The Bulldog Bots Season Finale
The Osborne Robotics Club wrapped up their season with another very exciting competition at Fort Hays State University on March 30th. The Memorial Ballroom was packed with 310 students from 24 different schools. There were 85 separate robotics teams all vying for medals in 5 different events. All events required autonomous operation, meaning that the robot must detect and react to its environment independently, with no control from a student operator.
In the Sorting Colors event, the robot followed a black line sorting red and blue objects to different sides of the line. In the Line Follower event, the robot followed a black path which forked. At the fork, the robot looked forward, detecting which path ended at the target object then proceeded down that path and returned to the start with a timed result. In the Mystery Maze event, the robot entered a completely hidden maze, with no visibility to the viewers and no previously known path to completion. It searched and traversed the maze from start to finish with a timed result. In the Whoops event, the robot traveled over a series of PVC pipes obstructing their progress forward finishing with a timed result to determine their placement. In the Sumo Bots event, robots were pitted head to head against each other using sensors, scoops and an array of attack mechanisms to knock the opposing robot off of an elevated platform.
The morning started out a little slow, with some unfortunate luck. However, Carter Delaney, Addy Sigle & Shandi Callaway were able to get 4th in sorting colors and 5th in Mystery maze. Karter Mans & Kip Crossland got 5th in Whoops. Then, in the afternoon, the Bulldog Bots really started hitting their stride!
In the Main Event (Sumo Bots), the Bulldog bots did better than any other robotics club in the FHSU competition history! The competition started with a 64 team single elimination bracket. Grayson Rietzke, Carson Mans & Jaxton Princ made it to the Sweet 16 tier of the bracket before finally being eliminated. Kate Cook, Avery Mans & Karlie Gasper progressed further, into the Elite 8. Amazingly, for the first time in FHSU Lego Robotics Competition 20 year history, two teams from the same robotics club advanced all the way to the championship round to battle it out against their teammates. Payson Sigle, Corbin Mans & Kruze Oliver took 2nd Place and Carter Delaney, Addy Sigle & Shandi Callaway took champion over all 64 teams.
The atmosphere was electric and all the kids were reveling in the fun and successes that their hard work earned them. What a joy it was to see hard work and commitment pay off in the way that it did!
Chris Mick & Andrew Sigle (coaches) would like to extend gratitude and a heartfelt thanks to the students who poured so much time and effort into this season as well as to the parents who were able to get students to early morning and weekend development sessions. Your efforts and support have paid off in a big way this season. We are excited to see what these young engineers have yet to accomplish!