The Machinators second year!  Rad to the Core was the name, and we were excited to see such a great new idea for a game.    Were we all as excited as last year to do the robot?  NO, unless you were Tom Otto.  We dont have Bob Sepanski this year? Where is he?   Dunno.   We do have Patt Knapp(Keith Richards), the ape looking guy you probobly saw if you went to the competition.  He likes cameras too.  "What are we gonna call our robot?" was the question that was asked.  No discussion came about, everyone was silent, suddenly, someone cried out from the debths of the crowd, "JIM!"   It was genious,  it was perfect,  it was the name of our new robot.

2002 History

As the Machinators gathered supplies from DC BEST coordinators, it was discovered that the elevated, perpetual lazy suzan represented a black hole through which robots would travel to retrieve game pieces, such as bumbleballs and foam noodles. “This isn’t going to be easy,” said football player and Machinator Andy Davis.
The Machinators’ first brainstorming session was held on Friday, September 20 – coincidentally the same day as Homecoming. “We can’t seem to shake this football thing,” commented football player and Machinator Michael Voth. During the brainstorming session, The Machinators agreed to go for the bumbleball – a task valued at 50 points. Machinator Jonny Krahl reasoned, “If we can hit our switch, get the bumbleball, and consistently block other teams from getting theirs, we just might make it.”
The brainstorming session broke early, just in time for Homecoming festivities to begin. “It’s tough enough that we have to compete with other teams,” said football manager and Machinator Joseph Davis. “Now we have to compete with ourselves for time.”

The Pacemaker

“Set the Pace! Rah – Rah! Make ‘em Race! Rah – Rah!”
Science teacher and Machinator Coach Angela Smith’s brained could have fried eggs while cheerleaders shouted at the Homecoming football game. “I just couldn’t stop thinking,” recalled Smith. “Hearts need pacemakers. We’re Sacred Heart. We need a Pacemaker.” The following Monday, the team unanimously accepted the name Pacemaker for their 2002 robot.
Design and testing began on September 28 at JAW Construction Company. With the goal of capturing a bumbleball, Machinator Thomas Otto stumbled upon a brilliant concept: if a plate were lowered to the ground and driven forward, it could be raised to force a captured bumbleball into a containment vessel.
The following day, Machinator Kevin Walterscheid awoke plagued by the problem of robot mobility. “I was put in charge of the tractor, and I just couldn’t think of anything to get us up an incline and over a one-inch grid,” recalled Walterscheid. “I turned on my TV, and there it was.”
‘It’ was a WWI German artillery piece known as the Big Bertha. Its wheels were comprised of numerous small feet, which stair-stepped as the weapon moved over large objects and up hills. “It was perfect to climb over PVC and up the incline,” said Walterscheid.
While other Machinators busied themselves with wheels and bumbleballs, Machinator Travis Forshee was concerned with other matters. Should the bumbleball-capture fail, he was the man heading Plan B.
“We chose the foam noodles. They were very near the bumbeballs, and we could use some of the same motors for a robotic arm that we used for bumbleball capture,” said Forshee. After weeks of testing, Forshee and his group designed a folding arm with a chicken-plucking device on the end. “We tested lots of different materials on the chicken-plucker to give it traction,” said Machinator Clint Fuhrmann. “Ultimately we chose Velcro. It just spun those foam noodles out of there.”
Meanwhile, Smith was giving homework in Robotics class. Not just any homework, either; students were required to play various video games. “Driving a robot is a lot like a video game,” said Smith. “So our drivers practiced on the Playstation.” In the end, Clint Fuhrmann, Kevin Walterscheid, Thomas Otto, Oliver McElroy, Travis Forshee, Joseph Skotnik, and Chris Fuhrmann all received A’s on their homework.

Astronauts wear…school uniforms?

On October 4, Smith received a shocking email. Hundreds of aerospace engineers, wireless communications experts, rocket scientists, cosmonauts, and astronauts were gathering at the World Space Congress in Houston.
The Machinators were invited.
“I just couldn’t stop thinking what an amazing opportunity it was,” said Smith. In order to attend the event, the Machinators were required to revive their 2001 robot, Jim, and compete once again in match play against other outstanding 2001 Texas BEST teams.
Machinator team members soon discovered that NASA had suggested the theme for the 2001 Texas BEST competition. NASA engineers filmed the event, and later watched various robots in match play as inspiration for the Mobile Transporter, now the cargo-loading/unloading robot for the International Space Station.
The following Thursday, October 10, select Machinators departed for Houston with Jim. A group remained behind in Muenster to continue work on the newer Pacemaker. In Houston, the Machinators learned valuable engineering tricks, such as how to extend battery life, properties of obscure friction-producing materials, and the true strength of servos.
“We discovered from another team that a single servo can lift up to three pounds of dead weight,” said Machinator Travis Forshee. “We figured that if we could apply that principle to the Pacemaker, it might free up a motor.”
The Machinators returned home on Friday, October 11, only to realize their greatest fear: DC BEST Mall Day was next weekend, and the Pacemaker wasn’t finished.

