Maritime Robotics

Congratulations to our VEX teams for having a great performance at the Maine Maritime Qualifier on Saturday, November 15th, in Castine, Maine. Team 4393Z was a Tournament Finalist, 4393J ended in 8th place, and 4393A finished in 13th place. Apart from the VEX meet, it was great to visit the campus, and the dining hall had a great buffet lunch!

VEX Robotics V5 gives students a clear path to design, build, and program competitive robots. It's not Battle Bots; teams that work together will do better. In the morning and early afternoon sessions, they are randomly assigned a partner in 2-on-2 matches. Then they choose a strategic alliance partner for the final few matches. They work with metal parts, motors, sensors, and a programmable brain. The system teaches problem-solving fast because every change shows up in the field right away. Students see how design choices, coding, and strategy affect performance in real time. It's a great introduction to the Engineering Process.

The challenge changes every year. This year, the game is called Push Back. Teams compete in alliances to move and score game pieces, control zones, and complete strategic tasks within set time periods of 2 minutes, broken down into 15 seconds for autonomous and 1:45 for driver control.