My team the Mechanical Misfits is a four girl team from our all girl school, Carrollton. Our school also happens to be very well known for doing well at competions and we are proud of it. We went from robotics naiveties to knowledgeable engineers. It began by taking classes that taught us the basics in tools, machinery, and design. We then moved onto developing our robot and designing it to complete the task of that year’s national competition. Then the building began.
We disassembled two power drills, attached them to some scooter wheels, and used them as the back motors that would steer the robot. We then added the metal pan that would hold the ping pong balls our robot would collect as well as the brush from a vacuum. After some wires were connected our robot was up and running but not before some problems presented themselves including a malfunctioning brush and slow drive.
Later, at a practice competition our brush was deemed useless when it broke off during a match but at least our dumping mechanism used to score points worked. We replaced our brush with a paint roller and were on our way to California for the nationals. Of course, to get there we first raised some money to pay for the hotel and rent-a-car. We held garage sales and went to companies and accomplished our goal. And sure enough none of that would be possible without the help of our biology teacher and the owner of the shop where we built Bat Bot—the name is a long story—as well as his wife who helped us with our sponsorship, organization, and communication problems.
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