By Dian Ver Valen
The Times
Robotics Team Ready to Compete
Dayton Students travel to Ellensburg this week with robot they built
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Courtesy photo
Dayton robotics team (l to r) Shawn Dingus, James Vance, Aiden Gemmell, Levi Laib, and Devon Ribbke.
DAYTON – Dayton FFA students in the robotics program are gearing up for their second competition later this week. They ranked 19th out of 29 teams earlier this month in Spokane.
"They had a great time, and they've really been committed to giving as much time to the project as they need to," said teacher Kristina Knebel (formerly Peterschick), who teaches ag classes at Dayton High School.
The students, 18 total in the class, came up with the design and helped work on the robot. But nine students have formed the core robotics team and have taken the robot on the road: Seniors Aidan Gemmell, Levi Laib, Bonnie Laib and James Vance; juniors Kellie Moore and Emily Truean; and sophomores Nick Vance, Shawn Dingus, and Devon Ribbke.
In January the students received instructions – required dimensions of the robot, budget constraints (no more than $4,000 on parts, which was not a problem for the Dayton students) and required task. This year, the robot had to be able to stack totes, Knebel said.
The students receive a kit including the base of the robot, much of the electrical system and the motors. The rest was all up to them.
"It's a challenge," Gemmell said. "Every year they come up with a new set of rules about what the robot has to do, and you can't really compete if it doesn't do that. And there's a deadline too."
Courtesy Photo
The team (left) competed in Spokane earlier this month.
Gemmell has been in Dayton's robotics program for four years now. This is his third year of attending competitions and his second year being the robot driver and team leader. "It can be a lot of very long weekends, spent fabricating the robot, testing things, putting things together to see if they work," he said. "The fun part is finally driving it around and seeing what it can do."
Truean is in her second year in the program, and she really enjoys the competitions. "When you get there, everybody wants you to be your best," she said, "And they help you out if you need it – like with wiring and other things. Because they want to beat you at your best."
This week's competition is in Ellensburg. If the robotics team makes it to regionals, they will travel to Cheney in April. Nationals are later in the spring in St. Louis.
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