Though they won't be moving on to world competition at Disney World, members of the Warsaw Area Career Center Robotics team said they learned a lot from recent competitions.
"As you know," said Abbi Richcreek, advisor, "it is the first year for the Warsaw Robotics team at the Warsaw Area Career Center. The members and I have both learned a lot. The first tournament that we have ever participated in during November 2010, we won. It was definitely unexpected, but well earned."
The team then decided to join the official Vex Robotics challenge. During the year, different schools around Indiana have qualifiers. These qualifiers earn teams the opportunity to attend the world Vex tournament in Florida.
"I guess you could compare the qualifiers as the football AFC games and the Worlds as the Superbowl of robotics," said Richcreek. "These qualifiers have the same robotic challenge."
This year's challenge was called "Round Up". During the qualifier, the robotics teams are randomly placed with three other teams, where they form an alliance, two on two. The goal of the challenge is not to hurt another robot, but to score, block, take off the opponent's rings, to test an autonomous program, and to see if the robot can climb.
Official rules are online at www.vexrobotics.com/competition
The first qualifier Warsaw's team attended was March 5 in Zionsville.
"We were not as prepared as we thought we were. We learned a lot. We made adjustments to the programs. We had a few breakdowns. The team had a few disappointments in their matches," said Richcreek.
Sophomore and driver Andrew Cox said, "I had a lot of fun, even though we did not win. I had a great learning experience, and it was great figuring out all of the issues and very satisfying once it worked. Both competitions are a great experience for next year, where I hope to do a lot better."
Alexi Demopoulos, freshman and driver, said, "I will admit that it was aggravating and it was stressful, but I personally believe that we got a great deal of experience, and everyone on all of our teams did a wonderful job, and we will be ready for next year's competition."
Each team had five matches that determined their placing. There were 54 teams competing from all over Indiana. None of the Warsaw teams made the quarter finals. The teams were disappointed at the results, but knew they needed to make adjustments for the following weekend's competition.
Last week, the team worked more than 20 hours on each of their robots after school.
"We developed strategies and perfected the existing robot designs. On March 12, we traveled to Warren Central. There were again 54 robotic teams from around Indiana, but we were much more confident in our robots," said Richcreek.
Warsaw's teams placed 15th, 17th, 26th and 43rd. Two of the teams made it to quarter finals.
"However," Richcreek said, "we did not qualify for the Vex Worlds event. The teams were very proud of their progress and learned a ton from their own successes and failures. I am very proud of what they learned and that is what this program is about."
"I believe that we should be extremely glad that we made it this far and were really close, too. I am excited for next year," said freshman Ryan Lewis.
"Fun was the main thing Robotics Club offered, but teamwork was the one to strive for. Team was a struggle, but was accomplished. Listen, learn and strive for your best. A concept to overcome in robotics. Though fun and tough, robotics is fun," said Cody Shafer, freshman and driver coach.
Richcreek said the season could not have been possible without the support from Zimmer, Biomet, DePuy, Warsaw Community Education Foundation and Tornier.
She said, "These companies either helped by buying robots or having engineers to assist the teams with designs."
Brandon Bibler, junior and a driver coach, said, "This has been awesome and a great season. We had some tough times, problems, but we got through them. Bloomington (in November) was amazing since we won. The past two weeks have been good for experience, trial and error and teamwork. They have been a lot of fun, even with the problems. Glad I decided to join."
