The Lutz-based Trinity Dragons swept the Florida Vex Robotics State Championships last month, securing multiple bids to represent the state in April’s world championships.
On Feb. 17, Team 6430 outscored 56 other high school teams to claim both the Excellence Award and the Tournament Championship Award at the Florida State Fairgrounds.
(Courtesy of Ray Carr)
A week earlier, the Dragons’ elementary squad, Team 6430X, outscored 28 other teams in the Florida State Elementary School IQ Vex Challenge Championship; they were also recognized for winning the Robot Skills Champion Award.
The high school team, is ranked fourth internationally, of 8,500 teams worldwide, in autonomous programming skills; Team 6430 also went undefeated in each of its tournament championships.
The 2017 Vex World Robotics Championships, entering its 10th year, runs from April 19 to April 25 at the Kentucky Exposition Center, in Louisville, Kentucky.
This year’s Vex robotics challenge, titled “Starstruck,” is played on a 12-by-12 square field, in which two alliances consisting of two robotics teams each, compete in matches comprising of a 15-fifteen second autonomous period, followed by 1 minute and 45 seconds of driver-controlled play.
The object of the game is to attain a higher score than the opposing alliance by having each robot place “stars” and “cubes” in designated zones, and remotely hanging robots onto a hanging pole.
In 2016, Team 6430 finished ninth among 500 teams at the world championships, which consisted of more than 16,000 participants from 37 nations.
Last year’s competition, called “Nothing But Net” required teams to construct robots that could essentially score as many balls into goals during a two-minute span.
The Trinity Dragons, coached by Ray Carr, was formed about five years ago.
Published March 8, 2017
