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Main Page Contact Francisco Duque, 912.961.3173 For Immediate Release
AASU Engineering Students Build Robots(Savannah, GA, May 21, 2007) This spring an engineering class at Armstrong Atlantic State University (AASU) designed and built robots as a semester-long project. Four teams of students spent the semester designing, building, and testing their creations. The boxy-looking robots, costing less than $100 to build and no bigger that two feet long by 18 inches wide and 24 inches tall, were constructed using common materials, including Velcro, plastic, metal, and even mouse traps. The project required students in the engineering class to use mechanical and computer engineering skills. "Ingenuity, creativity, team work and a small measure of aesthetics were all required," said Cameron Coates, assistant professor in the Engineering Studies Program at AASU. The final test came at the end of the semester when the the students gathered the robots in a showdown. Each machine had to knock down four small bowling pins, dump four balls in a basket one foot off the ground, and collect up to 12 loose balls. Points were awarded for every task completed. Students David Johnson from Richmond Hill, David Giles from Rincon, Amy Gall from Wilmington Island, and Thomas Thompson from Rincon had the winning robot. "We spent less than $10 building it and we relied on a simple philosophy to run the motor for eight seconds to accomplish the goals," said David Johnson, a retired U.S. Coast Guard aviation maintenance technician chief. |
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