Last Friday, three of our robotics teams competed in their first tournament of the season in Hailey. Vallivue’s team Rusteze took first place as the only undefeated team while Washed Up Potatoes finished 10th and Dinoco finished 12th. Advisor Mrs. Jamison said, “All three teams stayed in the top 14, and spent most of the time in the top ten for the majority of the tournament. Two of my three teams spent a good portion of the tournament in the number one position, Washed Up Potatoes towards the beginning of the tournament and Rusteze towards the end.” With Rusteze’s score this weekend, they are currently placed first in Idaho and 218th in the world.
All three teams have been preparing for this tournament since the start of the school year. This includes building and programming their robots and learning to work together as a team. One of the robotics students competing this season is junior Jamison Streibel, a member of team Dinoco. He has been preparing by practicing and making sure the robot is able to perform all the tasks needed for the match. Senior Elizabeth Calderon, a member of team Rusteze, prepares by coming in outside of class and helping her team whenever she can. She is the coder for the bot, so while they are testing and repairing, she is not really able to help.
Streibel states, “The most difficult thing is getting things consistent like the loading up of the trybolts under the robot. Usually, it is inconsistent.” He finds this part the most difficult in preparing for competition. On the other hand, Calderon feels as if the hardest part is the testing. She thinks this because if one thing is in the way of the bot, the whole code and test get messed up. Finding the sweet spot can be very difficult sometimes.
Calderon also noted, “I make it pretty easy on the driver.” She made the controls easy for the driver to be able to control the bot after the first 15 seconds of the match. In the first 15 seconds of a match, they get to use the code they programmed, but after that time the driver has to manually control the bot to get the points. Each team is paired with someone randomly in their ranking to help them defeat the other team.
Mrs. Jamison likes to have the kids take the lead with these competitions. She wants them to learn to be independent but is always there when they need her for guidance. On that note, Streibel feels prepared for the season and thinks he has all the big things needed for the competition. All the other teams also feel pretty prepared for this season but feel as if they could have done more with more time.
The next robotics tournament will be hosted here at VHS on Saturday, Nov. 18. Be sure to check out our teams and cheer them on as they hope to continue their success this weekend.
