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www.oakvillebeaver.com The Oakville Beaver, Friday February 29, 2008 - 3 Appleby robot ready to make an impact By David Lea OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF It's a combination of aluminum and circuitry, which through some unfathomable Appleby College student know how, has been given life and is now set to tear apart the world of competitive robotics. For the second year in a row the Appleby College Robotics Team has constructed a robot to participate in the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition. The contest will see Appleby's robot compete against hundreds of other teams in Waterloo and Toronto, where, if successful, they will advance to the championships in Atlanta. "Last year the robot was judged more for how much it could carry and its ability to put objects on a rack," said Anjuli Ahooja, the Appleby Robotics Team coach. "This year the robot has to carry that (7 pound) ball, that's why it has a claw, and run around a race track. We get points for the speed this year, last year the speed was not an issue." Other areas in which the robot will be judged include the level of efficiency that was used in taking the robot from design to completion and how economical that process was. Known as the Super Bowl of the Smarts, those competing are not coveting any huge cash prize, but rather bragging rights and the ability to say that their robot is the best of the best. The process in putting the Appleby robot together has not been easy for the student team of about 12-13 active members, who worked tirelessly over six weeks, the allotted building time, to hook up the electrical, propulsion and pneumatic systems needed to compete. "It took hundreds of hours to put this thing together," said Stu Bacon, 17, the team's leader. "Six or seven of us have been working really hard this last week going to about 10:30 at night and then getting up real early to work on it. There's a tonne of work DAVID LEA / OAKVILLE BEAVER FIRST ROBOT: Members of Appleby's robotics Team Saran Sakornratanakul, Andrew Kusters, Damilola Adeola,Aakash Sahney and Stu Bacon attach metal clamps to their robot to prepare it for participation in the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) robotics Convention. involved and teamwork and a lot of stress." Even with the robot technically finished, in the days leading up to the completion deadline, the young engineers continued to find issues to fix. Under the bright lights of Appleby College's robotics lab, the team crowded around the robot as though they were ER doctors performing surgery. As the day wore on they worked feverishly to attach the robot's pneumatic claw and make sure it was working properly. "This PWM looks like it's toast," said one team member as he examined the robot's components. Finally with the touch of a control pad, the monstrous claw displayed signs of life while the twist of a joystick controller showed that the robot can be propelled on its six wheels. As transforming a pile of aluminum and circuit boards into a complex robot is no easy task, the team did have help from various mentors. These included MDA Space Mission group member Andrew Kerr who worked on the Canadarm and is currently managing Canada's contribution to the Phoenix mission en route to Mars. In his capacity as a mentor Kerr helped the students in the area of project management and showed them how to follow a structured approach to system design. He also oversaw the designing, building, testing and operation of the robot. Kerr noted the students will be facing some stiff competition this year. "The challenge can be overwhelming," he said. "Last year, the team entered as a rookie, and as such, they were judged. Now, the judging will be at a higher level, meaning expectations will be higher as well." Other professionals who lent their expertise to the Appleby College Robotics Team included VEX Robotics employee Karthik Kanagasabapathy and University of Toronto mechanical engineering students Paul Bovbel and Caitlin Bailey, who is also a 2003 Appleby College alumni member. Having all of this experience at their disposal was deeply appreciated by the Appleby students. "A lot of us are really interested in engineering and we got to work with some professional engineers, which is an opportunity that not a lot of high school students get to have," said Aakash Sahney. "That was a lot of fun and very educational. They were really good at answering any questions we had, we could ask the guy who built the Canadarm, `What does this little thing do?' and that was really helpful." Between the mentor's technical knowledge and the Appleby team's dedication to seeing the project through, the Appleby robot has become a reality that makes last year's Rookie All Star Award winning robot appear inferior by comparison. "I think this one is way better," said Bacon. "It's a totally different design, totally different idea. We tried a totally different drive train this year, we're dealing with a lot of pneumatics still, but this is vastly different and we've made a lot of changes that I think are for the better. The old one was a lot slower and a lot less maneuverable." Capable of moving at a speed of 15 feet per second, the students feel their robot has a very real chance of succeeding in the competitions ahead, however, Ahooja points out that having the students come together with the mentors to build this robot is not all about winning. "It's an educational experience, a business experience, a technology experience, but what you enjoy most as a teacher is the team spirit you see in the students," she said. "You see the students working together. Initially they say, `I will do electrical, I will do programming, I will do mechanical,' but when the build season started everyone was helping each other out. That cooperation that builds up is fantastic." The Appleby College Robotics Team robot will compete in the Waterloo Regional Competition on March 20-22. Town wants to see all options to ward boundary changes The possibility of a ward alteration that would see Oakville reconfigured into six vertical wards stretching across the Town is now a little more remote. Oakville's Administrative Services Committee, which met Tuesday, was faced with a motion that would move the process one step closer to a public consultation. They approved the motion, but also directed staff to research other options for residents to consider. The vertical ward concept was arrived at by a Citizen's Task Force in 2005, which was charged with reviewing the current ward structure and council composition. The task force found that the primary criteria for establishing wards was representation by population and noted that wards should be configured to provide equality of representation throughout the town. The current ward configuration was found to be unequal, with Ward 4 being the most populated area of Oakville. Besides dividing up the population of Oakville more equally, the vertical ward system was seen as a way of giving councillors a full understanding of the issues effecting residents from the waterfront to the developing lands in the north. Critics of the vertical ward system say it would split up communities that have evolved together over the years. It has also been argued that the vertical ward configuration would present more issue for councillors to deal with and that if both councillors lived in the north or south the other area might not receive proper representation. The proposed implementation of this ward system was referred to the 2006-2009 council in order that a full public review process may be held. 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