Team Notes: A Robot for the Hallways
1The Ridgecrest Middle School robotics team is building a robot that rolls down the hallways carrying library books and supplies to classrooms. Before it can drive near students, the principal wants proof that it is safe. Team captain Oluwaseun Park explained that the danger depends on the robot's kinetic energy, the energy it has because it is moving, since that is the energy a bumper has to soak up if the robot runs into something.
2Coach Saoirse Banerjee set up a test course in the gym, ending at a padded wall. The robot's body has a mass of 10 kg, and team member Mireille Kovac loaded it with boxes of books to change the total mass. A pair of timing gates near the end of the course measured the robot's speed. The team's software then worked out the kinetic energy with the formula KE = ½ × mass × speed², using mass in kilograms and speed in meters per second to give energy in joules (J). In the formula, speed² means the speed multiplied by itself, so a speed of 2.0 m/s gives 2.0 × 2.0 = 4.0. Each run was repeated three times, and the results are averages. Nobody stood on the course during a run, and the robot never went faster than a jogging pace.
3The team tried different loads and speeds on different days, so the runs in the table are not in any special order. Some runs changed the mass, some changed the speed, and some changed both. Mireille pointed out that a fair comparison needs two runs that differ in only one way, so the team has to choose its pairs with care before drawing any conclusion.
4The hallways at Ridgecrest are crowded between classes, so the team plans to run the robot only while classes are in session. Even then, a student could step out of a classroom door at any moment. Oluwaseun wants the robot to carry as many books as possible on each trip, while Mireille wants it to move fast enough to finish every delivery before lunch. The test runs were planned to help the team balance load and speed.