Let the smashing and thrashing commence.
Fifteen Winfield Middle School students this week are finishing up work on three battle bots they’ll take to the BotsKC tournament Saturday in Olathe.
Students test drove the robots and showed off their mechanical weaponry for the media Monday afternoon at the Newell Rubbermaid plant in Winfield.
“I feel our bot is really strong with the drum spinner and the wedge,” middle school student Mark Thompson said as the demonstration wrapped up. “During competition, I’m going to be helping to repair the bot when the match is over. At that point our bot is going to be absolutely shredded.”
Thompson is assistant mechanic and head weapons designer on one of three five-person teams, with names like Overload and Athanasious.
Funding for three robots, and the trip to competition, is being grant-funded through a partnership of the Kansas Dept. of Commerce and Newell-Rubbermaid in Winfield.
The grant covers two years of robot construction and competition at a cost of $20,000.
“That’s what the grant money was to be used for, to get kids excited to come and work for Rubbermaid,” Mandy Maples, human resources for the company, said. “We want homegrown employees. We want kids to stay in the area.”
With robotics emerging as a key component of manufacturing in the household products and plastic containers industry, battle bots seemed to be a great way to get students interested in technology and Rubbermaid, she said.
When Maples began asking for help from Rubbermaid machinists and engineers to guide students as they worked on the bots, the response was quick.
“We had three people right away, ready to help,” she said.
Students who participate in the program attend an early morning class at the school each Friday at 7. Originally, about 30 students began the program. The 15 who stuck with it and dedicated the most time to doing the work, will represent Winfield in Olathe this weekend.
They will arrive on Friday to review safety guidelines and for weigh-in. Each bot can weigh no more than 15 pounds.
A base kit is provided as a standard foundation for the bots. That kit weighs about 10 pounds, which leaves students with about five pounds for weaponry and armor.
BotsKC is a double-elimination tournament in which these student designed bots go head-to-head in a competition to disable and destroy one another.
Charles Hensley and Sophia Goodson work on their bot, Rolling Thunder, Monday at the Rubbermaid plant in Winfield.
