GEAR wins two Gold Awards at 2019 NRC!

Special thanks to Lubrizol Corp.

Lubrizol was a major donor to GEAR in 2018. Without their support and support of others, our success at the NRC would not have been possible.

Rescue Robot, Gold Award, High School Divison

Luke Reed

In three of Luke's heats he was able to retrieve all four balls. We believe this record had never been matched in the history of this contest up to the year of 2019. One key element to the success of Luke's robot was the design of the ball retrieving mechanism. A fan was positioned at the back end of a tube which created a partial vacuum at the tube front end, causing the ping pong ball to be sucked into the tube. You can watch a video of the device in action at this link: https://youtu.be/MiFFCZ3-5t8.

All parts for the ball retriever, except the fan motor and servo motors, were designed and 3D printed by Luke.

Autonomous Vehicle Challenge, Gold Award, Middle School Divison

(left to right): Adrienne and Jeff La Favre (GEAR advisors), Grant Congdon, Aidan Dondero, Bryn Morgan, Sam Patterson, Alyssa Mobley, Peter Wesen and Nick Res

The GEAR AVC was equipped with a digital compass to determine direction of travel (see photo above, the compass is enclosed in a plastic bag at top of a vertical post – plastic bag is for protection against rain). Motors for the rear wheels were equipped with encoders to track distance traveled.

You can watch the GEAR robot make one run at the contest at this link:https://youtu.be/DApgvT4_ts0

Below you will find some information about this contest copied from the contest manual.

Figure 1 AVC Course Layout

Each vehicle must pass on the outside of the yellow course shown in Figure 1 AVC Course Layout. Red stanchions will be placed on top of the red corner dots shown in the figure and correspond to painted lines which mark the parking lot lanes just to west of the convention center.

The vehicle must be fully autonomous and self-contained. No transmitters or communication beacons (other than GPS) of any kind are allowed. You may NOT tether to a laptop or other device. Everything necessary for the vehicle’s navigation/processing/sensing must be attached and part of the vehicle itself.

Time-based points start at 300 and are deducted (1 per second) until the run is completed. You cannot get negative points for time. Time points only count if your run is successful. Each successful run will be given points based on the time it took them to finish the course and whatever bonuses were achieved.

All teams are scored and ranked by the total number of points accrued in all three runs. The team with the highest points wins. Each run will add more points to the team’s overall score.

Bonus Points

• 50 - passing through the hoop
• 50 - clearing the ramp
• 25 - each successful corner cleared (vehicle must completely clear corner, not just reach it)

Scoring Examples:

• Teams complete a run in 2.5 minutes and passes under hoop. this team would score 150 points for their time, 25 points for each completed corner (100 points), and 50 points for the hoop bonus. Their total score would be 150+100+50 = 300
• Team does not complete course, but goes around 3 corners and clears the hoop and ramp. they would score no points for time (did not complete course), but would receive 75 points for 3 successful corners, 50 points for the hoop, and 50 points for the ramp. they would end up with a total of 175 points for the run.

Last update: April 16, 2022