A basketball-playing robot built with several lawn mower parts: this is the task three ISU students faced while on a nationally televised competition Sunday.

John Hughes, junior in industrial technology, Ryan Richter, senior in industrial technology and Axel Stromberg, senior in industrial technology left Friday to compete in “Robot Robotics” at the Do It Yourself Networks studios in Knoxville, Tenn.

After leaving Des Moines Saturday, Oct. 4, the students met with directors of the show to finalize plans for the first taping Sunday morning.

Sixteen universities from around the country participated.

“They were really excited to have us there; we brought excitement to the show that hasn’t been there in the past,” Richter said of himself and Stromberg and Hughes.

Prior to traveling to the competition, the team designed a plan for the robot they built, and then followed those instructions to build the robot in one day.

The Do It Yourself network funded the trip, as well as expenses and materials the teams needed to successfully build their robots.

Richter said the studio was completely stocked with materials, and they were free to choose from anything on the shelves to help them.

A surprise element was added to the competition, when the Do It Yourself network made each team use a household item in its robot.

“We found out the day of the competition that we had to incorporate lawn mower components into our robot,” Richter said. “The robot showed tremendous talent and he was very good mechanically.”

The robot’s dimensions had to be within three cubic feet of the assigned dimensions given, and when assembled had to be able to shoot basketballs in hoops of different heights.

Richter said the team was judged by how well the robot solved the problem. In this case, the problem was how many points the robot scored out of eight basketball shots, or which robot achieved the best score in the three minute competition.

“Anyone can take a nut and bolt and put it together; the challenge was going to the show with a competitive design,” Richter said.

Stromberg and Richter are both members of the Iowa State chapter of the National Association of Industrial Technology, which won the championship robotics trophy last year in Panama City, Fla.

Stromberg and Richter went to one of the National Association Industrial Technology’s annual conferences, and learned about the first tele-operated robotics competition. Shortly after, they built a mechanical car able to do tasks, and took the idea further to a robot.

Richter credits his classes at Iowa State for some of the success he has received through the competition.

“It is a way for me to take something that I’ve learned in my classes at Iowa State, and incorporate it into a task,” he said.

Melody Carroll, academic adviser of industrial education and technology, said the Do It Yourself competition benefited the department as well as the students.

The team is unable to disclose who won the competition until the show is aired, which could be four to six months after taping.