Robotics Prepares for Upcoming Home Tournament

Natalie Wilson, Social Media Editor

The robotics team has been working hard this year creating their robots to compete at six competitions throughout the year. They have already had two competitions.

At the Maize tournament back in October, 4 teams competed, and one placed 3rd. 5 teams competed in the tournament at Golden Parks Academy. 

The team began designing and building their robots very early on in the school year, seeing as the game for this year was introduced at the end of the 2020-21 year. 

The game is called Vex Tipping Point and the goal is to take little rings and put them in mobile bases. 

“It’s kind of hard to explain – you’re moving mobile bases and picking up plastic rings and try to put them into the mobile bases,” robotics sponsor Chris Shetlar said. 

They do a lot of testing and redesigning of their robots for competitions to make sure they are ready and will perform correctly. 

“We actually have our own field and usually we would practice the autonomous or we would just practice driving. We would also try to figure out what’s wrong with the bot in case anything needs to be repaired or just any of that other stuff,” freshman Vincent Shafer said. 

The teams four remaining meets will take place throughout February, including the Derby Tournament on February 5th, which will take place at Derby North Middle School.