Robotic Masterminds

Robotic Masterminds

Written by Miranda Cook

BGS students Luke Jacobsen and Henry Kerrigan have a passion for robotics that goes beyond an after-school hobby, and their sophisticated designs are being recognised on the national stage.

As part of the STEAM Cocurricular program, the Robotics club meets every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoons.

“But we are always talking to each other about what we can improve and work on,” Luke proudly added.

Driven by advancements in technology and a growing fascination with automation, the popularity of robotics is increasing in schools across the globe.

Grammar Robotics is following suit. In 2018, the club consisted of just a team of six, working out the back of a classroom.

Now, there are 75 students in Years 7 to 12 and 40 in Years 5 and 6, with new technology in the STEAM Precinct helping to boost interest.

Last year, Luke (Year 11) and Henry (Year 10) competed in a team made up of 10 other BGS students and outperformed around 150 teams across Australia at the First Tech Challenge to win the Innovate Award, at both the regional and national stages of the competition.

“It’s just so much fun – you don’t see how fun robotics is until you’re working as a team.”

The competition encourages students in Years 7 to 12 to think like engineers, asking them to design, build and program robots, which then compete against each other in a game.

The national leg was held at Sydney’s Macquarie University, during the Christmas holidays. Being recognised at this level is a major coup for BGS as it is the first time the School has won a national award in robotics.

The criteria stipulated that, at the very minimum, competing robots had to collect hexagon-shaped pucks and move them across a field.

“Ours is quite an advanced robot, and it can place the pucks on an angled surface.

“It can climb up on a bar, so it can lift itself up, and it can also launch a paper plane,” Luke said.

Their team won the Innovate Award because of their impressive inventiveness by making their robot out of lightweight carbon fibre and designing a unique swerve drive, which included wheels able to spin in any direction, making it more manoeuvrable.

“Think of an office chair or suitcase wheels — the wheels can rotate anyway you want and go in any direction at 100 per cent speed,” Henry said.

“Ours can go sideways at twice the speed when compared with the other robots.”

Unfortunately, they missed out on selection for the international leg of the competition, but they’re determined to make it happen this year.

Luke is described as the mechanical brains, while Henry manages the books and the budget.

“Robotics is a very costly program, and if you don’t put attention into it, then you’re just going to run out of money while you’re building the robot,” Henry said.

“There is a misconception that you just build a robot, but there is way more involved.

“We design our own shirts and logos, and run social media accounts. We collaborate about how we want to communicate with each other and how to represent the School in a positive way.”

But more than anything, they do it for the love of robotics.

“It is just so much fun — you don’t really see just how fun robotics is until you’re working as a team,” Henry said.

Innovate Award Team Members:

• Finn Silverston

• Theodore Andreatidis

• Jacky Tan

• Thomas Scott

• Luke Jacobsen

• Brandon Roberts

• Sebastian Wilson

• Nicholas Zhao

• Thomas Gordon

• Luke Zhang

• Will Jiang

• Henry Kerrigan

• Zachy Yap

• Henry Fan