A Robotic Weekend

What do you get when you pile hundreds of kids and their families from various schools in the Huntsville and surrounding areas into a gym and a cafeteria with robots, bouncy balls, snacks, flying airplanes, signs, costumes, wires, electronics, computers and much much more?
A Robotics Competition, of course!

Andrew joined up with our previous school for robotics classes back in October and the competition began Friday. We had two teams and because we signed up late, Andrew became a mentor to the teams rather than an actual member. He has a knowledge of computers and robots (Mindstorm Legos) and so he became a valuable asset to the team. The teachers and coaches learned quickly that Andrew knows his stuff and they really looked forward to him being at class adding his input. We have been traveling to the school many days a week for a while as he has been assisting the students and helping to get everything ready for the competition. It has been a great experience for him and we are looking forward to next year when he will actually be on a team.

I have to say, I really don't have a clue how they score, or how they are penalized, but there were presentations on paper to make and demonstrations and challenges that each project would be put through.

Each robot had to work its way through an obstacle course and gain points at each check point. Sometimes the robots moves easily and other times things just didn't work right. This is the team's first year and so it was a definite learning experience.

Each student was responsible for certain parts of it but when it was showtime, all they could do was sit back and hope their work had paid off.

We found this robot in the hallway and Andrew was spellbound. This is such his niche! It was a long Friday and Saturday but extremely beneficial for Andrew. We are so happy that there are such awesome opportunities in our area.