Alabama BEST 2008 Robotics competition welcomed 22 local middle and high schools to test the robots the teams have been working on for the past six weeks. The event was held at the Auburn University Student Activities Center and is sponsored by the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering and the College of Sciences and Mathematics at Auburn University.

The teams obtained their kits of standardized parts and the details and directions just six weeks ago. They learned the theme for this year was “Just Plane Crazy,” which represented the objective of the robot. The challenge was to apply automation through the use of robots for manufacturing in the aircraft industry. They were to figure out how to accelerate the assembly process and make it more efficient.

The teams were to assemble aircraft in a simulated manufacturing plant using lean manufacturing and just-in-time inventory strategies. The competition will also test the team’s ability to market their creations using presentations, web pages, notebooks, displays, t-shirt designs and spirit.

Mary Lou Ewald, the Co-Director for the program and Director of Outreach for the COSAM said this is a great opportunity for these students. They learn crucial problem solving skills, how to be creative and how to work in teams. “Most of the problems that the industry deals with are really based on teams of people from different expertise. To solve these problems, it’s not just about what one person can do, so this part of the program really emphasizes that part of Engineering and COSAM.

Christian Manuel, a 15-year-old participant in the competition said it took his team five weeks to make the robot. They had 10 people on their team. He said he was chosen to be a part of the team because he is pretty good with electrical wiring and power tools so he did all the maintenance.

Manuel said his robot is a hexagon shape and has a claw that goes up and down like a fork lift in order to grasp onto parts. “The hardest thing about constructing the robot was the claw because we tried to go with a pulley-like system, but the string kept getting all tangled up and everything, and we were just having a bunch of problems, but eventually we figured out,” Manuel said.

The winning teams from this competition will advance to South’s BEST Robotics Championship, where they will compete against more than 50 winning teams from 11 other BEST competition hubs in eight states. The championship will be held Dec. 12-13 at Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum on the Auburn campus.

Faculty and graduate students of Engineering and COSAM helped to judge and referee the competition.

This was the eighth year for the program. In 2001, it was only in Texas. Ewald said she saw it at a conference and thought this was a great program to bring to Alabama. This became the first competition site east of the Mississippi River.

For more information and to see the winners of Saturday evening, visit www.alabamabest.org for photos and rankings.


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