DANVILLE – The state-champion Danville Elementary School Potato Devils are headed to the 16th Annual VEX World Robotics Championships in Texas next week, armed with a larger, more versatile robot than the one they used to win the VEX state title in March.
“It’s not quite ready but it will be by the weekend,” fifth-grader Will Samples said Wednesday.
More than 30,000 students from all 50 states and more than 50 countries will take their custom-built robots to the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas for competition May 2 to 4.
Carefully following VEX Robotics rules, the Potato Devils designed and built their new robot with VEX components they had on hand – motors, sensors, gears, drive train, levers, pulleys, wheels, plastic beams and plates.
VEX Robotics sells educational robotics equipment and programs to schools throughout the world. On its website, VEX describes its products and skills competitions as, “It’s as close to real-world engineering as a student can get.”
“The team built their new robot from scratch,” said coach Shelley Langdon, a gifted intervention specialist at Danville Local Schools. “They work hard and they work together.”
In a nutshell, the competition in Dallas will involve scoring as many points as possible in 60-second rounds on a 6’ x 8’ field. The scoring objects are 45 orange, 2.5-inch diameter plastic discs stored in towers on one side of the field. The robot knocks the discs from the towers then maneuvers to slapshot them under a low bar to the other side of the field, which is marked with squares of varying point value.
“Our new robot has the capacity to hold all 45 discs,” sixth-grader Logan Joseph said.
On Wednesday the team demonstrated how an arm on the robot dislodges discs from the towers and empties them into a basket on the robot. A flywheel beneath the robot propels the discs under the low bar to the scoring side of the field.
The Potato Devils’ tasks in designing and building their new robot included determining motor speeds and gear ratios.
Team members raised funds to pay for their hotel in Dallas and their families are providing transportation. The $1,200 Texas registration fee was paid from a donation by Brian and Cindy Montogmery of Centerburg through America’s Farmers Grow Communities, a Bayer Fund program, and channeled through the Knox Educational Service Center. Donations from the Danville community helped with other expenses associated with the trip.
“We are grateful to everyone who helped the team be able to compete in Texas,” Langdon said.
She and her husband will drive to Dallas. Other team families also will drive, although one or two may fly, Langdon said.
“We all will meet there on Monday to prepare for the start of competition on Tuesday,” she said.
