Building a robot is fun, but going to competitions and working with your teammates is a more entertaining part of robotics. The Tempe Prep junior high VEX Robotics team made it all the way to the semi-finals with both robots in their first competition of the season.

Now you may think it was a piece of cake, but the team did have a few bumps in the road. The first robot, which was called the A robot, had a couple of problems. At first, the robots autonomous program was not functioning properly due to an arm mishap but was soon corrected by the programmers. Sadly, one of the robot’s wheels stopped working during the semi-finals and was not able to complete its goal.

The teams’ second robot, which was called the B robot, also had a couple of setbacks. The controls for the robot were constantly spazzing in and out, and that also did happen during the semi-finals, which is the main reason why the robot didn’t make it past the semi-finals.

Although the team didn’t win any awards, they made a lot of progress with the drivers and what they wanted the robot to be as a whole. It has been a great learning experience for all the students on the team!

Article by Maya Kostov, a staff writer for De Equitibus, Tempe Preparatory Academy’s student newspaper.