VGCC Student Uses Skills to Build Robot Car

While audiences were flocking to the summer blockbuster “Transformers,” Vance-Granville Community College student Curtis Clark of Henderson was busy perfecting a robotic car of his own. Clark, a first-year student in the college’s Electronics Engineering Technology (EET) program, ordered a robot chassis from Lynxmotion (www.lynxmotion.com), bought electronic components separately and built his car in a matter of hours. At first, he used a PlayStation 2 controller to maneuver the car, but over the Fourth of July holiday, he worked on making the robot autonomously navigate through a room without running into anything, by adding a micro-controller and sensors. Clark credits the college’s EET program and its head instructor, Jim Tart, for giving him the ability to delve into robotics. “Before I got into this program, I tried to do things like this, but it was over my head,” Clark said.“The robot he is working on enhances his studies in the EET program in two areas,” Tart said. “First, the robotics programming ties in with our Microprocessor Fundamentals I course, and second, the hardware experience broadens his work in the our Robotics Systems course.”The two-year EET program encompasses both software and hardware training and prepares students to immediately enter the industrial environment or enter into development or research work. EET graduates from VGCC are prepared to become technicians who design, build, install, test, troubleshoot, repair, and modify developmental and production electronic/computer components, equipment, and systems. These students work with industrial/computer controls, manufacturing systems, telecommunication systems, and power electronic systems. According to Tart, students find employment in a wide variety of industries, because of the increasing reliance on computers in every industry.VGCC’s fall semester begins Aug. 16. For more information on the program, contact Jim Tart at (252) 738-3262.Above: VGCC Electronics Engineering Technology program head Jim Tart (right) tests out the controller for the robotic car built by his student, Curtis Clark (left) in the EET program’s lab on the college’s main campus. (VGCC Photo)