Photo courtesy of Mariah Schley.
OMHS robotics
The drivers on the OMHS robotics team pose with their robot.
Oak Mountain High School’s robotics team, which is composed of 21 students, participated in a BEST robotics competition at the University of Alabama at Birmingham on Oct. 11 with other area schools.
They took 3rd place overall, placing second in spirit and sportsmanship, third for their marketing booth, fourth for their robot and fourth for their engineering design notebook.
The OMHS team will go up against the top regional teams in December at Auburn University for the South's BEST competition. Spain Park, Homewood High School, Homewood Middle School and Evangel Home School will also be going to Auburn.
The main competition involves driving the robot through an obstacle course with a remote control, and the robot also must complete simple tasks. The competition includes activities by the team's mock company to promote and "sell" the robot, such as creating a trade show booth, a marketing presentation and spirit and sportsmanship.
The Oak Mountain team spent six weeks building the robot and practicing with six different drivers. This year’s competition theme involved mining, so there were pieces of hardware that represented different ores on the obstacle course and the team’s goal was to collect all the ores in a timely manner.
- Submitted by Mariah Schley
