| GEAR - Geauga Engineering and Robotics
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GEAR members who participated at 2025 NRCMicromouse - High School Division
Rescue Robot - Middle School Division
Robot Maze - High School Division
Ohio Technology and Engineering Educators Association (OTEEA) School Exhibits contest at NRC
GEAR wins two Gold Awards, a Honda Innovation nomination and two OTEEA Awards!Rescue Robot, Gold Award, Middle School Divison
Robot Maze, Gold Award, High School Divison
Honda Innovation Nomination for Rescue Robot
OTEEA First Place and Best of Show Awards
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Micromouse Photos
Jacob and Caleb working on their micromouse robot shortly before the contest. The previous day the sensors on the robot began to malfunction. A partial repair was made. In testing the robot at the NRC an hour before the contest, once again the sensors were malfunctioning. Jacob and Caleb managed to get the sensors working again, just minutes before the contest started. |
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There were nine robots combined entered in the middle school and high school divisions. Here are the robots on the judge's table just before the contest started. Jacob and Caleb's robot is fourth from the right. |
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Jacob and Caleb's robot at the starting cell of the maze |
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Jacob and Caleb's robot running down the first lane of 10 cells. When the robot reached the tenth cell, it should have turned right. However, due to a coding error, the robot turned left and crashed into the wall. Jacob was under intense time pressure to make a last minute change to the coding after the sensors were working again. Unfortunately, he coded the robot to make a left turn when a right turn was needed. Anyone who has done coding will agree that doing so when you don't have enough time can easily cause a mistake in the coding. If this last minute coding error had not been made, there is a very good chance that Jacob and Caleb would have won an award for this event. In practice in the GEAR lab, their robot sometimes was able to make it to the center of the maze. If they could have managed that during the contest, they would have won the Gold Award. None of the nine robots in the contest was able to make it to the center goal. |
Click on photo below to watch Logan and Robert's robot perform.
Screen shot of the beginning of a match between Logan and Robert's robot and another school. In this match Robert picks up and deposits all four balls! Click photo above to watch a video! Rescue Robot Photos
Ginny and Collette check in their robot |
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Contestants meet with the head judge to review the rules. GEAR members in photo: Sam (left of judge), Charlie (right of judge), CJ (behind and to left of Sam), Logan (behind Charlie), Ginny (behind Logan on the left), Robert (right of Charlie), Collette (behind Robert on the right) |
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Collette and Ginny ready for their heat. |
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Two of our teams awaiting their turns at the competition |
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Ginny and Collette change the battery. |
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Collette and Ginny win Gold! |
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Honda Judges interview Sam, Charlie and CJ for the Honda Innovation Award |
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Honda Innovation Award nominees on stage at the ceremony. |
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Sam, Charlie and CJ display their nomination award at the ceremony. There were two nominations for Rescue Robot which is unusual. As a result, there was only one plaque available to hand out. Instead, an award listing "Robot Maze" was provided to our members with the promise to mail the correct certificate for the frame. |
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GEAR members at the awards ceremony. Not pictured: Jacob Neiding, Celeb Wright, Michael Yeager |
Robot Maze Photos
Janna makes a change to the robot program. The cable is connected from the laptop to the robot. Lena turns on the robot in preparation to download the change.
Janna and Molly check the voltage of the battery pack on the robot. If the voltage is too low, then it may affect the navigation ability of the robot. In that case, change the batteries for a fresh set.
Looks like all four team members are checking the robot program here. Some small tweak in the program can make the difference from failure to success in solving the maze. The first two runs in the maze were not successful. The last run was! Click on photo below to open a video of the third run!
Screen shot of the beginning of the third run in the maze. This is the run that won the Gold Award! Click the screen shot photo above to open a video. Now this is how to run a maze!
From left to right: Molly, Mandi, Jeffrey La Favre (advisor), Janna and Lena. In this competition each team has three runs in the maze. Our first run was not very good, not making it far into the maze. The second was a little better but not making it anywhere near the finish. The team decided to take a gamble with a 3/4 speed run for the third try, same as the first two. The gamble paid off! They were the only high school entry to make it all the way to the finish. GOLD AWARD! These same GEAR members competed as a team last year, winning Silver Award in Rescue Robot, Middle School Division and the Honda Innovation Award for their Rescue Robot. The Honda Innovation Award is the highest award at the NRC each year, and only one award is given. |
Ohio Technology and Engineering Educators Association (OTEEA) School Exhibits contest at NRC Photos
Michael Yeager displays his first place ribbon while his father holds part of his project. |
Technical Details of our robotsMicromouse robot - check this page for photos and details of the micromouse robot Maze robots - check this page for photos and details of the maze robot Rescue Robots - check this page for photos and details of our rescue robots
Check back soon for more Last update: April 12, 2025
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