The Robotics team is excited and ready for this year’s game, “High Stakes.” They hope to do well in their league competitions and get to state-level and then hopefully onto Vex Worlds.
The VEX V5 Robotics Competition “High Stakes” pits two allied high school teams against their opponents. It is played on a 12’ x 12’ field, with each alliance controlling two robots. The goal is to score more points than the opposing alliance by placing rings on stakes and climbing a central ladder for extra points. The match begins with a 15-second autonomous period where robots score independently, followed by a 1:45 driver-controlled period where teams control their robots.
This year’s gameplay is a step up from last year’s relatively simple soccer-like challenge, with more strategy involved. Last year all a team had to do was move game objects into a goal, but now this year teams must place rings on stakes, move mobile goals into positive and negative corners, and finally climb the ladder.
“This year’s game is not very fun, although it does require a building challenge,” said Club President John Baronowski, a senior. “There can’t be any entry-level robots that are bases like last year.”
Freshman team 7422H is very excited for this new opportunity to build on their success. Last year in middle school some of their teammates made it to Worlds and had a great time competing with the best team worldwide, and their goal this year is to make it there again.
“I hope to collaborate and work on a good bot and have a good year,” says Olivia Loredo, freshmen and driver for team 7422H.
This is the first year the school has four teams competing. Advisor Damien Jacotin is hopeful for their success, acknowledging the heavy time commitment involved. Many schools offer Robotics as a class, but the Robotic Burros have to fit in their time along with their other academic and extracurricular commitments.
He’d like to see the freshman team start off their Burroughs Robotics journey with a trip to States and for the seniors to finish strong.
“For the seniors, I hope that they can reflect on their high school VEX career fondly and be happy about what they did,” said Jacotin.
Robotics has its first league competition on Oct. 19.
