Robots and their makers compete in Peshtigo on Saturday

PESHTIGO – Robots will be making their way through mazes and battling at Peshtigo Middle/High School on Saturday, Feb. 1 for the fourth annual Robot Rodeo.

The event is open to the public from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday in the gym Mike Paquette, a Pestigo Middle/High School career-technical education teacher and Skills USA club adviser, said.

Students in grades 5 through 12 are expected to participate in the rodeo, which includes several different judged activities.

Participants will receive evaluations in Engineering, Interviewing and Driving. “It gives kids an opportunity to practice,” he said.

“Teams from around the state come to Peshtigo with a robot they have pre-built to meet specifications. The robots must then maneuver through a course and pick up ordinances, while a team works to drive the robot,” Paquette said.

Besides the contestants, which include eight or nine Peshtigo students and those from other schools, Paquette said he hopes the event draws people from the community interested in seeing how robots work.

Extra robots will be available for people to try if they would like to, he said.

“We’re trying to make the competition a crowd-pleaser,” he said. “We’ll have little robots for people to try. We get a lot of parents and grandparents.”

The Robot Rodeo kicks off the robotics competition season for SkillsUSA. The robotics club Paquette manages at Peshtigo Middle/High School is likely to compete in three competitions this spring, he said. SkillsUSA offers competitions on the regional, state and national level.

Besides two mazes, which were popular in previous competitions, the Peshtigo event will include a Battle Box event, where students devise robots to compete in a box, similar to a boxing ring. They may use 3D printing to create their robots while adhering to safety guidelines, such as “no hazardous or dangerous materials coming into contact with humans.”

Staff will examine each robot, and participants must be prepared to disclose potential dangers, according to information on a website promoting the event.

For another judged activity, contestants put together an Engineering Notebook to keep track of the work they’ve performed and the steps they’ve taken, so other people can replicate it, he said. A sample Engineering Notebook includes a log of problems, solutions, successes and ideas.

Contestants also sit for interviews, with judges evaluating their skills. “We’re trying to make sure kids have the skills when they head out to the work world,” Paquette said. “We want to be sure they’re work ready.”