N.E.R.D.S. Robotics is heading to state
SKYE POURNAZARI/THE FORUM
South Nodaway senior Lyndon Hayden and freshman Nolan Wallace hold the Innovate Award that their team received at the Missouri/Kansas KC East League Tournament. Hayden told The Forum on Monday that they received the award during last weekend’s competition for their robot’s “indexer,” which allowed them to select a specific color ball in order to place it in the correct pattern.
CONCEPTION JCT., Mo. — The N.E.R.D.S. Robotics team, based out of Conception Junction, is going to state after an award-winning showing during the FIRST Tech Challenge KC East League Tournament held in Belton.
The Nodaway County trio of robotics enthusiasts, which uses the acronym each year that stands for Novice Engineer Robot Design Society, not only received a first place Innovate Award, but also received an automatic qualification for state by being in an alliance with the winning team and having enough points, 63, to put them in the third-place spot.
South Nodaway senior Lyndon Hayden explained that because of how the winners stacked up and that a winning team can’t win twice, the N.E.R.D.S. got an automatic third place.
“We definitely had some struggles at the beginning, but ended up coming out pretty close to on top,” he said about the day’s competition.
South Nodaway freshman Nolan Wallace said their robot performed well, but was a little too tall at the beginning of the day. Adapting, the team worked to lower it to about 18 inches in height.
As part of the tasks that the robot needed to accomplish, Wallace said they had to pick up several 5-inch wiffle-ball-type spheres and place them in specific order based on color, whether purple or green.
Because of this specific aspect of their design — “the indexer,” as Hayden put it — they were able to select the correct color to match the color order required in the game. And that won them the first place Innovate Award.
“I could set those balls in there and we can switch between which ball we want to do, which no other team really could,” Wallace said.
He said those balls could then be dropped onto a ramp which sends it to a goal. The fact that they could choose the next color ball to send helped them score in certain patterns, Hayden said.
“You get extra points for that,” he said.
With speed and accuracy being key in each match, all of this is done within two minutes after an initial 30-second autonomous period, during which software coding crafted by Jefferson senior Andy Lager allows the robot to complete required tasks without a driver. The match ends with a 20-second “endgame,” when a driver parks in a box and another teammate can also fit inside the space, which is only large enough for one robot.
“So we lift up almost 45 pounds of metal with a lift,” Hayden said, noting that they use a lead screw which allows them to raise or lower the robot. “A lot of teams didn’t go for the lift this year. We probably went through five or six renditions. Each of them being none of the same mechanism.”
Lager said it’s actually kind of funny that he’s doing the coding, because that’s what Hayden plans to study in school.
“I’m going to be a mechanical engineer,” Lager said. “So we’ve kind of swapped places here. He does a lot of the physical stuff and I do a lot of the software and help him with the software.”
Best of the best at state
In March, the team will compete against the best of other leagues around the state and everyone’s ranking starts at zero.
“So you have to build yourself up in one day to try to advance,” Hayden said. “I think it’ll be fun. You’ll get to see who’s the best of the ones there.”
The team doesn’t expect to advance past state, which will be held March 7 at Missouri S&T in Rolla, but is excited about experiencing it.
“I think it’s gonna be a fun experience getting to be with a bunch of other teams that did work hard to get there like we have,” Hayden said.
Hayden, now in his fifth year on the team, joined in eighth grade, the first time that the team made it to state, and is excited to experience state for the second time.
“I’m gonna enjoy the experience honestly,” he said. “I was in eighth grade and don’t remember much of it. I’m much more involved now. We also had three other members at that time.”
Wallace said since beginning work on the robot in September he’s excited to take it for his first trip to state.
“I think it’ll be a good experience,” he said.
Lager said he’s been to state for other competitions, so he’s looking forward to going for robotics.
“We haven’t gone to state since I’ve been a part of robotics,” he said. “So it’s a nice little opportunity for me.”
Lager said not a lot of people in his school know about it, so he’s glad this helps shine a bit of a light on it, “especially because next year we won’t have very many people. So doing well this year might help our chances of recruiting other people.”
Future of the team
“We’ve been trying to recruit,” Hayden said. “it’s not exactly the most exciting — well, it’s hard to get people excited for such a complicated thing.”
Lager said that it’s a lot of work, but that it’s really fun at competitions, especially meeting and interacting with so many people “who are kind of like-minded and want to do the same thing as you.”
The community-based team is not directly related to any school district and is open to any youth in sixth through 12th grade, whether in public, private or homeschool. Any area youth can join, if they can make it to build and practice at the garage.
That garage is owned by Jerry and Dottie Nelson, of Conception Junction. Along with Royce Cozine, they mentor, sponsor and coach the team.
Wallace joined in sixth grade and as a third-year member of the team, which began in 2019, he will be the lone member left after the season ends.
“We’ve gotta find some more kids or the program’s gonna die,” Jerry told The Forum on the phone Monday. “That’s kind of the bottom line. … One freshman, who will be a sophomore next year, is not enough.”
He said that earlier this year, the team had four members, but one had to drop due to scheduling difficulties. As a very small team it makes it difficult, but because two of this year’s members were seniors who had experience being on the team, it worked out.
“Our club is open to any kid in sixth grade through 12th grade whose parents are willing to bring him or her to the shop,” Jerry said, noting that the team was deliberately set up that way so the team could draw members from any public school, private school or homeschool.
Jerry said that Cosine will take over as lead team mentor next year.
“I’m gonna semi-retire,” the nearly 84-year-old said. “They can still have the shop and I’ll consult.”
If interested in more information, find the team on Facebook or reach out to Dottie Nelson at 816-244-6948.
SKYE POURNAZARI/THE FORUM
Jefferson C-123 senior Andy Lager is a member of the N.E.R.D.S. Robotics team that will be taking its robot to state competition in Rolla on March 7. Lager said he is mostly in charge of the coding of the team robot’s autonomous run. This means he created the software written to direct the robot to complete required work for 30 seconds without a driver.
SUBMITTED BY DOTTIE NELSON
The N.E.R.D.S. Robotics team members Lyndon Haden, Andy Lager and Nolan Wallace are shown after last week’s award-winning competition with mentors Royce Cozine, Dottie Nelson and Jerry Nelson.
