Michael Bastoni
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¨ What is the best
aluminum alloy for BattleBots IQ bots?
¨ Wanting to teach with tools, but with no
previous "shop" experience
¨ Safety concerns for young children of
robotics kits with soldering component
¨ You consider yourself a Robot Revolutionary,
what is that?
¨ What is rocket golf?
¨ Do you play any sports?
¨ What is your favorite color? Why?
¨ What is your favorite movie? Why?
¨ Do you play any musical instruments?
¨ Can you name a few
types of the 10,000 types of wedges?
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QUESTION:
How does 1/4 inch aluminum plate do in the BattleBots IQ
competition?
ANSWER
from Michael Bastoni on 18 February 2003:
Aluminum is a great material. 1/4" plate 6061
T-6 alloy is particularly suitable for building fighting
robots. It is similar in density to Polycarbonate.
Aluminum is not as tough as Polycarbonate. That is
to say if you whack aluminum it will deform...
permanently. Polycarbonate can absorb considerable
energy without permanently deforming.
6061 T-6 aluminum welds
beautifully and machines well also. 6061 T-6 cannot
be bent! It will fracture. It is a very hard
aluminum alloy. Aluminum can be cut with a table
saw. Use a carbide tipped 80 tooth triple chip
blade with 0 rake angle, or even better a negative 2-4
degree rake angle. Any decent industrial tool shop
will have one in stock.
All in all, aluminum is a
great choice. Easy to work with, light, machinable,
weldable, fairly tough, fairly hard, fairly light, fairly
inexpensive... an ideal compromise between steel and
titanium.
Did you know one of the
common titanium alloys is aluminum?
We use lots and lots of 1/4"
6061 T-6 plate in our designs. It makes decent
armor, and great motor mounts and chassis components.
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QUESTION:
How does a teacher with no background using "shop"
equipment become competent to work with kids using "real"
tools? Quite frankly... glue guns make me
nervous! I'd be a wreck with a soldering iron!!
ANSWER
from Mike Bastoni on 15 November 2002:
Learning is the (only) point of all of this so you SHOULD
be doing things you have not done before... show the kids
how to learn to do things that you don't know how to do...
go buy a glue gun... use it with respect... learn about
it... share what you've learned with others. Same
with a soldering iron, a robot or a space ship. Be
the one to write the book for others and always recognize
there is risk... and be assured that patience, respect
and careful consideration will help reduce the risk.
I knew nothing about
building robots 10 years ago... 15 years before that I
wanted to start a construction company... and I had never
built a house... or much more than some occasional
furniture pieces. But I bought a book, made a
contract to build a house and honored the contract, and
it was hard, and I had to hire people who knew what to do
and I had to be (we should always be) humble and learn
from them. It was the greatest experience.
Nothing worthy of effort
is achieved without willingly managing risk. As a
teacher, I think of Christa McAuliffe and realize that
sometimes things will go wrong... really wrong.
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QUESTION:
I am interested in starting a robotics unit using robot
kits that require some soldering. However, my
students are 3rd-5th graders. I have twenty
students in my class. I have safety concerns and
was wondering if you have any experience working with
this age group.
ANSWER
from Mike Bastoni on 14 November 2002:
About 9 years ago I began assembling robot kits that
required soldering, gear set choices, decisions about
motors, chain lengths, etc. This robot building
activity was wildly popular with my 9-12 grade students.
So much so that some of my students and I started a robot
science and engineering summer program for younger kids.
Note: Gearscamp.com no
longer exists. The company is now Gears Educational
Systems LLC and we manufacture robot kits for junior and
senior high school technology and engineering programs.
We had kids from grades 4,
5, 6 and 7 attend our camps. The short answer to
your question is yes, they can do what is necessary but
there are some caveats.
1.) Younger children
require more supervision and assistance. These kids
are capable of completing sophisticated assemblies but
they require proportionately more teacher/counselor input.
2.) Younger children are
not always as aware of the potential hazards involved in
many assembly tasks such as soldering and wiring circuits.
Again, they require closer management. As you know,
solder melts at dangerously high temperatures and no one
wants to see an unsuspecting child get hurt.
In order to ensure close
supervision we arranged children in teams of two and
three, and we provided enough oversight (1 counselor per
2 teams) to ensure that the children always had immediate
access to help and support.
Over the life of Gearscamp
we learned that young children are capable of astounding
success and achievement when they are provided with the
opportunities to succeed and achieve... not a new
discovery to be sure... but one that is always welcomed.
Good luck in your efforts
to empower the "Little ones".
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QUESTION:
You consider yourself a Robot Revolutionary, what is
that?
ANSWER
from Mike Bastoni on 10 October 2002:
I use robots as a loose metaphor for a new way to "Do"
school and learning, and I want to help revolutionize the
way we "Do" school. I really think if we
all work at it, school could get a lot more interesting
for a lot more people. Here is a picture of my students' current project, a
Hover craft! This is an example of what I mean by
making school.... cool.
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QUESTION:
What is rocket golf?
ANSWER
from Mike Bastoni on 10 October 2002:
Rocket golf is a very cool activity in which kids use
science, math and computer simulations to build and land
model rockets in a waste paper basket from across the
soccer field (over 250 ft away)! Here is a picture of me with my class and the rocket
launching system we made. We used an old surveying
transit in order to establish accurate altitude and
azimuth angles. We use a computer simulation to
check our calculations.
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QUESTION:
Do you play any sports?
ANSWER
from Mike Bastoni on 10 October 2002:
Team sports... yeah BattleBots!
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QUESTION:
What is your favorite color? Why?
ANSWER
from Mike Bastoni on 10 October 2002:
Red....because it makes girls look great!
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QUESTION:
What is your favorite movie? Why?
ANSWER
from Mike Bastoni on 10 October 2002:
Stanley Kubrick's, 2001 Space Odyssey. Many reasons.
George Trunbull, who was the father of what has become
Hollywood FX, did the special effects. They are
still pretty cool to watch. Also, Kubrick provided
us with a 3-minute visual account of 5 million years of
human evolution... brilliant scene where the ape learns
to use tools. I liked the character, Hal... the
mutinous computer.
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QUESTION:
Do you play any musical instruments?
ANSWER
from Mike Bastoni on 10 October 2002:
Yeah, but not well at all.
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QUESTION:
Can you name a few types of the 10,000 types of wedges?
ANSWER
from Mike Bastoni on 10 October 2002:
Stairs, handicap ramps, screwdrivers, knife blades,
rocket nose cones, shoe horn, ski jump, axe, door latch,
door stop.... can you name a few dozen more?
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