Members of Red Alert Robotics have had to deal with the cluttered and disorganized workspace in the Innovation Center for the past couple of years. Now, after the expansion to their workspace on the east side of the Innovation Center, they can be much more organized and safe while engineering their robots.
“It expands the space in the previous shop for FTC and FLL, which are our middle school teams and elementary school teams,” manufacturing lead Nick Nutley said. “It gives us more space to work with for community outreach.”
The old workshop was not organized and machines did not have a designated area for them to be. This new workshop solves his problem and gives the opportunity to have a better procedure in case of an emergency.
“The primary reason we’re moving is space, and that it gives a designated space for the machines,” Nutley said. “So, that means that if an emergency were to occur we could shut down all of the machines in that area. It is also easier to find tools that you need since they are in one area. So, organization plays into why we got the room.”
Finding new places for the machines in the workshop was a major focus for the team when they moved in, but there are other safety aspects that take priority over everything else.
“Whenever we moved into the shop,” safety lead Lucas Plunkett said. “We had to consider where we should put new fire extinguishers, emergency stop buttons for the machines, and other safety aspects.”
Robotics holds a scrimmage every year, this year on February 18, to give the opportunity of building and practicing their robots. This year while each team was working, they were able to take advantage of all of the new resources that this new room provides.
“The new room takes a lot of things that were in the shop out of the shop,” Nutley said. “This gives us a lot more space that helps us and other teams prepare for competitions.”
Last Wednesday was the beginning of Week 1, which is the start of competitions. The scrimmage that they held two weeks ago was considered Week 0. This was very important for teams, because they needed to build and practice with their robots. This year teams had much more room to work with compared to previous years.
”It provides an opportunity for any team in Indiana or outside of Indiana to come and practice with robots on our field,” Nutley said. “With our expansion it provides each team with more workspace on the tables and has the opportunity to workshop and modify their robot if they need to.”
Select members of the robotics team traveled to Berrien Springs, Michigan to compete against the top teams in Indiana’s neighbor to the north in the first competition last Friday. The team placed third in a very competitive state.
