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By: By Robert Galbreath, [email protected]

Updated: 2 weeks ago / Posted Feb 13, 2023

BIG PINEY – Down a long, darkened corridor at Big Piney High School (BPHS), a classroom glows with light on a cold, gray Saturday evening in January. Inside the room, a group of students and adult volunteers work diligently to transform pieces of metal, nuts and bolts, electrical wire, PVC pipe and other common household materials into a functioning robot.

The Saturday following the basketball games against Wind River was not the first time members of the BPHS Puncher Robotics Team dedicated a portion of their weekend to science, technology, engineering and math, nor will it be their last.

By the time Big Piney enters the Regional FIRST Robotics Competition in Salt Lake City in early March, the Punchers will have logged roughly 2,000 hours to perfect their robot, said the team's head mentor Steve Kipp.

On Saturday, five students lifted their robot onto a table. The robot’s primary task — to move and stack plastic cones and cubes at the competition — may seem simple, but the students design the robot to be capable and competent using significant engineering and technological know-how.

The robot’s superstructure was mostly completed in January, along with the arm, or intake device, explained senior Brandon Jones. The mechanical systems were also nearing completion, said senior Hampton Jones.

The robot’s arm is operated by a pneumatic actuating system, said junior Jackie Meador. A pneumatic system relies on energy from compressed air or gas rather than fluids that are used in a hydraulic system, Brandon Jones said.

The next task involves bringing the robot to life through artificial intelligence.

In the hallway outside the classroom, Brandon Jones sat at a laptop, engrossed in the process of programming codes into the robot’s “brains” using Java. The robot is designed to be controlled remotely through Wifi, he said.

Big Piney Middle School eighth-grader Jocelyn Wilson helped Kipp remove electrical wires from an old robot to install on the new one to complete its electrical circuitry.

On the other side of the classroom, Meador and Young sawed a structural support out of aluminum to install on the front of the robot to bolster the pneumatic actuating system that allows the arm to move up and down.

Hampton Jones drilled openings into a piece of PVC pipe that he will insert onto the ends of the robot’s metal arm to protect it from wear and tear.

The team received directions for the upcoming competition in January. Designing the robot before the actual construction began proved challenging.

“We had to take what was in our heads and make it real,” said Young.

Spending a weekend painstakingly engineering a robot and toiling to make it work is not every teenager’s cup of tea. Yet each young person in the classroom that afternoon was fully engaged and excited to see their project come to fruition.

“Robots are cool,” said Meador.

“Working with lots of like-minded individuals keeps me challenged,” added Wilson.

The Puncher Robotics Team provides learning opportunities in technology and engineering that are “hard to come by” in small, rural communities like Big Piney, said Young.

BPHS is one of only three or four robotics teams in the state of Wyoming, said volunteer mentor Beth Nelson. The Puncher Robotics Team roster consists of a dozen students, many of whom are also involved in sports and other activities, she added.

Big Piney will go head to head against considerably larger teams at the FIRST Robotics Competition, noted Kipp. Many teams hail from urban centers and their rosters have between 150 and 200 members, he added.

“We’re fortunate to have smaller numbers because everyone gets to do what they want to do on the team,” Kipp said.

Brandon Jones serves as the team’s computer programmer. Hampton Jones designed and built the robot’s intake and mechanical systems. Meador will be one of the robot’s drivers at the competition. Wilson and Young are both troubleshooters.

While each team member has a specific role, the Big Piney team is small enough to allow each Puncher to participate in every step of the process.

“It’s impressive to see each team member take ownership during the competition,” said volunteer mentor Annette Jones.

The Puncher Robotics Team always names their robot, although this year’s model has yet to be christened. The eventual name will come naturally – the result of a quirk or idiosyncrasy in the robot, said volunteer leader Steve Nelson.

Kipp thanked his volunteer mentors, Steve and Beth Nelson, Annette and Glade Jones and Neil and Sherri Redden, for donating their time to help the budding engineers succeed. Kipp also expressed gratitude to many local businesses and individuals willing to help fund the expenses of building a robot and traveling to large, regional competitions.

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