Ringgold students tackle underwater robot project
Ringgold High School students, from left, Frank Startare, Shane Simpson and Trent Gerard take their underwater robot for a test drive in the school’s pool. The three are part of a five-member team that will compete in SeaPerch at California University of Pennsylvania in April.
A group of five Ringgold students pieced together an underwater remotely operated vehicle for the SeaPerch competition.
Ringgold High School mentor Bill Rizor and student Trent Gerard brainstorm solutions to a motor problem with the underwater robotic device.
Mentor Don Lawson advises members of a robotics club on things to think about while tweaking a remotely operated vehicle that will be used in the SeaPerch competition in April. Students spend several hours each week building and making changes to the ROV.
An underwater robotic device is controlled by Ringgold High School students as they maneuver it through a course.
Five Ringgold High School students seem to have their work cut out for them – both literally and figuratively.
Not only do they have to cut and solder pipe to put together an ROV, or remotely operated vehicle, that maneuvers underwater, they also have to have it move through obstacles and have it pick up hoops, pipe and wires and drop them off in a predetermined area.
“This is the only project I know of where the robot has to go underwater and possibly above water as well,” said Bill Rizor, physics teacher and project sponsor.
The five students volunteered for the project offered through the Navy-sponsored SeaPerch program in conjunction with Westinghouse’s Bettis Laboratory, a research and development facility that designs power plants for submarines and carriers. They began tackling the project at the beginning of the calendar year, and their 14-week commitment has them meeting after school for two hours each Thursday.
“I first heard of the project from my STEM teacher, Lucas Trocchio, and decided to volunteer because I’m interested in engineering,” said Frank Startare, a freshman from Monongahela. “The most important thing I learned so far is how to solder and make a controller for the robot. “
Trent Gerard, a sophomore from Eighty Four, joined because he’s interested in computer engineering, but said an added inducement was the fact “the motherboard the ROV is hooked up to is similar to that of a computer, but on a much smaller scale.”
Three engineers from Bettis – Maureen Ott, Don Larson and Robbie Petrick – have been coming to Ringgold to help and advise the students after school.
“We give them a small presentation on topics the students will be working on that day, such as fluids and how light refracts underwater,” said Ott, a member of Ringgold School Board. “The kids actually build and test the robot while the engineers provide guidance.”
The students were provided with a kit they put together to form the robot, which Rizor said is basically a square box with three propellers – two to move it forward and backward and one to move it up and down.
“The team has been testing the robot in the school swimming pool, and it’s been working pretty good so far,” Rizor said. “They had to include a way to pick up and move the hoops and wires, and their only modification (to the robot) was to decrease its buoyancy.”
Sophomore Alexa Vaccaro of Monongahela said the project requires a lot more creativity than she originally thought. “The modifications we had to make are probably the most creative aspect of the project,” she said.
On April 8, the Ringgold team will participate in a Pittsburgh regional competition against seven or eight other schools. The winning team will then go on to the state competition and, depending on the results, possibly to the nationals.
For Ben Hoffman, a freshman from Monongahela, the hardest part of the project was cutting and soldering the pipe. “Being that this is our first year on the project, I’m not anticipating that we’ll place in the top three slots in the upcoming competition,” he said.
All the participating schools get the same kit to start with. Each school gets one free kit. The variations on the final product come from the different methodology they use to perform the required tasks.
“For me, the most fun part of the project is being able to control and drive the robot around the school’s pool,” said Shane Simpson, a freshman from Donora.
While working at Bettis, Ott saw that the engineers there had been involved in similar projects with other schools for years. Last year, she proposed to the school’s director of curriculum that Ringgold participate.
“When assistant high school principal Jason Marvin came to me last Thanksgiving to ask me if I’d be the project sponsor, I did my research and said I’d give it a one-year try just because I live so far away from the school,” said Rizor, a resident of Imperial.
Rizor said the students seemed interested in the project, and that two students came to him at least once a week to discuss ideas.
“The project is a good start for the students in that it gets them interested in science and engineering,” Rizor said. “In school, they never get to use their knowledge of math and science in a practical setting. Through this project, they get a hands-on approach to engineering instead of just book learning.”
In the future, Ott said she’d like to grow the project at Ringgold.
“I think the experience is a real opportunity for the kids to interface with engineers and see what engineering is like,” she said. “As a result, some may want to pursue it as a career.”