BY DAVE BENJAMIN
Staff Writer
The sixth annual Robot Madness Day competition brought robots to the head of the class at Manalapan High School.
The event was sponsored by the Manalapan High School Applied Technology Department, the Central Jersey Robotics Group and Robodyssey Systems. It introduces the public to electronic projects developed by students and also gives students the opportunity to meet and collaborate with others in science and engineering.
“Today our students are demonstrating what they have done throughout the year in electronics and computer programming,” said Dave Peins, applied technology teacher. “The robots are made by some of my students. They’re demonstrating their electronics projects.”
Peins said participants represented electronics clubs from other areas, including the South Jersey Robotics group, the Central Jersey Robotics group, Cape May County Vocational, and Fort Monmouth, Eatontown.
“There are two programs under [my supervision] that deal with unmanned platforms,” said Rex Howe, Chief of the Battle Command Applications Division, Fort Monmouth. “We don’t use the generic term robots. One [program] is called Network Sensors for the Future Force and the other is called Command and Control of Robotic Entities.”
Howe said the objective is to plan to use the systems.
“The network sensors program is basically planning and unmanned ground and air vehicle planning,” he said. “We integrate the planning of these systems into the Army battle command systems. We’re looking at making unmanned platforms part of the force so we can use them better with fewer assets.”
In other words, the goal is to make robots go where humans will not have to go.
“It keeps humans out of danger and out of harm’s way,” said Howe.
The other program, Command and Control of Robotic Entities, focuses on battle command and integrating the unmanned platforms into the Army structure.
“We’re doing things that are aimed at near term, some unmanned planning capabilities into the field, [getting the equipment] into the soldiers’ hands in the near term and it’s also focused on the future force,” said Howe. “If you’ve heard of the Future Combat System, that’s an initiative to make the Army lighter, faster and more lethal.”
In the future, he said, robots will be used to find roadside bombs and insurgent fighters.
Howe said he hired two students from Manalapan High School to work on a robotics project at Fort Monmouth.
During the program at Manalapan, several contests were held, including a dance contest for robots; a contest in which robots must follow a line; tabletop navigation; and battling robots. During the contests, the robots are judged for programming, complexity, construction, choreography and creativity.
Peins said the U.S. military was on hand because its representatives can see obvious applications in autonomous robots. He said there are also applications in the health care field.
“There’s a real shortage in health care [workers],” said Peins. “There are already robots helping patients and dispensing medication, checking on patients. The field is really starting to take off, so it’s good to get kids interested in doing it.
“Right now they’re controlling mobile robots and it’s fun, but really they’re learning a skill,” he said. “We teach them real world skills so when they leave here they have some understanding of electronics and computer science, and most important the integration between hardware and software. It’s writing a program that makes something do something useful.”