Students enrolled in Columbia High School's "Introduction to Robotics" class have been busy designing and building radio-controlled racing robots.
The students' robots will be on display at the White Salmon Valley Community Library from April 3-7.
Four weeks ago students were divided into teams and were given the challenge to design and build a radio-controlled robot to race through a slalom course for the quickest time. Each team received an identical box of parts they could use to build their robot.
First came the research. Each team was assigned to learn all about one of the robots' components (i.e. transmitter, receiver, motor, battery, or speed controller). Each team then taught the rest of the class what their group learned.
Math was applied as students learned about voltage, amperage and resistance of their electronics, gear ratios and how to figure the efficiency of their robot's drive trains.
After the initial race, wireless cameras were added to learn about the challenges of machine perception.
"Wow...this is a lot harder than I thought. But I can do it. I just need a little more time," remarked Alex Herschbach, a freshman in the class.
Several local technicians and engineers from companies including Coburn Electric, Morris Motors, Insitu, Hood Tech, Custom Interface and the White Salmon Valley School District Maintenance Department volunteered as advisors to help the class.
The White Salmon Educational Foundation grant funding made it possible for the district to be one of the few schools in the state to offer a robotics program.
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