Robotics builders impress

Manawatu¯ robotics builders have been at it again, this time at the New Zealand VRC robotics championships.

Manawatu¯ teams dominated at the New Zealand VEX IQ championships in Palmerston North in December, which was for younger competitors, and now the older students have performed well at the VRC event in Auckland last weekend.

St Peter’s College, of Palmerston North, won the educate award for helping other Manawatu¯ schools with education about robotics and science, technology, engineering and maths programmes.

Sixty teams competed at the 10th VRC event at Lynfield College and there were six teams from Manawatu¯ – two from St Peter’s, two from Feilding High School and two from Palmerston North Boys’ High School.

All six teams reached the knockout stages, which is believed to be a first, and St Peter’s SPC Bots team Drogo was the top qualifier from the region, finishing sixth after the qualifying stages.

Auckland and Tauranga are home to many of the stronger robotics schools and the overall event was won by Otumoetai College, from Tauranga.

‘‘We mixed it with the best of them,’’ St Peter’s head of robotics, Stephan van Haren, said. ‘‘We were unlucky with a technical issue that stopped our robot in the knockout stages.’’

The junior world championships are in the United States in April, for which two teams from College Street Normal School, a team from Feilding Intermediate School, and a team from Manchester St School all qualified.