Local high schoolers gear up robots for the Sea, Air and Land Challenge

JEFFERSON COUNTY, Ohio (WTRF) —  Ohio Valley students have been on a three-month government assignment, given to them by the Department of Defense.

Their mission: create a robot that can detect, move around, and pick up objects in an obstacle course…and be judged on how well it’s up to spec.

That daunting project is the purpose of the Sea, Air and Land Challenge, a STEM competition hosted by Penn State and the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency.

Teams from Buckeye Local, Martins Ferry and Wheeling Central have had to decide whether they want their craft to be aerial, aquatic or a land rover and take it from there.

They brainstorm the best way to handle timed movement-based tasks, with nothing laid out for them besides a set of metal frames.

“They then think about it, write it up, and they actually submit a written paper to us and we read through just to make sure that they’re on the right track and not going to spend money on components that aren’t going to work for them.”

Susan Zingaro, Coordinator, Sea Air and Land Challenge

That’s right, money.

They get $600 that they’re responsible for to build these robots on budget.

They spend class time piecing it together, testing, revising, fixing and evaluating, until the moment of truth comes on challenge day.

Preston Lindsay’s group remote controlled this bot through an obstacle course of sticks, bricks and rocks to get stuck on, guided only by a camera mounted on the machine.

He designed its unique specs to complete the tasks at hand, or at claw.

“They gave you a book to build one, like a basis. And then I kind of, based on that, gave my own tweaks, made the arm a little longer, gear ratio’s different, but we went over performance over looks pretty much.”

Preston Lindsay, Buckeye Local senior, designed Sea, Air & Land Challenge robot

In the end, they came close to grabbing every block that was trapped under boxes and hidden behind metal.

The Buckeye Local junior high students who watched were impressed with the design, but even more with the stunts.

In the end, it wasn’t about awards or rewards, but the journey.

Programming, pitching, engineering, budgeting and problem-solving rolled into one by high schoolers who don’t just have a resume builder: they built a resume builder.

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