Smith-Cotton High School is scheduled host the inaugural “FIRST Robotics” Central Missouri Regional competition this weekend. (April 5-7).
According to a news release, the free event will be held at the school’s main and auxiliary gymnasiums which will feature 36 teams including local teams from Warrensburg, Knob Noster and Warsaw, as well as other schools in the states. Other squads will come from Kansas, Arkansas, Iowa, Oklahoma, and Illinois, as well as a team from Istanbul, Turkey.
This year’s FIRST Robotics competition is called “Destination: Deep Space,” which requires teams to build robots that can place hatch panels on cargo ships and rockets, then pick up and load orange cargo balls into those vessels; at the end of the match, teams earn additional points by climbing onto elevated platforms.
While inspections and some practices matches will be held on Friday, the competition is scheduled to begin with an opening ceremony at 8:30 a.m. and qualifying matches from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Saturday. The final round of qualifying is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. on Sunday, with a playoff and a winning team named later in the day. Concessions and food trucks will be available on site.
The regional awards ceremony will be immediately after the competition and will recognize teams and individuals who demonstrate engineering and programming excellence, safety, spirit and leadership.