LIHU‘E — The Waimea High School remotely-operated vehicle team came home from a challenge for robots built to operate underwater with a second-place award in their division, plus a judges’ Guts and Glory award for their enthusiasm, teamwork and bonding, said advisor Stewart “Stu” Burley.
“The ROV was the most beautiful one down there, really,” said Burley, adding that for the first time in several years the team has no seniors.
“Enthusiasm, screaming, teamwork, bonding, working as a team,” the Menehune impressed the judges with answers to questions about their robot, and even wowed announcers on a Hilo radio station who were broadcasting the competition live, Burley said.
Denice Sheffer is the other Waimea High School robotics team advisor. The students even got together on furlough Fridays to work on their craft and robotics skills, said Burley.
The competition was held at the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo Student Life Center pool, and Waimea may have been alone among the invited teams not to get any pool time in the competition pool before the event, he said.
While most teams had three motors on their robots, Waimea’s had six, with fishnets to pick things up, and three cameras all with lights on board. The robot operator was not allowed to look into the pool, and had to maneuver the robot only by views from the onboard cameras displayed on monitors, he said.
The Guts and Glory award came because the Waimea team came from farther away than any other team, booked last-minute hotel rooms, had pre-event pool time only through the courtesy of Waimea Plantation Cottages, and impressed three doctors who were judges by their adept answering of questions about the motor amperage, how deep the craft would dive, what size cables are used on the robot, and why they decided to use six motors instead of three like most other teams used (answer: pure speed and maneuverability).
“And the judges were amazed,” said Burley. Designing and submitting a team poster was part of the competition, and Waimea’s was “beautiful,” Burley said.
In the final event, the team had to take a “T” shaped piece of PVC, take it out of another piece of PVC and place it into another. Cables got in the way or Burley is certain they would have taken first place instead of second place in their Ranger Class, behind Hilo High.
Hilo High by winning qualified for an international competition set for Hilo in July, a news release states.
Teams of local middle- and high-school students competed recently using underwater robots that they designed and built over the past weeks and months.
At UH-Hilo, students used their underwater robots, known as remotely-operated vehicles (ROVs), to navigate the precarious terrain of active undersea volcanoes in a mock setting, a news release states.
This year’s competition theme was undersea volcanoes and the role that ROVs play in their science and exploration. The focus of the competition missions was the Lo‘ihi seamount, an active undersea volcano rising more than 3,000 meters above the sea floor, located off the southwest coast of the Big Island, the release says.
Managed by the Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) Center and the Hawai‘i Robotics Organizing Committee (ROC), the Big Island Regional ROV Competition is one of 19 regional contests held across the United States and Canada, and in Hong Kong and Scotland.
Robotics engages students in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education and provides them with the teamwork, critical-thinking and problem-solving skills they need to compete in the 21st-century workplace, the release says.
Underwater ROV is one of six programs which are supported by the Hawai‘i ROC, including FIRST, FIRST LEGO League, Underwater ROV, Botball, VEX Robotics and Micro Robotics.
Recognizing the importance of promoting robotics education at an early age and sustaining students’ interest in STEM education throughout their schooling, Hawai‘i’s six robotics programs joined together to form the Hawai‘i ROC.
Visit www.hawaiiroc.org for more information.
