From wikiMHEDA

Material Handling Headlines

She’s a wire-filled box on wheels. A windshield-wiper motor powers her forklift, drill motors power her movement forward and back. KRUSH 2.0 drives like a tank. But she’s champion at what she does: pick up tennis balls.

“It’s all student-made with a lot of help,” said Kurt MacLeod, one of the students in Canada's Kensington Intermediate Senior High School robotics club who built her. After winning a provincial skills competition, KRUSH 2.0 and her human teammates will compete at nationals in Charlottetown this month. Building a robot doesn’t happen overnight. The club began in February, spending about six hours a week and a few 12-hour Saturdays.

“If I had a nickel for every base that I made for this thing,” said MacLeod, noting it took a number of tries to create the final model.

“I would say every part in that robot’s been replicated at least five times,” added Louis Andrews, one of their advisors.

Teams competing in robotics build a machine to complete a certain task. In this case, the robot must pick up tennis balls one by one, carry each ball to a rack and drop it into one of seven columns. The rack is set up like a Connect Four game. Teams try to get the most balls in the rack but also to create a line of four of their coloured balls in a straight, vertical or horizontal line. To do that, the robotics club designed KRUSH 2.0 with sonar, which senses the rack so she doesn’t run into it. An infrared beam inside her claw senses when there’s a ball to grasp so the claw automatically closes.

Click here to read the full story.

Photo courtesy of Journal Pioneer.

RSS Feed  

2 Comment(s) Post a Comment  Showing Comments Page 1 of 1 Posted by Mike Ensby from Clarkson University on May 15, 2009, 4:57 pm PDT People coming out of school with good technology backgrounds are able to adapt quicker to technology changes, and if we can get people at the high school level exposed to the industry through things like this windshield wiper powered forklift, it really helps. Inappropriate? alert us Post a Comment  Posted by Malini Natarajarathinam from Texas A & M University on May 15, 2009, 5:01 pm PDT At Texas A&M we have a hybrid program that combines business and engineering to prepare students for real world challenges in the material handling industry. Inappropriate? alert us Post a Comment   Comment on this News Item: Name: Company: Email: Comment: Security Code: Reload Image Enter the text shown in the box above. Comments that include profanity, personal attacks or antisocial behavior such as "spamming," "trolling," or any other inappropriate material will not be posted to the site and/or will be removed from the site. You are fully responsible for the content you post. Neither the Association nor the publisher of this website, Data Key Communications, Inc, are responsible for the contents thereof or the opinions of the contributors. Contact and company information entered must be true and accurate. By submitting a comment, you agree to these terms and conditions.

More Headlines Showing Page 1 of 200 1 2 3 4 5 Next›   Last›› 12/20/2011 Manufacturers To Double Internships ...more | Comments Industry leaders commit to double engineering internships. 12/20/2011 New Orders Grow In 2011 ...more | Comments Equipment orders grow 17.1 percent in first half. 12/20/2011 Coca-Cola Moves To Fuel Cells ...more | Comments Crown Equipment to provide trucks. 12/19/2011 Robotics Event Held In Indiana ...more | Comments Indiana Robotics Invitational inspires young people. 12/19/2011 BMW Seeks Methane-to-Hydrogen Conversion ...more | Comments Automaker launches $1 million project to convert landfill gas. 12/19/2011 CEMA Reports Growth ...more | Comments Booked Orders Index up 7 percent over 2010. 12/16/2011 Small Business Contracting Increases ...more | Comments Federal government shows increase in contracting dollars to small firms. 12/16/2011 U.S. Leads World In Hydrogen Forklifts ...more | Comments More than 1,500 forklifts deployed or ordered in 2010. 12/16/2011 Supply Chain Impacted By Social Media ...more | Comments Social media are having an effect on supply chains and procurement. 12/15/2011 NMHG Receives Top Plant Award ...more | Comments Berea, KY manufacturing facility receives 2011 Top Plant Award.