Local students prepare for First Lego League robotics competition

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WMBB) — Holy Nativity Episcopal School’s Robo Bolts Club is heading to  Embry Riddle Aeronautical University on Wednesday to compete in the First Lego League’s Florida Sunshine Invitational. 

They’ll be competing against teams from around the world to see who has the top-notch robot.

“There are actually six teams that were invited from Florida from the various regions. We feel so fortunate to be included in that group. There are teams from all over the U.S. and also 16 different countries,” Robo Bolts Robotic Club Coach Jan Dykes said.

The robot will be judged on several different categories, which are assigned by the competition organizers.

“We have to build and design a robot that can perform as many of the assigned challenges as possible. We’ll explain to the judges how we designed the robot, the choices we made, and what our strategy is. We also have robot performance, which is where we actually are out there on the board actually demonstrating what our robot can do,” Dykes said.

Students engineered the robot to complete different tasks and maneuvers. It also has various attachments to complete those tasks.

“We’d start putting together different Lego pieces, maybe attach more things to make it a little more complex, and then run it through the different missions to see if it’ll actually work for anything,” Holy Nativity Episcopal School student Isaac Ward said.

Dykes said she’s impressed with the team’s accomplishments so far.

“We have eight rookie members on our team of ten, which makes our accomplishments this season really awe-inspiring to me. Our final robot design is something that really reflects a whole season of learning and growth,” Dykes said.  

Students said they think this will be the best competition yet.

“We have had a lot more hours practicing a lot more runs. Also, I feel like the group we have this year, we’re just kind of destined to do better,”  Holy Nativity Episcopal School Abram Jeffery said.

Holy Nativity Episcopal School is also in the process of constructing its STREAM building. It will help further educate students in science, technology, robotics, engineering, arts, and mathematics. The building is expected to be completed by October 2024