Vex Robotics Canterbury Challenge

May 30, 2023

On Saturday, 20 May Georgia Stewart (Yr 12) and Nikita Maulgue (Yr 11) competed in the Vex Robotics Canterbury Challenge, competing against Christchurch Boys, St Andrews, Burnside and Ao Tawhiti at Tūranga in central Otautahi.

The strategic robot game they were designing and building their robot to win was called Colour Carnage. It required their robot to be able to pick up coloured balls and load them into the coloured tray, which could then be dragged into the alliance’s goal scoring area.  Their robot was effective at pushing other trays around and was used in many alliances to act defensively. The robot was able to participate with success and the students enjoyed a 5 hour festival event which was visited by many Otautahi residents.

Vex Robotics is an international robotics that is released once a year. Students compete to design, build, programme and drive their robot to achieve varying goals. Next year’s robot has to be able to climb a pole! The scrimmages (or games) are each 2 minutes long and require 4 robots to work in two alliances to achieve the game’s aims. For more information on the 2023 24 game that they are now designing go to: https://roboticseducation.org/vex-robotics-competition/ if you have any ideas reply to the email below! For more information on how to get involved go to Canterbury Robotics Website https://sites.google.com/view/canterburynzrobotics/202324-events and also email Katrina Boxall (see below). It is because of Canterbury Robotics that Hillmorton High School were able to go to the International Competition in Texas this year to compete in the 2022 23 game against international opponents.

This week Nikita and Georgia have been stripping down the robot and are beginning to design their next robot. Their hope is to compete in the remaining 10 scrimmages of 2023, gaining confidence and ability so that they can attend the nationals in Auckland in February 2024. If you are interested in participating in robotics, email kboxall@avonside.school.nz