WACC Robotics Club Hopes To Make It To World Competition
Posted
David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
Two Warsaw Area Career Center robotics teams competed at a world qualifier Saturday. And while sophomore Caleb Schooley made it to finals, he did not win the whole competition at Warren Central. A team has to win it to move on to world competition in 2013. The WACC Robotics Club will have another chance at the next VEX Robotics contest Dec. 15 in Portland, Ind., according to WACC teacher and Robotics Club advisor Abbi Richcreek. Zimmer engineers Craig Fryman and Adam Barlett were mentoring the students Wednesday afternoon to help them improve their robots for the next qualifier. Saturday’s contest was Schooley’s first. “At first I was nervous if the robot would work or not,” he said. “It was the first competition I went to. After winning the first match, my nerves went away. We only lost one of the five matches we had. We finished in 13th, but after the alliance choosings, we got up to eighth. The first match in the alliance, we won. The second we lost by 10, the third we lost again.” Schooley said he met a lot of new and cool people during the competition. During the matches, students have to control their robots to pick up as many bean bags as they can and put them in a trough. The high goal is worth more points than the trough. Teams can reduce other competitors’ scores by scooping their bean bags out. Now that he’s competed once and seen how it’s run and what the rules are, Schooley said that will help him prepare for the Dec. 15 world qualifier. He also will make some simple changes to his robot to make it more efficient. While only one student can operate the robot during competition, other students can help build the robot. Teams also can have one coach. Schooley said he got help with his robot from the other Warsaw team. Hayden Dobbins built his robot, but Schooley and Kristen Reese put the final touches on it. Senior Andrew Cox did not go as far as Schooley in competition. Cox said he placed in the high 20s in qualifier. “Our placement was the result of a motor failure,” Cox said. “We’re working on resolving that issue at the moment.” He said they think it was a problem with the connection between the motor and the control of the robot. “We had to replace the motor directly before the contest so it had not been tested,” Cox said. Assisting him were Alexi Demopoulos and Nathan Kiphart. Demopoulos was the main designer, Cox was the main programmer and Kiphart did whatever else was needed. While only four students competed at world qualifier Saturday, Richcreek said, about 15 students are going to the Dec. 15 competition. “We will go to at least two more next year,” Richcreek said. There are six world qualifiers in Indiana, she said, so making it to world competition is highly competitive.
