TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Over at Rio Vista Elementary School, there's a new addition to the student body that was created by the robotics club. Over the last six months for a couple hours every Friday, the group of fourth and fifth graders learned to put together and program the robot.
Rio Vista Principal Dianna Kuhn said this project is the first of it's kind to be completed by elementary school students. The school followed a design from an inventor in France.
"The special thing is that no kids this young have ever built a robot like jaczbot," she said. "We got all the information and I said I think we can get fourth and fifth graders to do this."
When the students first created him, 5th grader Cora Jernigan said it was something out of a movie.
“We were like whoa because he’s 6 foot one and im only four foot nine," she said.
The robot's name is Jaczbot, which is a collection of each student's initial, and it's programmed to do different actions.
“He says hello my name is Jaczbot and he lists the creators and then he waves," she said.
The robot can wave its hand, form a peace sign, hold a ball and flex its "muscles". The robot can also play music and move forward on its wheels. The legs aren't functional yet, but the club will continue to work on the robot and make innovations.
"we spent a lot of time wiring stuff and solventing things together," Jernigan said.
Her clubmate Cassy Sennett said they used high level technology in order to put the robot together.
“So we used three d printing and the 3d plastic to put the robot together," she said,
The students showed the robot to their classmates and are excited to continue working on the robot.
