Texan Mosaic

Author & Photographer: Luisa Dosal, COMM 2311-601 Newswriting; File photos from Alex Lowe in COMM 1316 News Photography

“You build a robot, you put it in the arena, and you fight to the death,” says

Wheeler Osborne, South Plains College instructor of Industrial Manufacturing and

Emerging Technologies.

In one sentence, that describes what the Tin-Man competition is.  Students in the SPC IMET program compete in it every spring.   This year it happens on May 1.

IMET student Stefan Miller-Maldonado is on a robot building team with three other students.

He says up until recently students have been getting plans laid out and programming their robot in the computer. So far, he says “communication with teammates” has been the hardest part about preparation.

“We’ve started to work with materials now,” he says.     

And, now that they are, the inside of Building 6 on the SPC Reese campus looks like an organized mess.  And it’s likely to get worse in weeks to come.

“They’re responsible for figuring out the design and weapon system that they want,” Osborne says. In the past, he says, students have used a lot of cardboard and PVC pipes to build their robots.

Photos from two years ago show students using a heat gun to soften PVC pipe so that they can smash the edges and build a layer for the base of their robots.

Now, Osborne explains students are trying to use a little bit more metal and wood just because some of the battles seem a bit more exciting with those materials.

Student Ivan Melendez, who’s part of another three-person team, says his team is modeling some of their own robot after various old tank designs from World War 1. He says he and his teammates are starting out by gathering plywood, wheels, and ball bearings.

In addition to building a robot that rolls, Osborne says teams also need to figure out how to arm their robots with a weapon that might wipe out the competition. He says that the best weapons are the ones that have a little bit of weight to them and can spin fast.

“Lawnmower blades are really good,” Osborne says.

These photos show student Brent Colwell three years ago reshaping the housing for the motor that will attach to the top of his robot and control the robot’s weapon. It is designed to spin from a three-pointed apparatus on top of the robot.

At the time, Colwell expressed hope that his weapon would do the job it was designed to do. “I hope a whole bunch of robots start blowing up and going everywhere,” he said.  “I hope we do some damage, or we go out exploding ourselves.”

These spur- like blades were a weapon that spun on top of robot in the competition two years ago.

This semester Miller-Maldonado says his team is going to build a weapon something like a “lumber blade.”

Melendez, on the other hand, says, “If I can make a 90- degree spike on a piece of flexible material, that spike can usually puncture any armor.”

Osborne says the object is to destroy all the other robots. “Failure,” he says “is not an option.”

But in all seriousness, he has hopes for what students will learn. “I want them to be able to walk out of here doing something they’ve never done before,” he says, “being confident that they can do it again.”

Miller-Maldonado says he hopes his team will present a robot that’s going to beat everyone else’s.

Melendez, of course, expresses the same thing. But he also adds, “I just want to have a good grade and make sure everyone has a good time.”

The event is free admission at the SPC Reese Center Building 6 on May 1. Osborne says he’d like to see a big crowd turn out.

May the best bot win!