ESU Robotics Competition
April 05, 2023
Every spring the ESU hosts a robotics competition for grades 6-8. Southern entered two teams of 6th graders this year. This competition enables students to learn how to code and design robots for specific tasks. Starting in January, the team began preparing for the competition. They had to build the robot and code it to do various things such as flash lights, play a set of tones, and use a servo motor to open and close a clamp. This year they were allowed to use a 3D printer to make parts to use during the “Battle Bot” competition. The team needed to record various things that they learned throughout the process in a notebook. The competition was held March 15th with 9 teams in attendance. There were three events: The “Wacky Race” involved hooking up to a trailer holding ping pong balls, driving around a track and unhooking the trailer all by a remote. Each teammate had a turn in the race. Points were awarded for the fastest team time with bonus points given for each ping pong ball that remained in the trailer. In the “Coding Challenge”, the team had to code a drone to fly thru various obstacles with different point values. Finally, the “Battle Bots”, teams use their robots to push, tip over, or disable the other robots, last robot moving wins. Points were awarded for the notebook, and each of the three competitions. Southern 1 placed 2nd, while Southern 2 placed 7th. Second or Seventh place, the teams would agree that the challenges were fun and they learned to work together to build an interest in coding and engineering.
Members of the Robotic Club: Front Row: Levi Lundstedt, Jaxson Young, Jackson Heard, and Greyson Hock, Second Row: Ryker Swearingen, Gage Argo, Weston Whitwer, and Dominic Renderos, Not pictured: Ty Huls and Lillith Knarr.