The robotics team recently went to a competition, in that competition the team made it to the finals, but lost. Though, the team did win a creativity award for the robot they used. They have another competition this weekend, and this competition is at the same level as the one before. The same robot, with some minor improvements, will be used in this competition as well. If the team does well in this competition, a qualifying competition, they will be able to go to districts.

What kinds of things does the team do in the competition? Well at this year’s competition, it is a competition to get the most points. On the field, there are “switches”, which are seesaws, as well as “scales”, which are just bigger versions of the switches, in the middle of the field. The teams use their robots to move what is called “power cubes”, those are milk crates. They move these cubes onto their team’s switches or scales. If a scale or switch tips over in favor of a certain team, that team’s robot will get points. The robots can also bring cubes to human players, and they will be put in what’s called the “vault” by the person. This vault has columns, three to be exact, and all the columns provide different power ups. The power ups are based off the number of cubes in that column. There are three power ups, levitate, force, and boost. Force is used to steal other teams’ switches, boost is a point multiplier that multiplies the points from flipping switches and scales for ten seconds, and levitate gives the team a “climb” which can be used to earn points. As stated in the beginning, whoever has the most points at the end wins. If it sounds a bit confusing, you should consider attending one of the competitions and watching the action for yourself.

Our team’s robot uses certain types of lifts to place the cubes. Both of these lifts have certain jobs in transporting the cubes. The team is currently working on making their robot able to climb. Please support the robotics team in their upcoming competition and wish them luck!