By JESSICA OROZCO
jessica@newsroom.byu.edu
Engineering students have been playing with Legos, building blocks and toy trucks as part of their final project. They put their acquired skills to the test yesterday afternoon, competing in a miniature forklift challenge with their homemade cars.
For the third year, the Electronics Engineering Technology and Mechanical Engineering departments hosted their annual Autonomous Miniature Forklift Competition.
The competition tested what the students have learned throughout the semester, said Richard Helps, associate professor of electrical engineering technology.
'It teaches (students) the best means of solving any kind of engineering problem,' Helps said.
The purpose of the Mecatronics EET 548 class is to combine electronic, mechanical and computer systems technologies, Helps said.
The students built forklifts that were completely autonomous, meaning they did not have an operator control. They needed to be programmed with enough intelligence to handle the obstacles they encountered, Helps said.
Seven teams, each consisting of one to three students, participated in the competition. Each forklift had to go through the competition track, which measured 12 feet by 10 feet.
The track simulated a real factory or warehouse floor, Helps said. In real life, factories actually use these type of robots that operate on their own.
The competition required the cars to identify different colored pallets, pick them up and take them to the specified locations, Helps said.
Another part of the competition included having two forklifts running down the course simultaneously, which presented a collision hazard, Helps said. The cars had to avoid collisions and obstacles that were placed on the track.
White colored lines were taped on the track. The forklifts followed these lines with a mirror that reflected the line on the bottom of the car and which were detected by sensors, Helps said.
The participants spent many hours creating their cars. On an average, they spent more than 100 hours working on it, Helps said. One team spent about 200 hours.
Students are more willing to put in more time because the class is so interesting, said the teacher assistant, David Pettingill, 25, from Camarillo, Calif., a graduate student in mechanical engineering.
Pettingill said the project is very beneficial.
'There's a lot of learning that goes on with hands-on experience,' he said.
Several students expressed their excitement for the project, including Sean Cox, 27, from Spanish Fork, a graduate student in mechanical engineering.
'It's been the most fun thing I've done in school,' Cox said. 'It was really difficult and challenging.'
One team was so enthused, they even programmed the Cougar Fight song to play at the end of the competition.