Flying Nightengale Nighthawks preparing for St. Louis Robotics competition – WatertownDailyTimes.com

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MASSENA With a stellar performance at Clarkson University under their belts, nine members of the Nightengale Elementary School Robotics team are headed for the next level of competition, which will take them to St. Louis at the end of April.

Members of the Flying Nightengale Nighthawks were one of 22 elementary and middle school teams that competed in the 10th annual FIRST Lego League Robotics Tournament at Clarkson in January, where they earned the right to compete in the world championships in St. Louis.

The team, which is coached by William Lint, includes fifth and sixth grade students Ethan Blais, Hailey Boyce, Nolan Goolden, Tessa McGay, Hayden McGregor, Sal Perretta, Scotty Prue, Emma Stickney and Ella Tusa. All of the team members had participated in a two-week spring Robotics program at the school and came back in the fall to continue their Robotics experience.

Every year, FIRST Lego League releases a challenge thats based on a real-world scientific topic. Each challenge has three parts: the Robot Game, the Project and the Core Values. Teams participate in the challenge by programming an autonomous robot to score points on a themed playing field the Robot Game. They also have to develop a solution to a problem theyve identified.

Each year the FIRST Lego League program comes out with a theme. They have a research project, Robot Game and core values, how they work as a team, Mr. Lint said.

This year, its an animal theme called the Animal Allies Challenge, with students competing in animal-themed Lego competition.

Its how humans and animals interact, Ms. Boyce said.

The real-world problem the Nightengale team members decided to address and solve was the problem of interaction between humans and eagles. Ms. Tusa said they wanted to come up with a way they could observe eagles without disturbing them.

Mr. Lint said Blanche Town, Region 6 fish and wildlife technician for the state Department of Environmental Conservation, met with the students to give them information about eagles.

They did research on bald eagles, he said.

The students created a Lego structure with windows that only allow human to see inside. It contains solar panels on the top and tinted glass for the one-way viewing.

We created a structure where the eagles cant see you, Ms. Tusa said.

It would be placed a short distance from the nest, she said, allowing observers to get close without disturbing the eagles.

In addition to solving that problem, students also had to work together to build, test and program an autonomous robot using Lego Mindstorms technology to solve a set of missions in the Robot Game. The robot is programmed to complete 12 missions on the game board, which must be done in 2 minutes, 30 seconds, and the only time team members are allowed to touch their robot is to send it off on a mission.

Mr. Lint said the Nightengale team nearly maxed out the points they could accumulate during the Clarkson competition and, rather than resting on their laurels as they wait for the St. Louis competition, they went back to add new missions and alter the order.

They set the bar higher, he said.

We try to minimize the time, Ms. Tusa said.

The St. Louis competition runs from April 26 to 29.

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Flying Nightengale Nighthawks preparing for St. Louis Robotics competition - WatertownDailyTimes.com