Idea-Shopping at the Mall

Each year, DC BEST hosts a public exhibition of competing teams’ robots. Nicknamed “Mall Day” because of the location of the event, teams often steal ideas from one another in attempts to improve their robots.
“I remember that we had a Student Council car wash planned for the day,” said Student Council member and Machinator Laura Taylor. “Fortunately for the Pacemaker, it was rained out.”
Student activities were not the Machinators’ only worry. While playing football the previous night, Machinator Michael Voth had injured his arm. “We were really worried about him,” said Smith. “Not only was one of our key electronics men injured, our friend was injured, too.”
The Machinators arrived at the Golden Triangle Mall in Denton at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, October 19. Sirens blared, lights flashed, and fog hovered over the playing field. Numerous robots sat on staging tables.
“We saw those robots and just couldn’t help ourselves,” said Joseph Skotnik. “We noticed off-the-bat that the Era Eliminators had brought a phony robot to the event.”
Fortunately, Machinator engineers had not planned to reveal all of their ideas, either. “We removed the arm,” said Aaron Krahl. “We knew that it if other teams got a hold of the chicken-plucking concept, we might be ruined.” Earlier that week, the Machinators had perfected the Pacemaker’s arm, rendering it capable of removing five noodles in one minute. The team had also harnessed the power of the servo, utilizing one to raise the bumbleball-lifting steel grid on the bottom of the Pacemaker.
When it was all over, it was the Pacemaker’s wheels that stole the show. “They’re unique, alright,” said Machinator Nina Zanchetta. Other teams gawked at the machine when it crawled up inclines with ease, or bolted over one-inch PVC grids. “It seemed there was no place we couldn’t go,” recalled Hartman.
Cameras flashed while the Machinator engineers poured over other teams’ robots. “We asked questions, we offered them food, and sometimes even let them look at our robot,” said Jonny Krahl. “In the end, we stuck with our own ideas. They seemed the best way to reach our objectives.”

Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, off to Denton we Go!

October 26, 2002, the day of reckoning. Six weeks of hard work would all boil down to 24 minutes of match play.
As the Machinators entered the Coliseum at the University of North Texas, magic seemed to fill the air. “We had this feeling that it was going to be our day,” said Machinator Jonny Krahl.
The previous evening, the Machinators’ business team, headed by President and Team Captain Patrick Knapp, had made an oral presentation to BEST Division judges. Also presented was a book documenting the entire engineering process behind the creation of the Pacemaker.
“The presentation was very well received,” said businessperson Christine Fetch. “The judges were very impressed with the number of sponsors we recruited, and the creativity of our engineers.” Fetch continued to say that the Pacemaker’s arm that had flabbergasted the judges. “They couldn’t believe that teenagers had thought of it,” said Fetch.
In previous years, the Machinators had qualified for the nationwide Texas BEST competition by placing in the BEST Division of their Denton County hub. “We usually try to focus our efforts on community support and awareness,” said Chris Fuhrmann. “We build a good robot, but it usually doesn’t win in match play. What we win is the BEST Division.”
The day began well. After two rounds of match play, the Pacemaker was in 14th place. “We thought, ‘Hey, we can win match play and the BEST Division,’” said Machinator Sarah Whitecotton. “Boy, were we wrong.”
The day quickly turned sour. In the third round of match play, the Pacemaker’s batteries became too weak to climb the incline to the lazy suzan. Machinator engineers gathered together for an emergency brainstorming session. Chief Engineer Travis Forshee and consultant Darell Walterscheid agreed that the Pacemaker had to lose some weight. “We called it ‘the Engineer’s Diet,’” said Walterscheid. He and Forshee sawed more than four pounds of wood from the Pacemaker’s body between rounds. Later, other engineers decided that the robot had to lose more weight. The arm would have to go.
“We knew that the arm as a major selling point in our presentation,” said Cindy Hartman. “Removing it was like not delivering a promised product to the market.”
Hartman’s doubts were confirmed, along with the Machinators’ worst fears. The Pacemaker finished 28th, far outside of the top-four finish needed to qualify for round-robin finals.
It was BEST Division or bust.
“They gave out the third place award,” said Chris Fuhrmann. “We didn’t get it, but we were relieved at the time because we wanted to finish higher.”
Second place was called. It went to Enrichment Classes of Carrollton. Tension was mounting among the Machinators. “This was it,” said Thomas Whitecotton. “We either won the show, or packed our bags.”
First place was announced. It went to the Era Eliminators.
Disappointed and distraught, the Machinators packed their tools and equipment into their small school bus. Little did they know that a miracle would occur.
“This judge ran up to Ms. Smith and I as we were leaving,” said Machinator Oliver McElroy. “All he could say was, ‘There was a mistake! You got third!’”. Smith and
McElroy soon discovered that third place qualified the Machinators to compete in match play at the nationwide Texas BEST competition at Texas A&M University in three weeks.
“Everybody had left by the time we found out, so I made dozens of phone calls, telling the kids,” said Smith. “The more people I talked to, the more I discovered that this was going to be tougher than I ever imagined.”
Modifications had to be made to the Pacemaker. It was too heavy. The machine had to be reworked, the arm lightened, and battery life extended. In three weeks.
In three weeks, the Machinators were going to the nationwide Texas BEST robotics competition. In three weeks, the Tigers’ football team was going to semifinals. In three weeks, the Musical Theatre Department was producing a play.
It would be tough indeed.

