VEX Robotics Competition
I always had a craze for participating in different competitions and learn different things. So, this time (in the year 2017), I had a chance to participate in National VEX Robotics Competition. It was my 5th sem in university, studying Mechanical Engineering.
The teams were formed and kits were ordered. It was decided that two teams will be participating from our university this time. The day our kits were going to arrive, we had some industrial visit. None of us was willing to go for that visit because that visit would mean we will be spending all of our time in that factory and won’t get a chance to get started with the preparation of competition. We all were too excited about the kits and competition. But, we had to go for that industrial visit anyway. Our kits arrived but we had to wait until the next day to start exploring it.
Both the teams started working on their robots. The competition was due in a week. Both the teams spend day and night and gave their best. We made many versions of our robots before we had the final one. We had to do some hard work but we enjoyed each and every moment of it.
Finally the day arrived. For the competition we had to travel to another city. The competition was being held at the Sultan Qaboos University. Many teams from different universities were participating. Everyone was prepared to give their best. The robotic competition had two rounds; one autonomous and another manual. The competition was such that we had different stars and boxes in the arena and each team had to throw those objects in the opponent’s area.
A lot of matches were played among different teams. We watched many fabulous matches and goals. The 4 teams that made it up to the semi-finals included both the teams of my university (Sohar University) i.e. SUBOT (my team) and SUMECH (the other team). Both the teams made it to the finals and now we had to face each other to win the competition.
SUBOT vs SUMECH
The bell rang and we started the competition. Both teams gave their best. But the match was a draw. The judge’s panel decided that we will play one more match. We got ready for one last match. The match started and both teams played well. But as they say, there can be only one winner and that winner was our team. Yayyyy :D We won the National VEX Robotics Competition :D
Some happy and some sad faces but obviously, we were the happiest of all. Our university secured the winner and runner up’s positions.
As Vince Lomardi said “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.”
It was an amazing experience.