Warsaw Senior Finally Advances in Robotics Competition
Posted
David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
For the first time in his four years of robotics, Warsaw Area Career Center senior Caleb Schooley will advance to the state VEX Robotics competition. He qualified for state at the qualifying tournament Saturday hosted by Warren Central at Stonybrook Middle School, Indianapolis. State competition will be in March at Warren Central’s fieldhouse. Seventy-four teams competed Saturday, with Warsaw taking three teams, according to Robotics Club co-coach Abbi Richcreek. Schooley’s team was named 4417C, and he was assisted by Gabe Perez. “Caleb has been taking classes in the engineering and technology department the last four years and he’s well-deserving of qualifying for the state competition,” Richcreek stated. “It’s the first time that he has qualified for state. His design has really evolved to an impressive robot.” The game for the VEX Robotics competitions this year is “Skyrise,” with a focus on building upward. Matches are played on a field and two alliances, red and blue, composed of two teams each, compete in each match. The object of the game is to attain a higher score than the opposing alliance by scoring colored cubes in floor goals, on posts or on their Skyrise, by owning posts and by building their Skyrise sections. A bonus is awarded to the alliance that has the most total points at the end of the autonomous period. There are 44 cubes – 22 red and 22 blue – and 14 Skyrise sections in a VEX Skyrise match. Each robot has one cube available as a preload and seven Skyrise sections available to be placed in its alliance’s autoloader during the match. Forty cubes start at designated locations on the field. There are 10 posts of varying height around the field and each alliance has one Skyrise base, the rules state. “It was actually really great competition,” Schooley said of Saturday’s tournament. “Everyone there was in great spirits. The people I was matched with, their robots were really good. I got along with everyone I was up against and with.” He said he had five matches before the finals. He won three but lost two. “When I got to the finals, I was chosen by the team that was in sixth place. They’re really cool. We helped each other make changes to our robots to make them better for the final competition,” Schooley said. “During the tournament, we had everything set so we knew exactly what we were doing and we had good communication with each other while it was going on,” he said. “All the matches were really close usually. Most of the competition was based on the autonomous period at the beginning.” He said when he won he felt great. “We beat some of the robots we were up against all four years I’ve been in robotics. So when we beat them, it was really, really great,” he said. Paul Zakaria, club co-coach, said, “I think Caleb’s robot performed exceptionally well in the competition. It was definitely in the top 20 percent of the robots there. It did everything the robots there could do.” To prepare for state, Schooley said he’s making changes to his robot’s intake to make it “more universal for the scoring objects.” Zakaria said Schooley needs to work on controlling his robot and consistency of scoring. If Schooley wins state, he will advance to world competition in Kentucky. “Since it’s my last year in robotics, my goal is to make it to world and at least compete in it,” he said. Schooley plans to be an engineering and technology teacher after college, Richcreek said. Schooley said he plans to attend IPFW for a few years and then Purdue University for more in-depth robotics. There are four more qualifying contests around Indiana before the state competition, Zakaria said, providing other Warsaw teams the opportunity to advance. Warsaw will host its own Jan. 24. “We have two teams that haven’t reached that level yet, but they know what they need to do and it’s a matter of getting prepared,” Zakaria stated.
