RoboJackets compete in regional competition
After winning the state competition in October, the Starkville High School RoboJackets BEST (Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology) Robotics team competed in the Southern Regional Competition at Auburn University Dec. 4 and Dec. 5.
The team has won the state competition six years in a row, and holds one regional title. Each year the team has to design and build a robot to complete a specific task. This year, the team’s robot was designed around a fire/rescue challenge, with capabilities including “rescuing” a dummy, extinguishing flames, represented by stacks of cups and removing hazardous materials from the vicinity.
Driver Marshall Skelton said the team had made many upgrades to its robot prior to the competition.
“This is my first year as a driver, so the other two years when we’ve been to Auburn, it hasn’t had as much of an impact really,” Skelton said. “It feels really good to be going and seeing the robot just completing its jobs like we designed it to.”
Skelton also said the RoboJackets had a smooth state competition. “We didn’t have any major hiccups,” Skelton said. “We’re very happy with how we performed, and we can’t really ask for much better at Auburn.”
RoboJackets Team CEO Jacob Wubben said he thought the team had a good shot at taking home a second regional title.
“I feel just like I did my sophomore year, where we won best overall at Auburn,” Wubben said. “I feel like this team is going to pull out all the stops, and we’re going to take best overall.”
Wubben also explained some of the improvements the team had made. “With the robot, it’s really visible,” Wubben said. “At state hub, you could only see the two water cannons on it. They’ve added four more. There are six water cannons on it. That’s just one of the things we’ve been doing.”
Wubben said improvements had also made to the team’s marketing and business presentations and its booth.
“We’ve done fairly well at regionals for the past six years, finished in the top eight and above,” said RoboJackets coach Denise Adair. “Two years ago, we won the whole thing. I’d like to finish in the top three. I’d love to win it. We’re solid in all areas, robot, marketing, booth, spirit, sportsmanship, engineering notebook’s already been graded. Now we just have to finalize some stuff and get there.”
Adair also said she thought the team had a good chance to win in Auburn.
“We’ve got a very robust robot, and we did well at the state competition,” Adair said.