Greenwich boys build eco-friendly car conveyer system
Published 1:00 am, Friday, December 11, 2009
Instead of having to slam on the brakes at a dangerous intersection, imagine being able to coast, safely and slowly, up to the corner on a long, car wash-style conveyor belt with your engine turned off.
Sound far-fetched? Maybe.
But it would certainly go a long way to help reduce emissions and improve pedestrian and driver safety, argue the five Greenwich boys who developed the idea for a recent robotics and technology competition.
"We wanted to save pedestrians, but we also wanted a way to save people driving cars, too," William said.
Calling themselves the "Mind Mavericks," these fourth-graders recently seized seventh-place out of 32 teams of students from across southern Connecticut, at a regional qualifier match held in Shelton for the international FIRST Lego League competition.
The competition asks elementary and middle school students around the globe, ages 9 to 14, to build and program a computer-guided robot that can successfully navigate a Lego-filled obstacle course. This year, it also required
participants to complete a research project that produced an innovative solution to a transportation-related issue in their community.
Greenwich's Mind Mavericks chose to tackle pedestrian safety and car pollution.
Their solution -- a "Mavericks Alternative Conveyer (belt) System" -- meant to replace roadways leading up to busy intersections with a conveyer belt that keeps cars and buses moving slowly to avoid collisions with people and other automobiles. While on the conveyer belt, the motorists would also turn off their engines, which, the boys concluded, would save millions in fuel costs and reduce air pollution over many years.
In coming up with the idea Mavericks decided they wanted to do better than the federal Environmental Protection Agency recommendation that motorists turn off a car or bus engine when they expect to be idling more than 30 seconds.
"We figured, hey, if they think the engine should be turned off for 30 seconds, what if we had it off for two minutes? How much pollution would that save?" Brunswick School's David Sorbaro, 10, said.
The research project was not the only challenge the boys faced during the three months they spent preparing for the competition.
For the robotics part of the contest, they worked with Doug Rendell, a Greenwich Academy teacher, to build a miniature robot vehicle that could score points for the team by climbing plastic bridges, knocking down poles and avoiding collisions on a 4-by-8-foot course.
Their competition robot was a tractor-like vehicle, complete with rubber treads for driving, a retractable arm to hook and topple objects, and a sensor to help right the vehicle's path on the course.
Like all contest entries, it came equipped with an onboard computer system that contestants used to upload their pre-programmed navigation instructions from an outside hard drive before a run.
The Mavericks were not as successful in the robotics portion of the contests, scoring a respectable 195 points, out of a possible 400.
While that wasn't enough to advance to the next round, the boys have come away with a newfound love for engineering and design, as well as a new awareness of community issues, said coach Drew Dawson.
"You can see the aftermath," Dawson, a private child-care consultant, said during a recent interview at the Taconic Road home of his fellow coach, Cosby George, mom of Maverick William George, 9.
Dawson motioned to the boys as they gathered on the floor around a new robot they'd recently designed after the contest.
"They are engaged, and figuring out a hundred different things about what they can do now," he said. "They are not sick of it. They want more."
At the 2009 FIRST Lego League challenge for kids ages 9 to 14, there are 14,600 teams comprising 146,000 students from more than 50 countries, from Iceland to Lebanon to Malaysia. There have been more than 475 qualifying events. Nearly 100 regional tourneys will culminate in a world competition in Atlanta in April.
The competition is sponsored by FIRST, or "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology," a foundation that promotes science and technology in schools.
Staff Writer Colin Gustafson can be reached at email@example.com or 203-625-4428.