VEX Robotics

Radio-Controlled/Autonomous Technology...

The Robotics Club at Barnwell High School is provided for students interested in the field of radio-controlled/autonomous technology. In years past, the Pre-Engineering students designed, built, programmed, and evaluated robots for participation in the First Tech Challenge competition held annually in February at South Carolina State University. Since 2015, the Engineering students in the Project Lead the Way (PLTW) courses have taken on this challenge lead by Jason Browning (Math Instructor).

In the Robotics Club (now part of the Technology Student Association (TSA), students possess the opportunity to utilize radio-control and/or autonomous robots. Radio-controlled robots utilize a transmitter and a receiver to perform differing tasks. Radio-controlled robots function by initialization from radio frequencies; similar to a toy truck remote-controlled vehicle. It is enjoyable to play with radio-controlled toy trucks, however, it is increasingly more fun to design and build these radio-control and/or autonomous technological devices. Autonomous mode is the second type of robotic control that affords the student to formulate a simple computer program to independently control the robot. Having two different types of control methods for robotics technology simulates the industry/business standards for understanding technological concepts while providing hands-on applications for our high-tech automated society.

Why Join the Robotics Club?

Robotics club participants learn while having fun working in 10 member teams or less. Each student volunteers for an important role on the team and is afforded the opportunity to learn about transmitters, receivers, programming, and mechanical applications of robot construction. So, if you enjoy having fun with remote-controlled devices and are willing to work cooperatively as a team member with other classmates, contact Jason Browning (jbrowning@bsd45.net), Ali Godhrawala (agodhrawala@bsd45.net,) or Steve Andrews (sandrews@bsd45.net).