On Saturday 3 September, 26 teams from 15 schools arrived at Rosmini College to participate in an Upper North Island Scrimmage. Teams travelled from as far away as Katikati to be in Auckland, practising in the lead up to the Robotics World Cup, being held in Auckland from October 11 – 13. A large number of volunteers turned up to gain experience as well, with 17 AURA members and a number of volunteers from Massey University (MESS) helping score and reset fields, running the skills field, providing mechanical and programming help to high school teams, and ensuring that everyone was having a good time!
As always, the competition was very tough with some of the best teams in the world competing. Motors burning out, tank tread falling off, and robots tipping were common sights as teams pushed their robots to their limits. It was great to see AURA mentored team Mount Albert Grammar School (2908) with a raft of new juniors, as well as the usual crowd of AURA mentored teams from Kristin, Lynfield, Onehunga, Avondale, and Westlake Girls. A highly seasoned set of veteran teams came out on top after qualification, with teams from Free Range (2921), Lynfield (2915), Avondale (2911), Onehunga (2900), Kristin (2919), Pinehurst (2931), and Glenfield (2918) filling up the eight alliances. The teams also used the opportunity to test out a variety of strategies, such as gate-up/gate-down play and robot position vs. scoring rate. The majority of the matches had most goals filled within one minute, although we also had three low-scoring ties, with one match ending 3-3 and another match ending 5-5.
The eventual winners of a very exciting 2-1 final were aMAX (720p) and Free Range (2921), who narrowly defeated a double Lynfield combo (2915A and 2915C). Additionally, aMAX (720p) took out the driver skills challenge, with a total of 33 points. World Cup is only a month away, and pressure is rising as teams rush to get their robots ready and competitive. Teams will have to video their robots completing a skills challenges run, and the scores will be used for initial seeding, as well as the videos used for scouting purposes by all teams. The Robotics World Cup promises to be an exciting competition, and we wish all teams the best in the coming month!