Lane Tech Robotics Team Unveils Robot
In January, we posted about Lane Tech’s Robotics Team and their mission for this program (Beyond Design Sponsors Lane Tech Robotics Team and Lane Tech Robotics Team Prepares for Robotics Challenge). This week, we were invited to attend the unveiling of the team’s final robot. X Machina, also known as Team 4645, is a robotics team made up of 25 incredibly dedicated students attending Lane Tech College Prep. The team is composed of students, teachers, and community member mentors that recognize the significance of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
The organization behind the program, FIRST Robotics, was founded in 1989 and gives students the opportunity to experience engineering first hand. The teams were thrown into a real-world engineering experience under complex rules, limited resources, and strict time constraints. They were challenged to design, build, program, and test an industrial grade robot that can accomplish prescribed tasks specific to the competition.
The 2012/2013 school year is the first time that Robotics has been offered as a competition. After logging over 150 hours of build time, the team presented Sir Lifts a Lot to an audience of over 50 people. The robot was developed to shoot Frisbees and aimed the Frisbees at a goal that was created by the team. You can check out the video of the robot below. It was really impressive to see in person and know that this young group of students worked together to make it possible.
Lane Tech’s FTC teams came in 2nd at the Chicago Area Qualifying Event and will compete in the Midwest Regional Competition at UIC on April 6th. The competitions are high-tech spectator sporting events played on fields the size of a basketball half-court, and are the product of focused brainstorming, real-world teamwork, dedicated mentoring, project timelines and deadlines.
You can view additional videos showing the team’s progress and what they learned here, as well as check out XMachina’s website for more information on the program and how to get involved.