Three Hectic Weeks

“What about Tuesday night?” asked Machinator Travis Forshee, the phone pressed to his ear, “OK, how about Thursday?”
Pause. “I know we have football and rehearsal! But when else are we going to get the robot finished?”
When indeed, “I realized that we didn’t have a single person on the team who wasn’t involved with at least one other activity,” said Smith. “People were being pulled in every direction.”
The cheerleaders and dance team practiced every afternoon. Football practiced every evening. Theatre rehearsals ran late into the night. “Some of our key engineers
and business people even had to commute from Sherman,” said Smith. “That’s two hours in the car every day. I don’t know when they slept.”
In the end, it was the students who buckled down. “I’d start working on the robot, and I wouldn’t stop until I was finished,” said Travis Forshee. “We just had this ‘get it done’ attitude about things.”
Recognizing the time strain, consultant Darell Walterscheid opened JAW for all hours of the day. Students showed up between classes, for lunch, even after football practice, sometimes skipping meals and staying until midnight. “We were determined,” said Forshee.
One day before the Texas BEST competition, the Machinators gathered at JAW Construction Co. for a final engineering session. The arm had been modified, ultimately weighing less. A switch had been added to the chicken-plucker, turning it off when at rest, thus conserving battery power. The body of the Pacemaker had lost an additional pound of wood and plastic.
“It was almost a brand new robot,” said consultant Darell Walterscheid, who had guided the students’ re-engineering efforts.
Perhaps the most interesting modification was the Pacemaker’s new paint job. “It looked like something out of Dr. Seuss,” said Walterscheid.
On Friday, November 22, while football players, cheerleaders, and dance team members left for football semifinals in Waco, Texas, select Machinators piled into vans bound for College Station, Texas - the home of Texas A&M University and the Aggies.
“Bring it on,” said Machinator Christine Fetch. “We’re ready to Rock n’ Roll.”

