THE BARCLAY ROBOTICS CLUB

The Barclay Robotics club meets every week during term time to talk and build robots. The club is under the direction of the Technology department, generously sponsored by MBDA, which provides financial support to the club and also mentoring support to students using its own engineers.

A key benefit to students is that the club bridges the gap between theory learnt in the classroom and its application to real problems. It teaches students the fundamentals of the design process and the roles and responsibilities of team working. Students are actively engaged in specifying the problem and designing the robot to undertake required tasks using a combination of mechanical and electrical engineering techniques.

The club is developing rapidly under the guidance of the the Technology department and MBDA. The club also takes part in robotics competitions, where students design a robot to solve a specified problem and compete against other teams to decide the best design and operation.

Robots are built using the VEX robotics kit, which provides a range of components to build working robots capable of fulfilling real-world tasks.  Robots are radio-controlled but can also be controlled using software and sensors, making them truly autonomous machines!  The robot shown here was used by the Robotics club in the VEX robotics challenge competition, held in San Diego earlier this year (2007).

Barclay Robotics also has its own website, where you can read more information about the club and its activities.