Robotics teams face off in statewide competition

VAN WERT, OH (WLIO) - Van Wert High School hosted their 9th annual regional robotics competition.

Thirty teams from across Ohio arrived Friday evening for inspections and prepared for Saturday's full slate of matches. Each year, teams are given a different "game" and build their robots to complete various tasks to score points. This year's challenge involved grabbing blocks with their robots and choosing to either clip them onto the frame or place them into one of the baskets. Both tasks have two different height options, with the higher option awarding more points. A significant amount of time and effort goes into building these robots.

"For us, we started late November, and this is from then till now. So a month or so to get a rough prototype of a robot, and you're always continuously expanding and making things better. Like, none of this stuff is original. It's all been tested, and it's all been changed drastically", said Hayden Dowler, a member of the Van Wert High School Robotics team.

With all the time put into their robots, they can learn a lot from the process. They can also develop a strategy for the competition.

"I really enjoy the learning opportunity cause there's a lot of learning that is done. Like, I'm the head programmer of the team, and I've learned a lot about programming the past few years I've been on the team," said Andrew Simon, a member of Team Calamari from Westerville, Ohio.

"Our strategy was to adapt to everybody else. So this year there's a specimen route and there's a sample route; we actually do both of them. So let's say one team can only do one; that's fine; we'll do the other. That helps us work really well with anybody," said Caleb Hickman, a member of Team Calamari.

Toward the end of the contest, teams received awards in multiple categories.