vex

=**The Vex Competition**= One of the most challenging parts of our construction stage, was to find a strong connection for the base of the claw. We then decided that Using two metal 90 degree beams would properly hold the claw for the competition.

The team putting on the finishing touches on the robot. We had to rush and change the gearing for the motor that controlled the height of the car. This was not easy considering we had less than 10 minutes to complete this task.

All of the competition ready for the inspection that takes place to make sure that they are legal

Here is a picture of the maze that would serve as the first event in the competition. There was two different paths that a team could take. One was zig-zagging through the majority of the maze, and another was to go over a teeter totter, and through a pit with with gravel-like material. We decided that zig-zagging through the maze would be the best option.

The first of the three events was the maze. The first part of this took place where we could see the entire playing field. Then the second part was played blind, we attached a wireless camera to the bot and worked on the screen. We struggled at the begining of the blind section, but once we got back on track, it was a not a problem getting to the finish line. We finished the maze in about a a minute and 40 seconds.





The second of the events was the ball sorting. There where four areas for the four colored balls. There where also three ways to score points the area was 1 point. The small bucket was worth 5 points and the large bucket was worth the most with 10 points. We had mechanical issues with the motor controlling the height of the claw. The gear slipped, leaving us with only the option of scoring with 1 point at a time. We finished with 7 points...and still got first place.





The last event involved stacking of circles. By stacking all four of the circles, you could get the most points. The difficult part of this was that the circles couldn't overlap each other. They had to be centered over each other or the points didn't count. To get bonus points you could stack the circles over the stick that was out of the playing field. We started stacking the cylinders fine, but then when we got to the third level, the cylinders fell off of each other, leaving us with only two points in the event. We finished fourth in this event, and we were not sure if it was enough for the victory. We ended up tying for first, but we were given first place over the other team since we won the second event, which at the beginning of the competition, we were told that would be a tie breaker.

The winners of the 2009 Spring Grove Open Robotics Challenges Pat Klein, Joey Ross, Zane Deller, Justin Black