Robot Competition

All year long Kelvin has been working on a robot with a group of other students at the U. Every year one of the classes he has to take, has this competition from groups in the class who build a robot from scratch. They are given computers and other parts but they have to build it and program the robot to do what they want it to do. This year was the King Kong Challenge! There was a building in the middle and the robots had to grab a "Faye Raye" doll and then climb the building. It was a really cool idea and everyone was really excited about it, but it got frustrating to actually implement. This was because the teachers changed in Spring semester and all the rules would change every time they had to pass a certain section off. Things would start off having to be built one way and then it would be changed a few weeks later. This made it almost impossible to get ahead and make a good robot. Also, the equipment they were given, namely the sensors, were not good quality and had a really hard time picking up what they were supposed to so the robot knew where to go. So amid all the frustrations and set backs, they were able to get things put together and did very well in my opinion with what they had to work with. Then they had the competition they put on for the public on Tuesday. It was REALLY cool to go and see what these guys can do! Some robots actually made it to the top and even though most didn't do very well, I was very proud to have such a smart husband who can build something like that! Dan and Braden came to the competition too and they had a great time seeing all the cool stuff. Braden was so excited about the robots and LOVED watching them. We all had lots of fun and Kelvin and the rest of the class is very excited to be done with this project!

The tower and course for the robots. Braden pretty much stayed right next to the course the entire time.


There were even little airplanes circling the building! This would have been really fun and is a good idea, but once again, it was a last min change and they were informed of the airplanes about a week before the competition. This of course cause some of the teams to get their robots caught in the wires for the airplanes because they built their robots tall to grab the building and pull the robot up.


This is the actual robot Kelvin built. Channel 2 news was there covering the competition and Kelvin's robot made the evening news! In fact, they only showed 2 robots and the other one only got a few seconds coverage while Kelvin's was shown for the remainder of the time. It was pretty awesome and we were all so proud!


Here is his robot in the competition. You don't get to see it move up the building because too many people were getting in the way for him to keep filming but it's fun to see none the less.


Here we are waiting for his turn on the course! I don't really like this picture because the lighting was so bad we both look like we have greasy hair and our faces look chubby, but I had to put proof that I was there.