Helping develop the next generation of engineers and technicians, volunteers from NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, assisted students competing in the Aerospace Valley Regional Robotics Competition.
The competition, a For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) robotics event, held on March 29 through April 1 at Eastside High School in Lancaster, California, drew more than 30 teams comprised of 1,100 students and their supporters from throughout California, as well as from Arizona and Switzerland.
NASA Armstrong sponsored several Antelope Valley teams, employee volunteers served as mentors and judges, and the mobile fabrication shop helped with team repairs. The volunteers were organized by David Voracek, NASA Armstrong’s Center Chief Technologist. Voracek began working with Antelope Valley robotics teams in 2005, at first helping his son and daughter. In 2018, David worked with NASA and the community to bring a robotics competition to the area. As part of the planning committee, he is responsible for the logistics of the competition.
“The center and NASA have always supported center involvement in the robotics program including volunteers for the competition and our several mentors helping teams,” Voracek said. “I am very grateful to our volunteers, supervisors, and Center Directors that have made this event possible.”
At the competition’s opening ceremony, NASA Armstrong Center Director Brad Flick said: “We’re going to put people on Mars in about 20 years. It’s not going to be my generation that does that. It’s going to be your generation.”
He said amazing opportunities awaited the students, but just knowing how to build a robot isn’t enough to land those jobs. Instead, having critical thinking skills and knowing how to work as a team was the key to success.
“You can’t be a critical thinker in isolation; you have to leverage the diversity of everybody on your team,” Flick said. “We need those critical thinking skills. We need those teamwork skills. I look forward to hiring some of you in the next few years.”
To promote STEM education among youth, NASA created the Robotics Alliance Project, which sponsors hundreds of teams across the country, as well as several robotics competitions.
“We can sponsor and provide mentors to help out teams in our local areas,” Voracek said. “I’d like to expand but we need more mentors. We lost a couple of teams and now we’ve got to build them back up.”
NASA Armstrong supported four Antelope Valley teams this year: Eagle Robotics from Lancaster High School, Gryffingear from the Palmdale Aerospace Academy, the Aqueducks from Quartz Hill High School, and Rosamond High School’s Circuit Serpents.
In every round of the Aerospace Valley competition, two competing alliances, each comprising three teams, scored points by retrieving game pieces – cubes and cones – and returning them to their “community.” Teams also scored points by climbing onto and docking on a charging station. For part of the action, the robots operated autonomously, and for the rest, human drivers remotely guided them.
Jason Lechniak, a NASA Armstrong aerodynamics and propulsion engineer, worked with the Circuit Serpents on improving cycle time – the time it takes a robot to complete one task. Circuit Serpents’ Eurydice “Eury” Haven said NASA mentors have been extremely hopeful in guiding her team.
“Jason is helpful on the electric side of things and Mister V (David Voracek) helps us with manufacturing, which is a big process, and on what we should buy,” Haven said. “Jason taught me how to solder. He said I was pretty good for a beginner.”
NASA Armstrong’s mobile shop allows a NASA technician to weld, machine, or perform sheet metal repairs to damaged robots and send it back into action. Teams file a work order detailing what part or repair they need, then NASA Armstrong staff help with the robots. The shop crew included Armstrong’s Jose Vasquez, Eric Garza, Jason Nelson, Alex Zamora, Toby Brittain, and German “Herman” Escobar Vicelis.
On practice day before the competition started, the fabrication shop received 22 work orders. On competition day, Corona Del Mar High School’s Triton Tech had a problem with the rack part of its “rack and pinion” propulsion popping out and damaging the support system. The shop helped with milling work on one of the components.
“Without this, we would be spending hours with a hacksaw and a file trying to make it work,” said Jack Geoghegan, Triton Tech team member. “This is very helpful. I don’t know what we would have done without it.”
The winning alliance was comprised of Poly Rabbotics from Polytechnic High School in Long Beach and two NASA-sponsored teams, High Tide, featuring students from throughout Ventura County, and Mubotics from Olinda High School in Brea.
For more information about NASA’s Robotics Alliance Project, visit: http://robotics.nasa.gov
Information on Aerospace Valley Regional, visit: https://www.avregional.org/
For more information about FIRST robotic competitions, visit: https://www.firstinspires.org/
