High school robotics teams compete in BotsIQ battle at BC3
BUTLER TWP — Hammer 2th and Last Ride didn't fare well in the gladiator-style battles they fought in an enclosed arena Thursday, but the students who built them learned a lot and will move on to bigger things.
Hammer 2th is a robot designed and built by one of the two Butler High School teams who competed in the preliminary round of the Southwestern Pennsylvania BotsIQ competition sponsored by Pittsburgh Chapter of the National Tooling and Machining Foundation that took place at Butler County Community College.
Last Ride was Moniteau High School team 2's robot. Technical difficulties prevented Moniteau's team 1 robot from competing.
The same fate befell the Seneca Valley Senior High School team robot Nemesis.
Butler's second robot Perpetual Motion was scheduled to compete in late afternoon.
The other half of the 65 schools participating in BotsIQ will have their preliminary round next week at Westmoreland County Community College, and the winners will meet for the finals April 13 and 14 at California University of Pennsylvania.
Each battle lasts up to three minutes and is fought in an arena enclosed by transparent material intended to protect spectators from the flying shards or chunks of robots that get dislodged during the fearsome clashes. The enclosure was set up on the stage in BC3's Succop Theater.
Find out more about the BotsIQ battle in Friday's Butler Eagle.
