Robotics teams square off at Sault College (8 photos)

High school students from Wawa, Sault Ste. Marie, Blind River and Sudbury competed in the 6th Annual Northern Ontario VRC Qualifying Competition at Sault College Saturday.

Most of the robotics teams have been building their robots since the beginning of the school year.

“We have some really amazing looking robots here this year,” said Mark Carlucci, robotics coordinator for the Algoma District School Board. “This is a culmination of several months of building, planning, programming [and] testing - over and over again.”

The robots designed, built and programmed using the VEX EDR platform are entered into teamplay, skills and programming challenges throughout the event.

This year, participants are squaring off in the 2018-2019 VEX Robotics Competition game known as ‘Turning Point,’ where robots are run through a series of tasks involving plastic caps and balls.

Carlucci says the event requires a “well-balanced” robot that’s able to multitask.

“We’re flipping caps around, so they actually have to find a way to pick up caps, flip them around and shoot balls into these toggle flags,” Carlucci told SooToday. “We’ve only seen a few robots that can actually consistently hit those toggle flags, so just being able to make a robot that’s able to do several different functions at the same time, I think, becomes a real challenge for them.”

Winners in the skills, teamplay and programming competitions will move on to the provincial championships in St. Catherines, Ont. in February.