A robotics competition at VSA
By Princeton Chiu
On February 22, 2025, my teammates and I attended the robotics competition at Victoria Shanghai Academy. We were split into two teams, A and B, with each team having its own robot. After a restless sleep on Friday night, I dragged myself through to Saturday, the day we would participate in a small competition related to robotics.
We met up at the entrance of VSA, and after entering the building, we went to the sixth (or was it the fifth?) floor to receive our cafeteria coupons. I signed up for a coupon, and the food choices were quite similar between the two options we were given.
Turning to the right, we arrived at our tables, where we could repair our robots, work on them, and discuss strategies with our teammates.
The lights dimmed as we arrived at the school auditorium. It was large and spacious, resembling a movie theater or a grand stage for major performances. The seats were comfy and retractable. Representatives, volunteers, organizers, and the principal of the event extended their welcomes to all participants.
The VSA competition focused on VEX IQ, a robotics program widely used in many robotics competitions.
Above is our team’s other robot, which had a fairly simple intake and launch mechanism.
Throughout the event, both teams A and B participated in multiple matches. We brought our robots to the practice field to refine our shooting skills, but due to a lack of practice, it was difficult to score goals in the first few matches. At one point, another team’s robot got lodged in ours and broke off some parts. Our team quickly worked to repair the damage.
This is our robot in action, along with the field. Our goal was to pass the ball between robots and score points. Specific rules, such as hitting all the switches, granted additional points. There were also individual challenges where we had to achieve the highest score possible on our own, though our score wasn’t particularly high compared to others.
Although our performance and ranking gradually improved, we started noticing slight issues with our robot. Occasionally, it would misfire if the retract button was held for too long. We traced the issue to the gears, which would bounce up slightly and cause misfiring. Unfortunately, we didn’t know how to fix it at the time. We also realized that the second intake mechanism was straining the bot and was unnecessary since we only took in one ball at a time, so we removed it. After making these adjustments, our performance and ranking significantly improved. However, we were still not high enough to qualify for the finals.
We played a few more matches until lunchtime, where our team sat together at a single table, used our coupons, and ate our food. Soon after, the finals commenced.
We moved to the elevated side chairs, where we filmed and took pictures of the finals as they were displayed on the big screen below the stage.
After all the matches ended, the scores were revealed, and prizes were awarded. Given that we had fumbled some matches and didn’t score very high, our teams didn’t have high expectations. However, we still had a great time.
Despite that, a moment later, I found myself getting up from my seat and walking to the stage with my team. Apparently, we had won one of the awards—Community. Even now, we still don’t fully understand the exact purpose of the award.
This is a brief summary, and there are many more details, but I believe a short recap is sufficient. If you are interested in joining the robotics club, please fill out the form here:
Special thanks to Mr. Lowe and Mr. Sandford for accompanying and supporting the robotics club throughout the preparation and competition!