Nelson ATC students earn 2nd-place finish at state robotics competition

The Nelson County ATC team poses with their robot, “Porcu-Bine” at the end of the 14th annual WKU robotics competition. Click to enlarge.

By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette

The NCATC robot collects a gold-colored can during a preliminary round of the Nov. 9, 2013, robots competition at WKU. Click to enlarge.

Thursday, Nov. 14, 2013 — A team of students from the Nelson County Area Technical Center recently took second-place honors at the 14th annual Kentucky Bluegrass Robotics Competition.

The Nov. 9 competition pitted about a dozen teams from schools across central Kentucky against one another in a “Hunger Games”-themed competition. Each team’s robot earned points by popping balloons scattered around the competition playing field, or collecting one or more of the four cans. Balloons were worth 25 points, each can was worth 125 points.

An NCATC team member drives the robot at the start of one round of competition at the Nov. 9, 2013 robotics competition at WKU. Click to enlarge.

The robots were built and designed by the teams using a basic set of construction materials and remote control equipment and motors provided by the competition sponsor, the WKU Department of Engineering.

The Nelson County team dominated the preliminary rounds of the competition, building the team’s score by focusing on gathering cans. Walls, ramps and tunnels provided obstacles through which the teams had to navigate their robots. The student “driving” the robot often was unable to see it, and had to depend on vocal instructions and hand signals in order to progress through the course.

In the final round, the Nelson County team lost by 25 points — the value of a single popped balloon — the the team from Barren County. The team sponsor is NCATC computer/IT teacher Charlie Cantrill.

For more photos, click here to visit the Nelson County Gazette’s Facebook page.

-30-