Shore’s First Robotics Competition

On Monday 28 July, I was lucky enough to be able to head to Knox Prep along with three other Shore teams to compete in the debut robotics competition for Shore! When we arrived, I expected a crowded space with a lot of teams and people in it, with nowhere to work on our robots, but in reality, it wasn’t that busy. There were two teams to a table in a “pit zone” where you can fix your robots. After this we got settled in and headed over to the robot inspection, where the head referee used a sizing guide to make sure that the robot meets or is under the size limit. During this time the Head Referee asked us some questions and made sure we all knew the rules. During the day, I learned that it was a lot more stressful than they made it sound. Each team had six teamwork challenges, where you randomly get paired with another team to try to get as many points as possible. During those challenges, you could do autonomous or driver skills to gain more points. Be prepared not to eat for a while. For our robotics team in general, the next thing for us would be to find the best and fastest way to score as many points as possible. We have been thinking about many different designs to improve scoring and speed. Going to a competition early in the season gives us the time that we need to make some major changes to our robot, and it also allows us to take design ideas from other robots that were also at the competition. At the end of the competition, we had what they call the Closing Ceremony, which is where they give out a bunch of awards, which come in the form of a trophy. Shore won a total of three awards at our first competition. These consisted of Teamwork Challenge 2nd Place, Energy Award and Autonomous Skill Award. Overall, going to Knox Prep to compete for Shore was an amazing opportunity for me. I had fun spending time with my team as well as my friends. The teams that went with us consisted of teams 93601A, 93601B, 93601D and my team 93601F. Finally, I am looking forward to heading to other competitions deeper in the season.

Hudson Williams
Year 8