Three Jesuit VEX teams traveled to Houston last weekend, November 19 and 20, 2011, to compete in the Veteran Division of the 2011 VEX Houston Robotics Competition. This fall’s competition let robots pick up spheres and barrels and put them in circular goals of various heights. The game also involves lots of strategy as there are objects that can double and negate all the points in a goal.
Team A, consisting of Kyle Wolf ’14, Austin Jantrakul ’14, Chandler Clark ’15, Matthew Khoury ’14, Nick LoRocco ’15, and Shaan Guntnur ’14, built a claw and arm design that picks up only one object at a time. The simplicity, speed, and superb driving skills of Jantrakul allowed them to overcome the mechanical disadvantage. Their autonomous program (no operator control for 20 seconds before the match) never failed in early rounds, and they went 4-2 in the qualification round, finishing ninth.
Team B, made up of Quinn Wolf ’12, Trey Curran ’13, Kieran Celii ’15, Jerray Dewa ’14, Allen Madathil ’14, and Ian McBride ’12, had a slightly more complex elevator design that could pick up three objects at a time, but their machine was slower because of the added weight. Like team A, their autonomous program never failed and they went 5-1-1. The group’s single loss was by one point, and the team finished eighth in the qualification matches.
Team C, made up of Peter-Michael Webb ’13, Stephen Newton ’13, Eric Dunkerly ’14, Austin Littleton ’15, Osbaldo Vera ’14, and Will Scott ’15, had a pivoting conveyor belt that would suck in objects, rotate the conveyor, and then spit them out into the goals. They overcame many mechanical problems, including a dysfunctional conveyor belt, before and during the competition. They finished 18th with a 3-3 record.
Team B was chosen by the 5th seeded alliance (3 teams per alliance, 8 alliances) in the elimination rounds, which are best-of-three contests. Team A was the captain of the 6th seeded alliance in the playoffs. Team B played the 4th seeded alliance and lost two matches by less than two points each to end their successful day. Team A played the 3rd seeded alliance, and went 1-2 in three similarly close matches.
“All three teams learned a lot about their robots, and we had a lot of fun,” said Kyle Wolf, Team A captain. “We now have to improve our robots as we prepare for the next competition.” As a group, Jesuit Robotics finished fourth out of 22 schools in the Veteran Division based on the standings after the qualification round.
There is another VEX competition on December 3, 2011, in Austin. Teams A and B are making minor adjustments to their claw and autonomous programming, while Team C is completely rebuilding their robot.
