Teams advance to state finals in December
By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
Suppose a disaster hit… an earthquake, a tsunami or a violent storm. How could robots help cope with the emergency?
Middle school-aged students from the central Jersey area were given that challenge this year in their First Lego League competition that culminated in a regional tournaments Saturday.
The competition this year was called Nature’s Fury and presented the real-world issue of dealing with natural catastrophes like the storms Irene and Sandy that have hit the area in 2011 and 2012, respectively. The teams had to identify a problem when a natural disaster occurs and create an innovative solution to help people prepare, stay safe or rebuild.
Both Lambertville Determinator teams (Fury Fighting Robots and Robot Warriors) ranked in the top four of the tournament at Hillsborough High School and qualified for the state finals Dec 14 at Mount Olive High School. About 200 teams competed Saturday around the state in regional events.
A third local team, known as the RoboCircuits and based at West Amwell School, attended a regional tournament in Ewing and also qualified for the state finals.
FLL is the youngest-level of the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science) started by inventor Dean Kamen to inspire people to get excited about science.
In Hillsborough, the high school RoboRaidersTeam 75 hosted and offered workshops where youngsters could visit to sketch a design on paper, design and draw it on a computer program and learn how to create animation. There were technical stations where high schoolers could talk about nuts-and-bolts issues like electrical boards, mechanical and gearing.
The pitting of teams’ robots is the most exciting part of the competition, but the first part of the day featured team presentations on the research of the problem and description of a piece of equipment proposed as part of a solution. Teams could win awards in 15 different categories, ranging from the robot performance to presentation of their project to teamwork.
The Fury Fighting Robots took the “Mechanical Design” award and the Robot Warriors took the “Programming Award.”
When they got to the game board, the object was to make the robot complete tasks on a roughly 4-by-12-foot field, or tabletop. For instance, robots had to push or grab a branch off a toy tree before it hit a wire, move dog and cat to a safe zone, land a plane loosed on a zipline device climb over barriers or move ambulance.
A team typically works about three months researching the issue and building their robot.
There were two all-girl teams one from Westfield and one from Piscataway. Theresa Sternig, a parent leader of the Scouts team, said to a co-leader that their girls had exchanged high fives when they met. One girl was heard to say, “I had one had no idea girls could do this. I thought only guys did this.”
Lambertville had two third-year teams compete at Hillsborough. The 18 members of their two Determinators teams spent about 10 weeks on the project.
Over the summer the Fury Fighting Robots team took trips to Hunterdon Office of Emergency Management EM to learn what needs to be done in a disaster, said Beth Bauer, a parent leader. They came to call the place “Houston Control,” she said.
The OEM indicated one of the biggest problems is communication and getting supplies, particularly water, to people, said Ms. Bauer
They also went to Union Beach at the Jersey Shore, where the mayor led a tour and told the kids that 50 houses floated out to sea and 350 families had been displaced.
They worked with a chemist to determine what pollutants make people sick. The Fury Fighting Robots came up with a water safety kit that could potentially help people make sure their drinking water was safe after a tsunami or disaster, and wrote a rap song, “The WPP,” for water purification process, and put it on Youtube.
Their sister team, the Robot Warriors, suggested a search-and-rescue robot, called Sandy Bot, as a tool. They sought the advice of longtime Lambertville OEM members Pat and Spring Pittore, who said any robot had to be durable, balanced and agile.
At opening ceremonies, the teams and audience were reminded that FLL is not about winning and losing, but first having fun, and working as a team for a common goal, said Donald Bowers, the mid-Atlantic director.
He also reminded them that “gracious professionalism” was one precept for the FLL.

