A new robot may be walking the halls in USD 503 in the future, providing students new learning opportunities to take them into an ever-expanding technological future.
Parsons High School robotics instructor Bruce Rea spoke before the USD 503 Board of Education Monday night regarding where his program has been, what is happening now, and what he would like to do next. Robotics was started at PHS in 2004, during Rea’s second year.
Robotics teaches students a variety of skills including physics, mechanics, math, grant writing, programming, problem solving skills, and provides contacts with business and industry.
Robots can be fascinating, cool, creepy, scary, intimidating, real and futuristic, Rea said. But to him, robotics is not intimidating, having worked for Taylor Products and having exposure to industrial robots.
“But in my class, every semester, I show students a video and tell them, that robot is replacing somebody, and that is intimidating, because they are thinking ‘What are we going to do to go to work, especially if we are competing with robots for jobs?’” Rea said. “That’s the real part of it.”
Robots are already at work in the Parsons area. Within the city limits of Parsons, there are five manufacturers using industrial robots. Rea attended a construction conference in Pittsburg last spring. First thing he saw was a construction robot, putting down concrete. Inside the tech center, he saw a Boston Dynamics robot with a laser attached to its back, walking down the stairs.
“They are advertising those in the construction industry for surveillance, capturing data, and for security,” he said. He saw a DEPCO robot walking around doing the same kind of thing.
“I did not expect to see that at a construction conference, but I did,” Rea said.
The next day he called USD 503 Superintendent Lori Ray and PHS principal Eric Swanson to talk. Rea had previously been thinking such aspects of robotics were not approachable at a secondary education level, that it was more of a research university kind of thing.
“But maybe that is not the case,” Rea said. Rea showed the board various levels of robotics USD 503 students have been involved in. There are benchtop robotics Parsons Middle School and PHS students get to design and build. He showed the big 120-pound competition robots the students would have 6-weeks to design and build, and then take to regional competitions. Every one of those robots was unique, and each year students were required to solve aspects of design that would allow their robot to perform different aspects of the competition, such as climbing, or throwing a ball. One annual requirement was that the robots operate in autonomous mode for a required time, rather than students operating the robot remotely. Rea said at one competition in the big bonus round, out of 65 teams only five robots could climb, and only one could do it in autonomous mode, which was PHS. “That takes students experience to a next level, because to be honest, we don’t have what it takes to build those here on campus. We have to go to industry to build that kind of robot and we do that,” Rea said of the competition robots. “I’m scared to list all the companies, because I am afraid to leave one out but the two that have been most active are Taylor Products, which is currently Magnum Systems, and Ducommun. Ducommun gives us that titanium advantage.”
The third level is industrial robots, which PHS students have not gotten to experience,
“Of the five manufacturers (in Parsons), Magnum Systems is the most prominent. In fact they’ve gotten to the point where they stock robots,” Rea said.
He showed the board a video of industrial robots in action, and then all the equipment Magnum Systems has built to work cooperatively with the robots.
While students have not gotten to experience the third level of robotics, Rea said they are going to this next school year. Magnum Systems is going to a larger capacity robot, so PHS is getting to inherit the company’s old R&D robot. It’s only got 134 hours on it.
“In the robotics world, that’s like brand new off the lot,” Rea said. “All we’ve got to do is build a frame that will hold it. … It’s complete and it’s the real deal. The first day, if not the second day students are back in class, we’re designing a frame for that robot. So that puts us into the third category.”
The fourth category of robotics is artificial intelligence AI, which is where Rea said he wants to head.
Rea introduced representative of DEPCO Tracy Bourne, and his cobots – robots that work cooperatively with people. DEPCO has assisted PHS in the past multiple times, such as with its 3-D printing and water jet cutter software. He also introduced Gavin Philliber, with Stokes Educational Services.
Bourne told the board DEPCO started partnering with Stokes Educational Services out of Joplin, Mo. about a year and a half ago. Stokes developed the curriculum to accompany the cobots.
Bourne and Philliber demonstrated two different kinds of robots to the board. He explained you can get them with Go CP, which means you can do some coding, Programming in C++ and Python. And you can get them with added GO AI software.
“With the artificial intelligence, besides the programming, there are several different things you can do with that,” Bourne said. “You can do it with lidar, field mapping. You can send it around the school and have it map your school for you, your facilities, properties those things. They are being used a lot in the construction industry for that type of purpose.”
Boston Dynamics uses them on construction sites to detail progress of construction from beginning to end, providing their customers digital scans of the entire project process.
Another robot available, called the Alien, is a little bit larger than the others, is dust proof and waterproof. It can be fully submersed so if it is in a field, it can go across the creek, walk across the bottom, walk up the bank and continue without any harm. Alien is being used by the Department of Agriculture in conjunction with drones to work a field or a vineyard. Drones fly over the top, taking pictures and scanning. If they see an area not doing well, they send the quadruped robot to the site to take soil samples. They are also being used in safety and security and they are being used in law enforcement right now.
“And it’s only growing, to be honest with you,” Bourne said, noting every time new businesses and industry are exposed to the robots, there are always new uses found for them. “I really think we are at the forefront as far as usages of this, and as industry starts seeing more and more of these, you are going to see the uses of these really expand.”
The robots are pre-programmed to do certain things, but students can do additional programming.
“Our goal is to inspire a lot of young kids to be able to program in the future, coding, a bunch of different things,” Philliber said. “There’s a lot of cool stuff you can do with it but also a lot of serious things you can use it for.”
In working with Magnum Systems and talking with their service techs and sales people, Rea said he learned that since the pandemic, Magnum’s customers, which are mainly the packaging industry, have been asking them to automate their systems, no matter the cost, because they can’t hire people or keep people.
“When they are saying that, nine times out of 10 there is going to be a robot in that picture automating things. If you are into automation, that’s the ticket now, because everyone wants to automate,” Rea said.
There are no schools in Kansas who currently have the robots DEPCO showed the board. Bourne said he has five schools that are looking for different funding streams. Philliber said they are in a lot of schools in most other states though.
Board member Julie Legler asked if the district has such a robot, if USD 503’s Tech Integration specialist Matthew Peak would have access to the robot, because a lot of grade school students are interested programing.
Rea said programming is not his forte, so he would like for Peak to be involved, and others who are more capable of the programming. Rea said on the competition robots, PHS has brought in programmers from industry, and it gets the kids working with actual industry professionals.
Bourne said Robert Stokes, owner of Stokes Educational Service, is looking for schools to partner with. He would like to have a robot at every building level and make it affordable for the school district.
The thought is the robots can provide safety and security for the schools, as well as be there for students to learn on.
Board president Jeff Quirin asked Rea specifically what it Is he wants. Rea said, to be blunt, he would like to see a robot in the school this year with the AI.
“We might as well work with this before it blind sides us,” Rea said.
Unitree AI, the robot dog Rea is interested in, will cost around $35,000 for it and the accompanying curriculum. Five years of updates are included and a one-year warranty. The robots require little maintenance. With the Unitree, spare feet are provided, as that is the only thing that seems to wear out over time, Bourne said.
That matter will be on the August agenda for board consideration.
If you have further questions, please contact USD 503 Director of Public Relations Colleen Williamson at colleenwilliamson@vikingnet.net, or call (620)820-1408.