The Robotics Club recently competed at a competition at the Business and Technology Campus of Metropolitan Community College in Kansas City, Mo., where the team placed 20th out of 45 teams and was top 15 in offensive scoring and in the top 30 in autonomous robot control.

“We placed higher in terms of team rank this year, but we made it to the quarter finals last year. The robot last year was a simpler design, but had more critical issues with the drive system,” Jason Smith, Robotics Club sponsor, said.

For the competition, teams have to build, program and test robots. Later, the teams compete against each other by performing certain tasks. In order to prepare for the competition, the team had to build a robot based on an original design. They were given six weeks to complete the designing, building, programming and test driving of the robot.

“Driving the robot was pretty difficult. It was hard to see where you were going and it wasn’t completely finished so we had to do some repairs,” Jeremy Koaga, senior, said.

The team had to deal with many difficult challenges. The robot was the most complex robot the team has ever had to build with the least experienced team.

“We learned some really good lessons on trusting our own design process and not deviating from our plan,” Smith said.

The team was very positive about the results. They had a strong showing and nearly met all of their goals, and they improved throughout the competition. The team placed 20th in the competition, but at one point they were in 18th place.