Last year, Hayden Long, who was a Fulton High School freshman, got a glimpse of the robot designed and built by the school's after school robotics program. The program was in its first year, and Long said it was something he knew he eventually wanted to be a part of. The robot looked complicated, he said, but that was OK with him. Long was determined to learn how it worked.
Now, Long, a sophomore, has nearly a year's worth of robotics experience.
"I see the mess of wires and I know what that does now," he said.
In March, Long and his fellow robotics club members competed in the FIRST Robotics Competition inside the stadium at St. Louis University. FIRST Robotics is a non-for-profit organization with a mission to grow young people's interest in science and technology, according to its website. The organization gives teams qualifications for their robots each year. For 2015, the robot had to weigh 120 pounds, stand no more than 60 inches, and its frame perimeter needed to be 112 inches by 20 inches.
A total of 45 teams participated, and Fulton finished 36th in its second time competing.
"Numerically, we finished in the same place as last year, but we had a much better robot this year," said Jim Hall, Fulton High School engineering teacher who oversees the robotics club.
Although Fulton placed on the lower end of the competition, Hall said his students had two major advantages throughout the development of their robot and the competition itself. All of the parts except one (a plate power coded by the Fulton-based company Danuser) were developed in the high school FabLab and the students were not aided by him as a coach at the competition, giving them the opportunity to bond and problem solve together.
"They did it all themselves," Hall said. "A lot of the coaches will be very hands on, but they did it all themselves. They cut, they did the cutting. They designed this. They designed these brackets here - they welded them. We didn't send it out for welding."
The Missouri Research and Education Network (MOREnet), which provided the grant for Fulton High School's FabLab, and Ameren sponsored the robotics club's project. Hall said Ameren engineers visited the students in preparation for the FIRST Robotics competition, giving them tips.
Long was on the programming team, and used his computer skills to tell the robot how to move.
"I had to make sure when you pushed the joystick forward that it made the wheels go forward, which is harder than you would think," Long said. "It's not the most simple task."
The team's knowledge of programming allowed them to earn more points at the competition. Time was set aside for each robot to show off its movements through programming.
"Some teams didn't even have a program for that (part of the competition), so I thought that set us a part from some of the people who weren't trying hard," Long said.
Fulton robotics club member Martin Morard was on the mechanical building team, and the opportunity exposed him to electronics - something he was not familiar with before joining the club. Improvisation was key in building the robot, Morard said. The team used three different versions of the mount and two for the motor before finding one that worked right.
"We'd find one thing that was good and then replace it with something that was slightly better, and we'd do that a couple of times," Morard said.
Working with the robot has given the students a hands-on opportunity they may have never received, Hall said.
"If they hadn't done this, a lot of them really wouldn't have used a screw driver or drill and now they know how to hook up pneumatics and electronics, how to solder wires together," he said. "This is giving them the basic skills."
And, it's opened up the doors for more career paths for the students.
"(Engineering) is definitely a lot stronger of an option for me since I've gotten in the robotics club," said Hollis Long, robotics club member and Hayden Long's brother.
Fulton Middle School also has its own robotics club, which will compete this Saturday in the FIRST Robotics Lego League at the University of Missouri.