Montgomery Catholic Preparatory School was proud to host the
River Region Vex Robotics Competition Qualifying Tournament in the Dolly
Barranco Activity Center at the Middle/High School campus on November 3. Led by
the Montgomery Catholic robotics club faculty sponsor Vicki Petters and
volunteer Rob Russell, the RoboKnights hosted their second ever Vex Robotics Competition.
26 teams from all over Alabama competed to qualify for the state tournament. Three
RoboKnights teams—Starish, an all-girls high school team, Mamushi, an all-8th
grade team, and The Sevies, an all-7th grade team—competed in the tournament. The
Mamushi-Sevies alliance made it all the way to the final round, where they came
second to Foley High School.
The VRC challenge this season, “Turning Point”, includes several
complex tasks each robot can complete to earn points. Robots may turn
two-colored caps over to their team color, place those caps onto poles of
different heights, toggle low flags to their color, throw a ball at higher
flags to toggle them to their color, and climb and park onto a platform for
additional points. This challenge is unique in that robots may push competing
robots off the platforms. The first 15 seconds of each round allow the robots
to run an autonomous program for a chance to score points. The remaining minute
and 45 seconds are driver-controlled. Each team demonstrated a complex
understanding of the tasks, and each robot tackled the challenge in a unique
way.
The whole Montgomery Catholic community came together with
parents, students, and faculty serving as volunteer referees, announcers, event
staff and concessions crew. The RoboKnights would like to thank the students
and faculty of Brewbaker Technology Magnet High School for sharing their
equipment and expertise to help make the event such a successful one.
