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All the news from Free Range Robotics, Vex NZ and Vex USA is here.
Sub catagories are listed below.
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Written by Marita Lawton, Terry Allen
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Sunday, 25 April 2010 19:09 |
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Well they did it! Free Range Robotics won the 2010 Vex Robotics World Championship! The Tournament was held in Dallas, Texas and the two New Zealand teams – Free Range Robotics (homeschoolers) and Kristin, along with Shangahi Luwan Activity Center from China, played against another alliance of three from the USA (one of them being a homeschool team who won last year’s championship). They won the first game of the finals by a good margin, and went on to play the second match (the winner being the best of three). It was very tense, as the competition was fierce and the score was close. The judges took an eternity to count up those scores, but the teams were elated to win the second match and at last bring home the ultimate World Tournament Champion 1st Place Trophy.
Free Range Robotics were also presented awards for the World Champion 1st Place in Web Design, World Champion AMAZE Award (for innovative design, engineering and programming), World Champion Energy Award (for team enthusiasm and dedication) and also World Champion 1st Place Division Tournament Champion. 
The team were also presented with a Silver Fern Award. This award originates from the military. It is a prestigious award, given to soldiers who have given significant service to their country. Then Kiwibots had been granted the power to select and award this to certain students for their service to NZ as a representative (in battle) overseas. The team has certainly experienced the sweat, blood and tears of hard battle over these last couple of years! It was great to acknowledge their hard work and dedication.
Interestingly enough there was another Robotics Competition called Best Robotics which was held at the same time, and that was won by homeschoolers also. |
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Last Updated on Monday, 05 July 2010 14:10 |
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Written by Rhiannon Waller, Terry Allen
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Sunday, 25 April 2010 15:31 |
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Hi everyone
Friday was very long and tiring - and I was too exhausted to face the lobby internet room. Each of our teams had 5 qualifying matches to play plus the 2 Driving Skills, and 2 Programming Skills Challenges - both of which had huge lines waiting. We also had to try to be available in the Team Pit Area in case a Judge came by for an interview. The tournament matches went well for the most part, but we had some very poor alliance partners who did more harm than help and got in the way of the play. We also had to overcome issues with the intake mechanism as the new game balls were very slippery. The robots both had to have creative modifications made to combat this. We also had a motor burn out and had to do a rapid replacement before a match. By the end of the day the team was very tired and a little discouraged.
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Last Updated on Thursday, 29 April 2010 11:39 |
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Written by Rhiannon Waller, Terry Allen
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Friday, 23 April 2010 16:56 |
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Hi everyone,
Today was our first day in Tournament. We had a bright and early start up at 6am and down to the lobby by 7:30 to catch the bus in to the convention centre. The Sheraton is about 20 minutes walk away from the convention centre, so we appreciated the ride in, as we had our heavy cases of tools and the robots and laptops and so on to carry.
The first part of the day was spent setting up the pit (or booth) with tools and robots organised, and all checked over, banners and flags up, and sorting through the paperwork. We had forms to sign,and check lists to go over, match times and alliance groupings to sort out for scouting. When you enter the convention centre you walk in on a long rich red carpet pathway which leads to the tournament fields and the team pits. All the teams are organised according to their numbers. It's really fantastic when you reach the 2900's and see a long row of pits bearing the New Zealand flags. There are 12 teams here this year. Last year we were just four pits together. The New Zealand presence has been much anticipated and the word whispering around the centre is that we are to be feared... one girl said to me "when you go up and down the pit area everyone is terrified of the New Zealanders" I replied "for good reason". May as well maximise the psychological advantage!
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Last Updated on Wednesday, 28 April 2010 18:55 |
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Written by Rhiannon Waller, Terry Allen
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Friday, 23 April 2010 16:48 |
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Hi everyone,
We have arrived safely in Dallas, but are pretty jetlagged. Everyone is feeling foggy.
The flight to LA was great - we were well looked after and the robots were treated carefully. It was a really full flight, travellers starting to move again since the volcano cloud is moving.
We had a 6 hour stop in LA, so checked in our luggage to the Dallas flights nice and early. The Southwest airline staff were not happy with the heavy tools and equipment and made us open up our cases. Picture us sitting in the middle of the line, floor strewn all over, covered in saws, hammers, spanners, electronics parts, batteries, robots pulled out of packaging.....the other people in line were quite loudly commenting "what on earth are they planning to do???"
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Last Updated on Wednesday, 28 April 2010 18:57 |
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