A robot that plays basketball? Bob Jones built one
A robot that plays basketball? Yes, and teenagers at Bob Jones High built it for a FIRST competition (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology).
“Our robot, the Mad Reptar, plays basketball against other robots,” sponsor and engineering teacher Jeremy Raper said. “It drives itself for the first few seconds. Then, a human player takes over for the rest. Very exciting!”
The Rebound RumbleSM robotics game pits two ‘alliances,’ each with three teams. Teams score as many hoops possible during the two minute, 15 second matches.
Robotics Team members are seniors Justin Bean, Chris Bero, Sydney Dirigo, Chris Elegante and John Gould; juniors Ian Campbell, Tori Florence, Rain Li, Victor Rosado, Kevin Wang and Ruowen Zheng; sophomores Jonathan Harper, Emily Ong and Trent Tran; and freshmen Eric Bean and Austin Benesh.
Gary Dillard is lead engineer and has mentored FIRST robotics teams in Florida and Alabama for years.
The team meets at an Intergraph Corporation building four times weekly during build season (six weeks in January/February). They meet all day on Saturdays.
“It would be hard to count the number of hours that they and the mentors put into the robot,” Raper said. During off-season, the team meets monthly for updates and training.
Starting with a supplied kit, the team ‘machines’ (or builds) special parts as needed and orders additional parts from Fastenal or AndyMark. “Mad Reptar is mostly extruded aluminum and hard-core plastic with lexan walls and support,” Raper said.
To qualify for travel, members must pass two tests on the rules and robot — every last detail.
“We have an amazing bunch of engineering mentors, but we could use some power tools and more specialized pieces of equipment,” Raper said. To help, call Raper at 256-772-2547.
For more information, visit usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/2012-rebound-rumble.
