Warsaw Career Center Teams Compete in Robotics Tournament
Posted
David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
Three Warsaw Area Career Center teams competed Saturday at the second annual Bloomington Robotics Club VEX Robotics Tournament.
Two teams advanced to the semi- or quarter-finals rounds of the competition.
Abbi Richcreek said 10 students in three teams from her engineering and robotics course competed. There was a total of 32 teams in the competition from across Indiana.
This year the competition name was “Light the Lamp.”
Teams had to assemble robots that could put NHL-regulation hockey pucks through different slots worth different points. The four different goals were 24 inches from each end of the table.
A round goal was worth 1 point, a rectangle was worth 3 points, a smaller rectangle was worth 5 points and a sideways rectangle was worth 10 points. There was a total of 24 pucks available as scoring objects in the game.
Sophomore Ruben Gallegos and freshman Daniel Hench made up one team.
“It was good,” Hench said. “We didn’t do very well, but our alliance did well.”
Two alliances – one red, one blue – composed of two teams each compete in each match, according to official rules. The object of the game is to attain a higher score than your opponents’ alliance by getting pucks through the goals and into the container.
Gallegos said they had problems with their robot, but it started working OK later in the game. The claw on their robot sometimes didn’t open or close, or even fell off.
“We made it to the semi-finals and lost,” said Hench.
For the next competition, Hench said they need to make a claw that rotates and doesn’t slip.
On the second team were freshmen Luke Junker, Austin Wood, Connor Hershberger and Kristen Reese.
“We did good. We were OK, but our alliances weren’t very good,” Junker said. “We didn’t score many points. Only two points.”
“Sometimes we didn’t have an alliance,” Reese said.
For the next competition, Wood said they need a better program.
“A better program with better controls,” Reese added. “A better design.”
Junker said competition was harder than they thought it would be, and the other teams had more experience and better robots.
On the third team were freshman Sirich Challa, junior Zarick Smith and senior Devin Rupprecht. Reese and freshman Dylan Oberg helped with the robot but teams at the competition were limited to two to three students.
“We got to quarter finals and lost,” said Rupprecht.
Hindering the team was their understanding of programming, he said. They did well because of their engineering skills.
“It was hard,” Smith said.
“It was friendly competition,” Challa noted.
For the next competition, Rupprecht said he wants better programming.
“We have one good idea for our robot.” Smith said.
The class’s next competition is not until 2013, Richcreek said. The robotics club’s competition is Dec. 1.