A visit to Aggieland

The Machinators arrived in College Station exhausted and travel-weary. “I was ready for some physical activity,” said Machinator Thomas Otto. “Four hours in the car wears you down.”
After a hearty dinner, the Machinators went to the University Recreation Center for an evening of BEST activities. Events included a cardboard car race, a paper tower contest, and a most-creative apparel contest. Machinator Patrick Knapp took third in the cardboard car race.
Early the following morning, the Machinators arose from their slumber. Some ate cheerios. Others drank black coffee. The goal was the same: prepare for the biggest day of the year.
Match play began at 8:00 a.m. “We knew that we had to do our best every time,” said driver Kevin Walterscheid. “This was it.”
After four rounds of match play, the Machinators were in 20th place. Only the top 16 qualified for round-robin finals. “Patrick was standing in front of the scoreboard figuring statistics in his notebook between interviews,” said Smith. “He would tell our drivers what minimum score they had to get to qualify for finals.”
Match play progressed. The Pacemaker slowly advanced in the rankings. 19th place, 18th place, and when the Machinators’ final round of match play was over, the Pacemaker was in 17th place. “We were pretty disappointed,” said Machinator Clint Fuhrmann. “Only the top 16 advance to round-robin finals, and we were one outside of it.”
Suddenly, disaster happened on the playing field. A robot was stuck on the lazy suzan, blocking all scoring opportunities. It had been in 16th place for the past two rounds.
“When that robot got jammed, we just rejoiced,” said Machinator Joseph Skotnik. “They didn’t score enough points to hold their ranking, so we advanced. We made it into finals!”
The team was enthused. Never before had the Machinators made round-robin finals at the nationwide Texas BEST competition. “We had nowhere to go but up,” said consultant Darell Walterscheid.
The Pacemaker scored enough points to finish twelfth of more than 450. “The interesting thing,” said Chris Fuhrmann, “was that we never scored with the bumbleball at the Texas BEST competition. The chicken-plucking arm just spun out those foam noodles like magic.”
Indeed, every time the Pacemaker’s drivers attempted to score with the bumbleball, they were unsuccessful. “We stuck to the noodles since they were close by,” said driver Thomas Otto. “The arm spun them out in such ways that they blocked other robots from climbing onto the lazy suzan.”
Match play completed, it was time for the awards ceremony.
“We were hoping to get a special award,” said Jonny Krahl. “We just didn’t know which to hope for.”
The founders of Texas BEST, Ted Mahler and Steve Marum, took the podium. It was time to announce the winner of the Founder’s Award for Most Creative Design.
“It’s a very big deal,” said Smith of the award. “Lots of teams hope for it, but only one wins.”
Of the 453 teams competing in Texas BEST, the Sacred Heart Machinators won the 2002 Most Creative Design Award for the Pacemaker.
“We had worked so hard for so long,” said consultant Darell Walterscheid. “It was great to get it. It was worth doing, and we did it well.”

 

2003 History

Best Robotics, Inc has taken robotics into a whole new scale, the microcosmic. They decided to branch out from their normal regime and into the field of medical technology for the theme. The game is designed to simulate the transfer of blood cells from a sterile field to a cell saver for autologous blood transfusion (blood taken from the patient to be used for that patient at a later date).
From the realms of macrocosmic time travel to microbiotic robotics - The Machinators are leaders in developing and delivering innovative solutions for unique engineering problems. The Machinators have accepted the Mission to be the most efficient and innovative provider of life-saving microbots for in-vivo medical procedures.
The Machinators’ Microbot, the X-Cell-A-Raider, can TRAVEL where robots of other classes have never circulated, THE BLOOD Stream OF A HUMAN BODY. Finally, technology has developed robots so tiny they can swim through a droplet of blood. Medical researchers, in the pursuit of new treatments to combat cancer, have found that white cells extracted from the body can be cultured and grown to large numbers outside of the body to later be placed back in the body. No bigger than the punctuation in this sentence, these new micro, no, nano-machines can be used to locate and capture specific white blood cells (the T-cells) and place them into a cell-saver for later use. T-cells play a central role in fighting cancer and infection. The process of generating T-cells in this fashion is known as Xcellerated T-Cells.
Machinators’ microbot, the X-Cell-A-Raider, can pick, and place T cells into a designated cell saver. By using special dyes to color specific types of cells the X-Cell-A-Raider can recognize and discriminate between healthy and diseased cells. X-Cell-A-Raider can then with ease and agility, precisely and accurately, save and deliver the cells for later use.
The X-Cell-A-Raider‘s microbotic platform is equipped with electrodes and polymers which expand and contract in response to an applied electrical potential. This micro actuator technology enables our robot to have unsurpassed mechanical precision and accuracy in gripping each cell while doing no harm.
Additionally, the X-Cell-A-Raider is equipped with a special holding tank that identifies the diseased cells as foreign debris. In cooperation with the macrophages of the body’s immune system these diseased cells are eliminated. If a rupture of a diseased cell should occur before being placed in the tank, the X-Cell-A-Raider is equipped to reach a spot decontamination unit. This unit sterilizes the robot and the zone of the ruptured diseased cell.
Any transfusion of blood poses some risk. The service that the Machinators Microbot provides decreases the number of complications in patients. Machinators Microbot has made the procedure more cost effective, and therefore more widely available for the patients in need.
Our experienced team of engineers, documenters, financiers, spirit boosters, and public relations marketeers have risen to this occasion and taken this micro challenge to perfection in the smallest detail. The X-Cell-A-Raider is charged and ready to be injected.