BEST 2016 | ABS Trobotics

Best 2016 – Bet The Farm D.A.R.

For the last 155 years, BLT Farms, Inc., run by Mr. Riley Bread and Family, have done things the old-fashioned way on their family farm. Horse-drawn plows slowly gave way to tractors and combines. BLT Farms has always been an early adopter of new technology, but not much has really changed for the small family farmer recently. The Bread’s four children – Henry, Lucas, Maria, and Olivia – have all gone away to college and come home with some new ideas about the future of their family farm including hydroponics and using robots on the farm. Their ideas are not the same, and arguments between the siblings has caused a ruckus on the homestead. Some of the arguments have curdled milk at twenty paces! To add to the problem, there’s been a bit of a drought lately and water is scarce. To determine what to do in terms of technology implementation on the farm, the Breads are seeking input from your Company. Their letter is enclosed below.

Dear Principal Ronald Brumby,

As a neighbor, I’m sure you know that the last few years have been tough for all of us farmers. With growing competition from international harvesters and the grasshopper plague that has stricken our community, we’re working faster than a Clydesdale to find and test new ideas that will help us continue to make our farms profitable. Our mates in Cleveland Bay have found some success using robotics for their farming operations. We would like to test something similar on our farm. Allie Calabrese, the mayor of Caspian, has offered to give all local farmers an allotment of seeds to test how robotics and automation might improve our planting and harvesting techniques. We would like to team up with your company to design and build robots that can find optimal solutions for planting and harvesting. Farming is not a one person operation. Due to the fact that we face many challenges, success will require planning, strategy, and teamwork. I hope that you’ll agree to be part of this experiment.

Sincerely,

Mr. Riley Bread

BLT Farms Inc.

2016 Robot: D.A.R

(Designated Agricultural Robot)

Features

A geared scoop is used as the robot effector that allows the robot to harvest produce, turn on a water valve, and corral loose pigs
A storage container with moving dividers allowed the robot to sort the hydroponic tomatoes and lettuce
Flap was placed on the front scoop to secure the lettuce and tomatoes
A door was added to the back of the storage container that can open and close to release produce when delivered

LRB Game Day

We want to thank everyone who came to watch us compete!!

1. We provided breakfast for all Little Rock BEST Teams at Kick Off this year. We set up a table and provided doughnuts, juice, and water. That gave us a chance to mingle and get to know people from the other teams better.

2. After we received a list of all 2016 Little Rock BEST teams, we compared the list to last year’s list to find out which teams were brand new. Then, we emailed the new teams and asked if any of them needed any help with anything.

a. Nemo Vista needed help with some wiring issues on their robot. They sent pictures to us of the problem and we sent replies to them with suggestions to help.

b. Gosnell was having problems figuring out how to make their robot’s arm and effector. They asked if we had any advice on how to make it and the quickest way to make the parts. We responded with our suggestions to help them.

c. Kirby needed help with a programming issue.

d. After seeing our Practice Day Video – Bigelow had a question about how we attached the caster wheel to our robot.

3. We were not able to travel to the LRB Practice Day on October 22nd in Arkansas and be with the other teams. So, to be fair, we emailed a video to all of the other LRB teams to show them what our robot was able to do at the time. That way, if our robot was able to do something theirs wasn’t able to do, yet, they could get some new design ideas to try on their own.

Other Schools:

We visited the Academy of Academic and Arts in Huntsville, AL this year. In fact, on the day that we did our presentation and robot demonstration for them about BEST Robotics, was their very first robotics meeting. They haven’t ever competed anywhere, yet. We encouraged them to join a BEST hub and told them we will be happy to mentor them. They were very excited to hear about BEST and their coach wants to find out more about joining a BEST hub.We are going to stay in contact with their coach to offer advice and to help the students as they begin competing.

In the Community:

1. We hosted a “robot day” at the Athens-Limestone County Public Library in hopes to inform those in the community about BEST robotics. We set up a “meet and greet” before our presentation so we could mingle with the children and adults visiting the library. We handed out brochures about BEST, let the children drive our Pay Dirt robot, and answered questions. After the meet and greet, we showed them a presentation about BEST in hopes to encourage the students to become more interested in Engineering, Science, and Technology fields. We also encouraged them to participate in BEST and either join a team or form a new one.

2. We appeared on ZTV (a local TV station in our town) and demonstrated our “Bet the Farm” robot. We informed the community about BEST and about this year’s game theme.

3. We had an article published in the Athens News Courier

http://www.enewscourier.com/news/local_news/athletes-of-the-mind-athens-bible-robotics-prepares-for-season/article_29be61f8-9afe-11e6-87aa-db98a7e892ca.html

In our school:

1. We set up our 2015 Pay Dirt Marketing booth in the cafeteria at our Back to School Orientation. We also demonstrated our 2015 Pay Dirt robot in hopes to encourage new and returning students to join our team.

2. We hosted an Open House at our robotics team facility where we have our workshop, practice field, and our marketing headquarters. Visitors were able to actually drive last year’s robot on our practice field, see our marketing booth, and find out what it’s like to be on the team.