Robotics Club Wins Several PrizesSaturday's competition was the first tournament the new robotics club at Warsaw Area Career Center took part in, and members returned with several top prizes.
The robotics team competed in the 5th Annual VEX Robotics Tournament in Bloomington, presented by the Bloomington Robotics Club and Ivy Tech Community College.
The two radio-controlled teams competed with more than 41 teams from across Indiana, according to advisor Abbi Richcreek. The team with sophomore Andrew Cox and junior Brandon Bibler won the radio-controlled class.
The team also received the Top Rookie Team Award and $500 credit toward buying future robotic parts for the club. They also received the Top Alliance Team Award.
The other radio-controlled team with freshman Alexi Demopoulos and senior TJ Zigon received 19th place and found their way into the semi-finals by being chosen by an alliance team. Warsaw Robotics also received second place for the Community Service Award.
"In general, I believe it went very well," said Cox. "Over the course of the afternoon, our team was able to win the 14 heats we were in."
Cox said they had only a couple minor mechanical issues.
I think it went really well," said Bibler. "Out of eight rounds, we went undefeated so we were number one going into the playoffs."
During the contest, teams had to get their robot to place as many rings as possible on a "T"-goal.
Cox said they had eight qualification rounds to get through to get placed in a tournament bracket. The team of Cox and Bibler won all six qualification heats to be placed in the bracket.
"There was a wide variety of techniques, depending on the team. Ours ending up being simple but effective," said Cox.
The heats began at 10 a.m., Cox said. The competition took three to four hours.
"I was sort of nervous (during the competition) because we were rookies and if we lost we'd be bumped out. As we went along, I got more nervous," said Bibler.
Toward the end of the preliminaries and during competition when the team started doing well, Bibler said he began feeling more confident.
"I think it was the simplicity plus all the practice I did in driving," Cox said regarding the key to winning.
Bibler said being confident in scoring points and working together as a team were keys in the win.
While Cox did all the driving for the competition, Bibler helped position the robot and with the mechanical aspects of it.
During the last heat of the bracket tournament, Cox said, "I felt we had a good chance of winning it. Each of those was a double elimination and we already won one. So it was more pressure. I felt we could do it but it was still up in the air."
When the team finally won the whole tournament, Cox said it took him a minute to realize they won the whole thing.
"It was more exciting winning it as a first-time team," he said.
"Really, I didn't know what to think, we just won. All the guys were around us from Warsaw, cheering for us," said Bibler.
For future competitions, Cox said he learned, "I would say, we shouldn't try to wait until the last minute to finish building our robot. I know other teams did. Practice also helps."
Bibler learned a lot of practice helps as other groups at the contest didn't have as much as they did.
"Also, keep constant by scoring points and know the rules of the game," Bibler said.
Cox thanked Zimmer Senior Research Engineer Craig Fryman for his help, Richcreek for sponsoring the robotics club and Nathan Kosins who helped build the robot.
"Competition was a lot of fun," said Bibler. "It felt awesome to win. Mrs. Richcreek enjoyed the competition, too. She was really excited to get the $500 check."
