Third time lucky proved true for the Goulburn High School Robotics team, with the side qualifying for the 2022 Vex Robotics World Championship.
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The team travelled to Adelaide at the start of the March to compete in the National VEXIQ Robotics Competition.
They competed in qualifying matches over two days and while they did not make the finals, they did win the design award.
Goulburn High qualified for the World Championship through an interview process.
The team was interviewed three times where they spoke about how they had constructed the robot, the problems they had faced and what they had done to solve these issues.
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Goulburn High School Robotics teacher Katherine Hyland said the team did extremely well, not only in the interview process, but throughout the qualifying matches.
"Their documentation of all the problems that they've had with the robot was excellent and their interviewing was really good. The judges came up to me afterwards and told me that the students from Goulburn High School were really a cohesive team," Mrs Hyland said.
"They were [also] acknowledged for their sportsmanship during the tournament."
The robot they took to the National Competition was their third one since they started preparing last year.
They completed their first robot in November.
"They evaluated and decided it had too many mechanical problems," Mrs Hyland said.
The team built a second robot but then decided three weeks before Nationals they would try a new design- a catapult to get the balls into the basket.
Mrs Hyland said this disadvantaged them in the tournament as they had not had enough practice driving the robot.
She said each year the competition changed and this year it was Pitching In.
For each match, students had to use their robot to pick up balls placed around the field and shoot them into the high goal area which was a basket in the middle of the field.
There was also a low score area around that basket.
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By the end of the match, each team also had to get its robot to either do a low hang chin up or high hang chin up depending on how many points they had.
Looking ahead to the World Championship, Mrs Hyland said the team would likely make some minor modifications to the robot.
"We're aiming to be able to pick up a minimum of 14 balls and put them in the high score area and then a low hang. And a lot of driving practice as well as programming a fully autonomous 60 second program."
The World Championship will run in May in Dallas, Texas.
"We're going to try everything we can to see if we can get there. But if we can't, we can then apply for a special exemption and do a live remote process- that means 3am or 4am games," Mrs Hyland said.
"Before we even get there, in the next couple of weeks, [the students] will have to start doing interviews."
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Goulburn High School principal Yogesh Mani congratulated the team on its success.
"This was an amazing achievement and one we are extremely proud of here at Goulburn High. These students have put countless hours of their own time into preparing for the national event and their hard work has paid off," he said.
"I must also acknowledge the hard work and dedication of Mrs Hyland who has worked with the students to ensure they had the best preparation possible.
"They will now get the opportunity to showcase their skills at an international level. We wish them all the very best and know they will be excellent ambassadors for our school and the Goulburn community."
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