Over the last three weeks, AURA has been running workshops for new university team members. The workshops introduced new members to VEX Robotics and were also an opportunity for everyone to get to know each other.
The workshops featured presentations on different types of lifts, drive-trains and electronics, giving the new members some basic information to build their very own robots. The new members were divided into teams and the goal was to build a robot, using a VEX protobot kit, to compete in challenges at the third and final workshop.
AURA devised two challenges using this season’s game objects – Sack Attack sacks. In the first challenge teams had to drive their robot in a straight line for 5 metres and in the second challenge, score as many points in 2 minutes by placing the sacks on platforms of differing heights.
With the help of AURA members, the teams had fun designing and building different drive-trains and lift mechanisms. There were a wide range of designs which can be viewed on AURA’s Flickr.
We now have a number of eager and enthusiastic new members, and we look forward to getting them involved with AURA’s robotics research, mentoring programme and the 2012/2012 VEX Robotics College Competition. A big thank you to Kiwibots for kindly lending the protobot kits for us to use at the workshops.
What’s next for AURA? Coming up in the July school holidays, AURA is hosting mechanical and programming workshops, at the University of Auckland, for high school students new to VEX Robotics. If you are interested in attending, please register here or email [email protected] for more information. We look forward to seeing you there!
