SATURDAY: UC s 2006 Bearcat BEST Robotics Tasks Area High-School Students to Solve 'Laundry Quandary'

The BEST Robotics Competition features teams of junior- and senior-high students who spend six weeks designing and constructing their robot from pre-packaged kits of materials, provided to them by UC. Each year’s robots differ, based on the scenario provided by BEST National, Inc.

This year, BEST National, Inc., has asked for help in solving a crisis in its “Domestic Division”: They need robots built — and fast! Here’s part of their appeal for help:

The initial product offering is intended to simplify laundry handling, while saving energy and providing a fresh outdoor scent to the fabric. The robot to be developed must be able to transport, hang and retrieve laundry to allow drying on an outdoor clothesline.

Shipping and storage requirements dictate that the robot must be within certain size and weight constraints. Consumers dislike having to put together purchased items; therefore, the robot must require no assembly by the end-user and be ready to use as delivered. Because of business partnerships with existing suppliers, the materials that can be used to construct the robot are severely limited.

The time, material, and performance requirements have left the BRI D2 product development team short-handed on the resources needed to complete the project, so BRI needs external robot development teams to help solve the Laundry Quandary.

…The objective is to design and build a remotely controlled device to retrieve "dry" laundry from clotheslines and place "wet" laundry on clotheslines within the 3-minute time limit.

Furthermore, according to the BEST 

official rules

, “teams are not allowed to steal laundry from other teams (since that's just not neighborly). Laundry that touches the ground during the match becomes dirty and does not score.”

Their parents will be so pleased! But will they know to separate the reds from the whites?

At the September kick-off, UC provided all materials — boxes containing nuts, bolts, wheels, motor parts and other sundry useful items — to the competing schools. At that time, the teachers and students also saw the game floor and heard this year’s scenario for the first time. The teams were then given six weeks to design and test their robots. Mentors from UC and area professionals teamed up with the schools to provide guidance and answer questions, but the students themselves had to design and construct the robots.

On Mall Day, held Oct. 14, the teams got to see the actual game floor for the first time. Then they had a week to tweak their designs before the big event. The competition culminates Saturday with a day-long, sports-like competition on Game Day, from which the winners advance to the BEST regionals at Auburn, Ala.

This is the fourth year that University of Cincinnati’s College of Applied Science and College of Engineering have collaborated to sponsor the competition locally. This year however, for the first time, UC has teamed up with Goodrich Corporation to provide the materials to all competing teams. The materials for the robots were provided to each team free of charge, compliments of Goodrich and UC.

John Grisik, executive vice president of operational excellence and technology for Goodrich Corporation, will be at Game Day to address the students, and inform and inspire them with information about the wide variety of opportunities available to them if they were to pursue engineering degrees.

“The BEST Competition is a wonderful way for Goodrich to make a difference in the communities in which we work and live,” says Grisik. Goodrich Corporation employs more than 1,600 people across the state of Ohio.

“By reaching out to these talented local students we hope to motivate them to not only consider engineering degrees but also to look to the aerospace industry as they form career aspirations,” Grisik says. “I’m really looking forward to seeing what these young minds have created. It’s sure to be educational for me as well!”

“Our ability to give the students the parts for the robots free of charge is enhanced by the sponsorship of Goodrich Corporation,” says Janet Ransom, from UC’s College of Engineering. “In our tight budget situation as a state university, we rely on gifts like these to help us continue and expand such valuable outreach efforts in the local schools.”
 

Game Day Schedule
8–9 a.m. Robot Check-In and School Display Set-Up at Duke Energy Center, Downtown Cincinnati
9 a.m. — Let the Games Begin!
2:30 p.m. (Approx) Awards Ceremony

Final List of Schools (from the Cincinnati area if not otherwise noted)

EHOVE Career Center (Bowling Green, Ohio)

Butler Tech High School

Crispus Attucks Medical Magnet High School (Indiana)

Davison High School (Michigan)

Glen Este High School

Hamilton Southeastern High School (Indiana)

Hughes High School

Loveland High School

Purcell Marian High School

Roger Bacon High School

Saint Xavier High School

Western Hills Design Tech High School

Wyoming High School

Awards will be given in the following categories:

Table Display

Spirit And Sportsmanship

T-Shirt Design

Most Robust

Most Creative Design

Most Photogenic Machine

Most Elegant Machine

Game Award

BEST Award

About BEST
BEST is the acronym for Boosting Engineering Science and Technology, a non-profit, volunteer organization whose goals include increasing the “pipeline” of future engineers, scientists, and technical professionals. Each fall more than 8,000 students (representing more than 700 middle and high schools) participate nation-wide.

About Goodrich Corporation
Goodrich Corporation, a Fortune 500 company, is a global supplier of systems and services to aerospace, defense and homeland security markets. With one of the most strategically diversified portfolios of products in the industry, Goodrich serves a global customer base with significant worldwide manufacturing and service facilities. Goodrich has not made or sold tires in more than a decade. Goodrich sold its interests in the tire business in 1988. MNA, Inc. now makes and sells BFGoodrich™ brand tires.

For more information, call Cheryll Dunn at 513-556-6561 or Ken Simonson at 513-556-5437.

More information is available through the BEST Web site.

10/24/2006   They Came; They Saw; They Sorted Laundry! Bearcat BEST 2006 Results
Dozens of high-school students showed they weren’t afraid to wash their laundry in public at Saturday’s Bearcat BEST.

For more about past Bearcat BEST competitions, check out these Web pages:

9/6/2006   SATURDAY: Area Schools’ Future Engineers and Scientists Gather in the Armory Fieldhouse on UC’s Uptown Campus — To Talk Laundry?? 
The fourth annual Bearcat BEST kicks off this Saturday, Sept. 9, with more than a dozen Tristate-area schools vying for the title of robot king of the laundry pile.

10/31/2005   UC Holds Third-Annual Bearcat BEST Robotics Competition
Sixteen high-school teams put their BEST “feats” forward as robots go head to head in competition.

10/20/2005   No Rodney or Ratchet, But Robots Rule!
The competition heats up as high-school teams come from as far away as Michigan to compete in UC’s Third-Annual Bearcat BEST Robotics Competition.