Team Employee of the Month

Around 40 high school teams from across the world come to Miami every spring to compete in Bots IQ. Olathe Northwest usually has two or three teams each year with 7-11 students on each team. This year there are two teams: the 2nd Hour team is instructed by the A/E Mathematics teacher, Mrs. Becky Metcalf, and the 6th Hour team is instructed by CAD instructor, Mr. Keith Manbeck. The goal of each team is to damage the other robot enough to render it immobile. If this is not accomplished in the 3-minute match, then the winner is determined based on the judges' decisions on the robot's aggression, control, damage, and strategy. Click here to download the Bots IQ rules for the 120 pound weight class.

Battlebots gives students the opportunity to:

• Prototype an engineering system to meet given specifications.
• Work and communicate on multi-disciplinary teams and with professional engineers.
• Take a system approach to problem solving.
• Identify, formulate, and solve engineering problems.
• Effectively operate in the budget restraints of time, money, and available resources and knowledge.
• Pursue and apply knowledge in mathematics, science, and engineering.

Over the Summer the students are assigned to read Kickin' Bot by Grant Imahara, the 1999 Middleweight Rumble Champion and a member of the Mythbusters. The first week of school the team will meet and decide on their weapon and strategy for their Battlebot. Positions such as Chief Financial Officer and Safety Officer are selected and each student chooses what system they will work on. For the next couple weeks the students research for the parts and materials that will be needed for the completed battlebot. Part of the design process is to reverse engineer the previous years' bots and take note on what worked and what failed. Outside of school students meet with engineers from a variety of businesses. Strengthening their own personal skills, some students arrange meetings with companies to gain another opinion on what components are needed. Most companies are happy to donate their services to help out the students. In September, each team conducts a Preliminary design review with a panel of Engineers from Honeywell. After this, the team refines their design and begins to order parts. Then the team makes a wood prototype of their robot to fit together their drive and weapon components before the steel frame is completed. Once this is complete, the steel tubing for the frame is cut and sent to a welder. When the frame comes back from the welder, all of the components are installed in order to make a working battlebot. From then on the team conducts tests to find weaknesses that can be fixed. Practice also allows the driver to become accustomed with the handling before competition.