Robots Ruled RoboGames
By Contributor
More than 170 competitors and spectators made the fourth annual RoboGames competition a major success when it was held recently at Selkirk College’s Mary Hall in Nelson.
Almost 30 teams with almost 50 competitors between 10-16 years, with some as young a six years old, designed, built and programmed their robots to compete in the various categories at the RoboGames, a collaborative initiative between the Nelson Tech Club and GLOWS, with support from the Kootenay Association for Science and Technology and Selkirk College.
Winners included:
Top Team single — first Ben Carter, second Gavin Deane
Top Team Double — first, Lucas Russell and Isaiah Kotaras; second Caradoc Brennain and Dylan Peil; third Justin Ma and Brian Malito
Obstacle Course — Ben Carter
Line Following — Lily Kompass, Oliver Ridge and Pablo Rivas
Robot Soccer — Sydney Furman and West Furman
Special Trick — Caradoc Brennain and Dylan Peil
Robot Battles — tie between Ben Carter and Gavin Deane
Top Programming — A.J. Roberts
Top Design & Assembly — Ben Carter
Top Creativity — Kyle Craid and Myles Peterson
Top Problem Solving — Lucas Russell and Isaiah Kotaras
Top Awesome — A.J. Roberts
Top Restarts & Exess Time — Isaiah Brighton
Top Robot Battle “Wins” — Three way tie, A.J. Roberts; Aleks Ratynski and Braydon Heaney; Ben Carter.
Categories included:
Obstacle Course: Robots manoeuvre an obstacle course as quickly and carefully as possible.
Line Following Course: Robots utilize the obstacle course, except that they follow the line from end to end with speed and accuracy judged.
Robot Soccer 1 on 1: A pile of robot soccer balls is located in the center of the obstacle course. Competitors vie against an opponent to try to grab the most robot soccer balls to their side in two minutes.
Special Trick Competition: Competitors program their robot to do their evil, or not so evil, bidding by coming up with something cool and crazy for their robot to do. Examples are dancing, telling a joke, fetching an object… competitors are encouraged to use their imagination!
Robot Battles: Two robots enter the open arena to compete as gladiators in the ultimate destruction event. Judges determine the winner based on meaningful hits, overall match polarity and gamesmanship.
Participants worked on robots within their schools, with parents or through community groups throughout a six-week period beginning in early January. All told, 28 teams comprised of 48 youth from within the West Kootenays competed on Saturday in the five different events.
Nelson had the largest representation, with 12 teams and 20 youth, followed by Castlegar with 7 teams and 12 youth.
The communities of New Denver and Rossland also contributed teams, as did the Lower Columbia Tech Club based in Trail.
Photo Caption: Emily Painter and Maddox Holiday of Kinnaird Elementary watch their machine navigate the course during the recent RoboGames competition at Selkirk College’s Mary Hall.
