Press Release

Systems Engineering II: VEX ROBOTICS

Presentation Announcement

A VEX-cellent Experience

Red Bank, New Jersey, February 10, 2012

        Build anything interesting lately? If you are a systems engineering student at the Marine Academy of Science and Technology, the answer is yes! Tess Mocik, a student at the Marine Academy of Science and Technology, is currently in her senior year of high school. She is from the Monmouth County sending district and, in addition to attending the Marine Academy, runs track at Middletown High school South and cheerleads competitively with World Cup All-stars in Freehold. As customary of the Marine Academy on Sandy Hook, as a senior she and her partner Olivia Iselhart are required to successfully complete a senior project which consists of building a robot capable of carrying out a terrestrial challenge that a robot would be more equipped for than a human.

         For decades scientists, geologists, and biologists have been traveling the beaches of Sandy Hook, more specifically the beach dunes, for information and research. Having witnessed the subsequent damage of wildlife during their four years at the Academy, Tess and Olivia set out to construct a robot that would be able to replace the need for a human researcher/scientist/biologist to step foot on the dunes, thus avoiding damaging the wildlife and the surrounding environment.

       This dilemma lent itself to a year long senior project for the two girls. The project consists of the team making a robot from a general VEX Robot ProBot Kit, which the two tailored throughout the year to better accommodate the challenge. The team was given several parameters to work within. The first was that they were only permitted to use the contents of the VEX Robotics Kit. After months of planning and paperwork, the team began construction on the robot, lovingly nicknamed “Big Rhonda”. They began with the building of a rectangular hull and went forward adding attachments from there. Over time the group added wheels, motors and other electrical accoutrement needed to enable to vehicle to move, structural support, and finally began working on a claw. Since the claw was vital to the operation, its flawless construction was required. The team has begun using gears to make the claw maneuverable enough to obtain a soil sample from the ground and place the sample in a soil tray attached to the back of the robot. The transformation of the robot can be seen in the images below.

         

Figure 1.1: Construction of        Figure 1.2: Addition of               Figure 1.3: Attachment of motors to

hull and structural support          Electrical elements                     wheels

      

Figure 1.4: Attachment of          Figure 1.5: Attachment of gears

wheels to electrical elements

        The second parameter was that the team could not rely heavily on outside help; only the light guidance of mentors was permitted, and the third was that in addition to successfully completing the terrestrial challenge, the team had to contribute an additional unique object/part on to the robot to differentiate it from the other group’s robots in the class. The team is currently working with their mentors, Tess specifically with Commander David Clippinger from the United States Coast Guard Academy and a recently-graduated former c/Batallion Commander Robert Rubiano, to find the perfect solution to the on-going struggle that is the claw. Since the robot will be a STEM project, meaning it involves science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, the assistance of the mentors will be very helpful. The team believes the engineering involved in producing a claw able to be maneuverable enough to obtain a soil sample will be the most important aspect of STEM involved in the project. The team’s Systems Engineering class and the instructors of the course will be informed of this, and the current status of the team’s robot as shown in Figure 1.6 below, at the next formal progress update. When all is said and done, the team hopes to have a fully functional VEX robot capable of obtaining a soil sample thus preventing the damage of wildlife and the surrounding environment that the location of the soil would have been objected to if a human, as opposed to the robot, obtained the soil sample.

      M.A.S.T. is a co-ed four-year high school, grades 9-12. It is one of five career academies administered by the Monmouth County Vocational School District. The Marine Academy is fully accredited by the Middle States Association of Schools and Colleges and offers small classes with close personal attention. In 1998, the Marine Academy was designated a Blue Ribbon School as well as a New American High School by the United States Department of Education; these are just two of the many honors and awards the innovative program has received throughout its years. The Marine Academy was founded in 1981 as a part-time program which has since grown to become a full-time diploma-granting program. The school's curriculum focuses on marine sciences and marine technology/engineering.The M.A.S.T. program requires each student to participate in the Naval Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (NJROTC) in lieu of Physical Education.     

      MAST is located in Fort Hancock Historic Area at the tip of Sandy Hook, New Jersey. The school campus is located adjacent to the Sandy Hook Lighthouse, the oldest working lighthouse in the country., in thirteen newly renovated buildings, within walking distance of several beaches. The “Blue Sea” is a 65-foot research vessel owned and operated by the Marine Academy and berthed at the U.S. Coast Guard Station, Sandy Hook. The vessel is used in all facets of the program.

For additional information:

Marine Academy of Science and Technology

732-749-3360

Tess Mocik, E: mocik_t@mast.mcvsd.org

Mr. Alfonse, V: 732-291-0995