Robots on the move | News

Robots rolled into the Polk County Fairgrounds Saturday, March 9, for the third annual 4-H West Central Region Robot Rumble.

Fifty people attended the event, including 4-H members, coaches and family members, according to a recent news release. The end-of-the-year celebration event included various competitions and exhibitions with autonomous robots — all focused on beginner level robotic projects.

“The robotic project requires teamwork, on-the-spot thinking, analyzing and decision making and programming robots to accomplish a secret mission in a pre-specified environment,” the release said.

The Robot Rumble is a safe and fun place for area 4-H robotics project members to meet one another and display what they learned in the past year’s project meetings, the release said.

The release said eight teams completed three different challenges — on-the-spot programming, junk drawer robotics and the WeDo Pet Challenge.

In on-the-spot programming, each team programmed their EV3 robot to complete a maze marked on the floor.

“The team whose robot made it the farthest through the maze won the competition,” the release said.  

For the junk drawer competition, 4-H members brought complete robots built from “junk drawer” parts and pieces for display and judging.  

The most complex competition of the day was the WeDo Pet challenge. Youth teams brought a motorized pet model and a poster, as well as had an interview with the judge, the release said.

“The team challenge was to make the pet they would love to have,” the release said. “The robot had to have a WeDo sensor and motor (in order) to make the pet respond to the team members in some way.”

Polk County top finishes included Curtis Dickerson, Peyton Artz and Will Joplin, second place, On-the-Spot Programming Challenge; and Mike Cotter and Sam Cook, Junk Drawer.