VEX Robotics is a robotics compeition that is open to middle school, high school, and university levels. Every year there is a new game that the robots need to compete in. Each game is a head to head 2v2 competiton, where your alliance is from another team. The first year my school participated the goal was to shoot foam balls into pyramid shaped nets to get points. The second year was to throw star shaped foam jacks and cubes over a fence into the opponents side.
Nothing But Net 2016
Starstruck 2017
One team needs to build a robot, setup motors, sensors, and other electrical elements, program for user control and autonomous rounds, make an engineering journal, master driving the robot, create attractive displays for when judges visit your table, and strategize with alliances. In my first year the eight members all naturally settled into roles that they found interesting. For me that was designing the robot, creating a 3D model of it for visuals, and strategizing with alliances.
This was the robot design for Nothing But Net 2016. The robot would intake the foam balls on the ground through the opening in the front. It would then shoot the balls off of the flywheel at the top. The chassis was unique in that it was triangular. We chose to do this so that we had a lighter robot that was more maneuverable. There was also a bonus challenge at the end of each round to try and lift your alliance robot off of the ground. This was what the forklift currently folded over the top of the robot is for.
This was the robot design for Starstruck 2017. The robot would pick up the stars and cubes with the pincers in the front and flip them backwards over the fence. The bonus challenge was to lift yourself up a pole on the field. To do this we would flip our pincers up and catch them on the top of the pole. Then when lower the pincers again it lifted up the robot.
