Robotics Magnet students put the final touches on their robots and reviewed the new rules one last time before the Vex Robotics warm up competition at Lake Highlands Freshmen center. Competing in pairs, each team steered their robot across the arena as it collected small heavy balls and big light ones.
“It wasn’t like a real competition,” senior Jacob Klassen said. “It was actually a practice run to test out how our robot would do on a field like that.”
Robots had to put the small balls into assigned bins and balance the big balls on two hanging bars. At the end of the match, teams could boost their scores dramatically if their robots hung from a metal bar.
The Richardson team said they gained a lot of experience and knowledge for their future competitions, when scores will matter.
“I felt it was a great learning opportunity for us,” senior Isacc Campos.
Robotics students wanted to make sure their machines were well equipped and completely fixed by March when the real competition happens.
“Our robot actually did fairly okay,” senior Nathan Drolet said. “There were some complications with programing.”
After a mediocre performance at Lake Highlands, the team knows what modifications they need to make, like speeding up the motor.
“Right now we’re still working on the robot,” Klassen said. “We’re basically touching up the mistakes.”
The team also has to focus on the arm – the main part of the robot. Carrying more than one thing at a time, the robot’s arm must handle different weights and transport different items around the arena.
The arm is vital to the construction of the robot because it does the most work and has to display various specialized actions.
Aside from the technical problems with the robot, students must also change their robot’s design to conform to new competition rules which will go into effect in 2014.
“I’m not happy about the fact that we have to change everything with the rules,” Drolet said.
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