pen. After five minutes, time is called, and the side with fewer balls on their side is the winner.
Each team’s robot has its own unique way to get at the balls. Some simply used a cardboard box with a flap that would open and close, while others used gears to rotate the balls into the box.
The class will play another round in the senior circle next Wednesday at lunchtime.
