Farmington Hills

Robohawks use 3-D printing for robot parts

By David Wallace
C & G Staff Writer

FARMINGTON HILLS — Harrison High School’s robotics club, the Robohawks, already had speed in competition. Now they have it in their workshop, too.

The club, comprising four teams this year, meets once a week for two hours in team leader and physics teacher Steve Dail’s classroom to work with Dail and engineering coach Barry Brouillette on their robots.

The Robohawks won the World Robofest at Lawrence Technological University last year with a robot that completed four prescribed tasks in a blistering five seconds. Thanks to an enthusiastic benefactor, Ray Okonski, they have a new tool to help them stay at the top: a 3-D printer.

Okonski bought the club the MakerBot, a consumer-grade 3-D printer. The students are able to connect a laptop computer to the MakerBot, design a part for their robot using computer-aided design and drafting software, and then have the MakerBot “print” the part. The MakerBot takes in plastic wire from a spool, melts it and prints the part in layers a third of a millimeter thick at a time.

“I’m sitting on a computer, I make the CAD file, and then it makes exactly what I’m making,” explained senior Marc Taipala, who has already made several parts for his team’s robot.

“The coolest thing for me is that it lets them go from a picture on the screen to a part in their hand in an hour. You just can’t put a value on that,” said Brouillette.

Senior Hyeri Joo, a member of the club last year, compared making parts then to making them now.

“It’s a lot easier, definitely,” said Joo. “Because what we could do is just think of an idea that’s going to be useful for the robot, and there we have it.”

In the past, if they needed a bracket to hold a Lego light sensor on the robot — the robot’s “eyes” to see where it’s going — they had to machine a piece of metal. And with metal being relatively expensive, the Robohawks tended to make do if they botched it a little, hoping the part would hold up in competition. Now, they can print another part.

“The neatest thing is that it’s fast prototype parts,” said Dail.

The machine — its full, humorous name is the MakerBot Thing-O-Matic — costs about $1,100. On Jan. 18, the club invited Okonski to its meeting to show him the payoff on his investment.

“One of his hopes was to have students build parts for the robotics club, and what’s so neat is that’s exactly what they’re doing. They’re building these parts for the robotic contest that we’re entering this year,” said Dail.

Okonski, a longtime supporter of the school who got involved with the robotics club in 2007, has a background in manufacturing. To show their appreciation, the Robohawks used CAD software to design a “thank you” gear for Okonski.

Okonski marveled at the machine and the team’s capabilities. He has read a great deal about 3-D printing, and he said he could see it becoming part of high school curricula in the future, much like CAD has.

The robots the Robohawks are building this year must find their way along an unlevel table and “rescue” two trapped tennis balls on platforms. Freshman Abhi Kumar used the MakerBot to design part of an arm to reach the tennis balls.

“I’ve worked with CAD Inventor (software) — I’ve actually just learned it in my intro to engineering class — but it was actually really interesting, because it was generally the same kind of concept to the software that we have to use. So yeah, it was actually kind of easy to learn,” said Kumar.

He was satisfied with the finished part.

“I think it’s perfectly functional,” he said.

The teams also were using the printer to make brackets for wheels on their robots. They have a lot of work to do before their first serious competition in March.

“Right now, we’re just going to try to figure (out) the program to make it go around the table,” said junior Heath Hammond.

“First task: move. Second task: move right,” said Toni Abraham, a senior.

You can reach C & G Staff Writer David Wallace at dwallace@candgnews.com or at (586)498-1053.