Space Bob Ross took a recent trip to the beach, but it
wasn’t to dip its servos into the surf. Instead, it was piloted by the
Montgomery Catholic RoboKnights robotics team at the Vex Robotics Bots on the
Beach competition in Gulf Shores. The 5-person Space Bob Ross team includes
Arthur Murray, Aidan Cochran, Hunter Vaccaro, Chris Lathram, and Catherine
Aaron. Each member has a different area of expertise, including designing,
programming, building, documenting, and driving.
Each robotics team builds a robot capable of completing
certain tasks to earn points. This year’s game, “Turning Point”, has several
different challenges. There are several caps with one blue side and one red
side. The robot can flip the cap to its team’s color to earn points or pick up
the cap and place it onto a stand for additional points. There are 3 stands
with 3 flags of different heights. The robot can push the bottom flag to its
color to earn points, or it can throw a ball at the upper two flags to earn
additional points. There is also a platform with two different heights where
the robot can park at the end of the round. Parking on the higher platform
earns more points. The first 15 seconds of the round allow the robot to
complete tasks autonomously, and the remainder of the round is
driver-controlled.
The performance of the Space Bob Ross team earned them a
spot in the upcoming state competition and they are currently ranked 28th
in the world for skills. Although this was a successful trip, the RoboKnights
are working hard to improve their performance as the competition only gets
harder as the season progresses. Montgomery Catholic will host a Vex Robotics
competition on November 3.
