The Heights High Robotics Team at the National Competition: Jed Harrington, James Major, Amelia O’Donnell, James Smith , Kyle Mattox, Jeff Taggart (Nottingham Spirk), Jacqueline Gold, Greg Nachman (adviser), William Rosenberg, Macy Smith, Jim Spzak (Nottingham Spirk) and Desmon Leanard, L-R.
June 10, 2016 -- The Heights High Robotics Club designed and built a Battle Bot for the National Robotics League regional and national competitions this spring.
Photo Gallery
The team of 13 students was assisted and guided by two teachers and ten professionals from two partner companies. The result of the team’s nine months of work is a remote control 15 pound robot with an aluminum body, a steel weapon weighing nearly four pounds, complete with gear boxes and a pulley system to propel the spinning weapon at 5000 rpm, a 3.2 volt rechargeable battery, and a super cool cyborg-tiger image on top.
The bot is one scary machine, and the students named it Fear of Heights.
The Heights Battle Bot is built for both offensive and defensive maneuvers when it faces off in three minute bouts against another bot in the enclosed Plexiglas battle cage. In several of the contests, sparks flew as the rotating weapon met the opponent.
The April 21 regional competition was held at Lakeland Community College and the Fear of Heights machine tied for 5th place out of 30 teams.
The Heights team also won the Best Sportsmanship Award at the regional competition. Mr. Nachman was very proud of the award. “One of other teams asked if anyone would help them and we were the only team with an extra electric speed controller,” he said. “I was very pleased when our team members offered it to them.” In an interesting coincidence, the team receiving the donated part happened to be next opponent for Heights and Tiger Nation won that round.
The national competition was held at California University of Pennsylvania on May 21; The Heights team placed 29th out of 63 teams.
Professional Expertise
Designing and building a Battle Bot is a complex proposition, and an undertaking of this magnitude requires active and generous partners. Heights High is very lucky to have two partners in their corner who are devoted to the educational process, having fun and creating a killer machine.
Collinwood based manufacturing firm Talan Products manufactured the parts, created the feasibility analysis and provided expertise in servicing the robot.
Notingham Spirk, a Cleveland Heights based engineering and design, firm guided the design process, and provided electronics expertise. Engineers from the firm attended many of the bi-weekly meetings at the school.
For the last two years, these companies have donated many days of staff time, considerable expertise and genuine excitement for the work.
Building a Bot
Going into the design phase, the consensus of the team was that the spinning weapon could be more effective if it was heavier and taller, and the bot body was smaller.
The design process began in September, with the team meeting twice a week after school, and also on many Saturdays at the Nottingham Spirk facility.
Student Project Manager James Smith felt that a major advantage for the team this year was that the majority of the students had enrolled in Greg Nachman’s Introduction to Engineering and Design course.
“Mr. Nachman’s class was good background for this work, we were all on the same page,” he said. “It was great to have the team discuss ways to innovate, taking the current design and making improvements.”
“Each year, the team learns so much and we have loads of fun,” said Mr. Nachman.
“But without the amazing support from Talan and Nottingham Spirk, we simply could not do this. We are so grateful for their generosity and excitement for this project.”
The Heights High Battle Bot Partners:
Nottingham Spirk:
- John Nottingham and John Spirk, Co-Presidents
- Brandi Brandewie, Senior Executive Assistant
- Shawn Dellinger, Senior Engineer
- Chris Fuchs, Machinist Prototyper
- Don Fuchs, Model Maker / Designer
- Jim Szpak, Project Manager
- Jeff Taggart, Program Director
- Daniel Ye, Industrial Designer
Talan Products:
- Pete Accorti and Steve Peplin, Owners
- Tom Camiola, Tool and Die Maker
- Miguel Lugo, Plant and Tool Room Manager
- Nate Moore, Maintenance Manager
Student Team Members:
- Zakee Ali, Sophomore
- Mohamed Gamal Eldin, Senior
- Jacqueline Gold, Freshman
- Jed Harrington, Sophomore
- Desman Leonard, Junior
- James Major, Junior
- Kyle Mattox, Sophomore
- Amelia O'Donnell, Senior
- William Rosenberg, Sophomore
- Andrew Schellenberg, Senior
- James Smith, Junior
- Macy Smith, Freshman
- William Van Den Bogert, Junior
The Robotics Club Co-advisers are teachers Greg Nachman (Engineering) and Jennifer Agin (Science).