Greenville ISD’s storied robotics program has a new entry, and it could be ready for competition soon.

Travis Elementary’s new Lego Robotics Club is in full swing this year, and the club has been meeting since early in the year.  Faculty sponsor Chris Downs said this year has been about learning now, while keeping an eye on the future.

“This year is a training year to get ready for future competitions,” said Downs.

The Travis group, open to fourth and fifth graders, meets on most Wednesdays to build different robots and program them to do different things.  They are currently working on the NXT generation robot and have both built and programmed it.

This year’s robot is named Johnny 5.  While Johnny 5 may not be as stylish or functional as one you might find in the high school’s robotics program, he’s a solid start.

Greenville ISD’s Robotics program is one of its major drawing points, as the high school’s team - the Robowranglers - is an annual force at the national level and two years ago brought home a world title.  The Robowranglers are sponsored by Innovation First Inc., L-3 Communications and Greenville ISD.

This year, the program expanded to Greenville Middle School.

Johnny 5 was earlier this year disassembled so that students could rebuild him on their own.  The robot can use its ultrasonic sensor to sense distances, its light sensor to detect color, its touch sensor to tell when it runs into something and its sound sensor to listen to its surroundings.

Club members use Lego kits and software to build and program the robots.

Travis Robotics Club Members are fifth graders Gabriel Davila, Terry McCarter, Destinee Ashford, Delilah Rodriquez, Raul Osornio, Rene Osornio and Danielle Petty and fourth graders Xachary Aguilar, Travis Breathwit, Jamal Sterling, Destini Johnson, Denis Cuba and Tyler Hood.