PIQUA — The Upper Valley Career Center’s robotics class recently showcased their Capstone Projects on Thursday, March 31.
The class started working on their projects in the beginning of 2022 after instructor, Connor Keller, decided to give the students more creative control. While asking for suggestions, students proposed a myriad of ideas, and working in teams of two, they were each allowed to pursue them.
“We try to keep it as much like industry as possible to help prepare them for their careers,” said Keller.
Students did all the designing, programming, and wiring to prepare some interesting projects.
Shepherd Scalf and Kaydin Wolaver reprogrammed a robotic arm and fixed it with an attachment to pick up and cook hot dogs that were then placed neatly into a bun.
Maxwell Browning and Hayden Caldwell programmed a robotic arm to play tic-tac-toe with a human partner. Tic-tac-toe is a solved game, meaning a step-by-step process — known as an algorithm — can be used to make the correct move giving the best possible chance of winning. Tic-tac-toe played perfectly with their robotic arm should result in a tie, but make one mistake to their robot, and it will win.
Hunter Biddlestone and Eric Mees created a can crusher that makes use of a hydraulic press to automate a step in the recycling process.
Michael Koester and Emory Kemp each worked alone to create their projects. Koester reprogrammed a robotic arm to help inspect ping-pong balls at manufacturing plants, and Kemp made a working model of a traffic light system from scratch.
The final project was from Kayne Smith and Xander Covington, who built an automatic drink pourer.
“Fluids and electronics are usually not things that go together. So, we had to be really careful while building this,” said Smith.
“This has been a great experience for the students. It gives them an opportunity to see that robotics is not just manufacturing,” said Keller.
The showcase was a culmination of months of hard work from the UVCC students.
“It’s amazing to think that two years ago these students came in with almost no knowledge on this stuff, and now they’re doing things like this,” said UVCC Public Relations Coordinator Audrey Gutman.
