On Fri., March 1, the Columbus High School robotics club traveled to Council Bluffs, Iowa to participate in yet another robotics competition. The 11-member group departed CHS at 1:10 pm and began their journey to Abraham Lincoln High School. The members make up two separate teams. The first team, New Folder, is comprised of Adolfo Medina, Izaac Sukovaty, and Kadence Kruse. The coinciding team, Meerschweinchen, includes Julia Davidchik, Jessica Reiff, Sarah Massman, Syrus Jeffcoat, and Ethan Welch.

Team New Folder started out in seventh place while Meerschweinchen started out in tenth place. The two teams decided to form an alliance and won their first elimination round. During the teams’ second round, one of the robots tipped over and was unable to turn right side up once again. This adversity led to the teams’ defeat and earned them a sixth-place seat at the end of the competition.

Though CHS didn’t return with a dub, “we had some ups and downs and fixed some bugs” says team member Julia Davidchik.

The first day of the competition focused on the skills aspect of the robots and drivers. The robots are monitored to see how well they function autonomously, the freedom to act independently. Then, the robots are monitored under while under the control of a driver see how well the drivers operate. Each team gets three attempts for skills and at the end, all points are tallied up.

Starting in the morning on Sat., March 2nd, the qualification rounds start. During these rounds commence with a run through of each team’s routine. This routine is commonly comprised of 20 seconds of autonomous and 100 seconds of little competitions. In one competition, both sides battle to flip over a cap and get their team color to show. In another, two teams race against eachother in an attempt to get the most flags brought over to their home side.

Later in the day teams are randomly grouped into pairs. The pairs then need to decide whether they work well together or if they simply don't mesh well. This is important because later in the day each team will be paired with the team of their choosing. The duo will then compete together during the elimination rounds. These rounds work the same as the qualification rounds however they play out to be hit or miss.