Robotics Competitions - Mini Robots Battle

My essay on Battlebots was selected and published by The Bunk Room magazine. Robotics Competitions - Mini Robots Battle

I broke my leg!

This last summer I broke my right leg while I was visiting my grandmother on Whidbey Island, an island near Seattle, Washington. A few steps past the backyard of my grandmother’s house is the beach. One day I went exploring  on the beach with my friend Michael. Looking for driftwood, we came across a very intriguing clearing. There was a clay wall hidden behind blackberry bush vines. I decided to go in between the wall and the blackberry bushes. I still can't recall why, but I decided to climb up the clay cliff, not knowing the possible consequences. When I was about 15 feet above the ground I realized that it would be very difficult and dangerous to go back down, so I decided to go higher to find an easier way down. Once I was 25 to 30 feet up, I realized the only way down was a very steep slope. My plan was to grab onto trees on the way down and work my way to the bottom little by little. As I was getting into position for the first step down, the root that I was holding broke free of the clay wall and I plummeted down! As I was sliding I realized that something bad was going to happen, but I only thought it would be a sprained ankle and not much more. By the time my feet made impact I was going roughly 15 miles an hour. When I landed, I felt a small pain in my leg but I thought it was just the impact of the landing and in my mind I thought that I had made it. Michael, who was watching me climb and saw me slide down, pointed at my right shin. I looked down to find what appeared to be a second knee a few inches underneath my real knee. All of a sudden, I felt a very sharp pain jolt through my body and at that very moment I realized that I had severely broken my leg. I quickly sat down and positioned my leg up right and was in agonizing pain. My friend ran back to my grandmother’s house to get help as I took cold rocks and placed them near my break to prevent major swelling and because it felt good. I was about a quarter-mile down the beach and it took around 45 minutes for the paramedics/firefighters/police to come and rescue me. They wrapped my leg in a splint and put me on a stretcher. Then they put me on a one wheeled structure to carry me off the beach. I was rushed up to the Coupeville hospital to get x-rays. As it turned out I had severely broken both bones in my leg.  My tibia and fibula were completely cracked in half, as shown on the x-rays below. The doctor said that this was a major injury and I needed surgery. I was then taken by ambulance off the island to Seattle Children’s Hospital, where I had surgery the next day. Titanium rods were inserted into the tibia of my right leg.

Titanium

This year I decided to make a 3 lb. Battle Bot. I manufactured it at StarBot, a facility where children can use complex industrial machinery. I first designed it on paper and figured out what kinds of materials I was going to use. I made a wooden prototype. Over the next month or two I finished my first 3 lb robot, which I call Titanium. 
I fought with it at the 2012 STEM TECH Olympiad.

This is my 3 lb. Battle Bot. It's weapon is a red, titanium, spinning blade on the front. It's armor is painted black.

 My brother, Miguel, and I made a logo for the robot.  

Our Logo  

Our logo is an "i" inside of a "T", representing the periodic table symbol for Titanium. XX11 represents the atom

count (22).

Here is the logo sprayed on the robot. 

We also made stencils to lay on top of T-shirts. We sprayed painted them to make our TEAM ADRIAN shirts.

 This is the front of the t-shirt after being spray painted.

This is the back. It says, "TEAM ADRIAN"

 Here is TEAM ADRIAN 
From left to right: Me, my sister Sophia and my brother Miguel. 

I designed, manufactured and drove the robot while they cheered me on.

 We carried the robot and my tools to the Miami Beach Convention Center where the STEM TECH Olympiad 2012 was held.

 Bill Garcia, the creator and owner of Star Bot, helped me build my first robot.

 Inside the convention center there were many booths with different activities.I was in the area with the Battle Bots. They gave me a table where I could work on my robot.

I tested my robot in the battle arena and made sure everything worked well.