Neosho Daily News - Neosho, MO
  • 9 take part in robotics competition

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  • Nine Neosho High School students in the Neosho Robotics Club are in Sedalia today for the "Show-Me BEST" robotics competition at State Fair Community College (SFCC).
    The event is set for Saturday.
    BEST, which stands for Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology, is a non-profit, volunteer-based organization that sponsors a nationwide competition open to students in grades 6-12. SFCC is Missouri's only hub competition site.
    "The task this year was basically to simulate building computer chips, so we are supposed to move transistors, towers and CPUs in a specific place in order to basically build a computer processor, so that is what we designed the robot to do," said Brady Daugherty, a member of the Neosho Robotics Club who is attending the competition. "Every club is given a specific set of materials and all of the materials are the same, but the schools come back for the competition, obviously have different designs and different ways to accomplish the task. Basically, the robot runs on a basic two-arm mechanism, obviously the main arm would control both and the sub arm is just for precision."
    According to club member Evan Cherryholmes, the group will compete against 16 teams. The regional competition is between 20-40 teams.
    During the third lunch shift at the high school's cafeteria, the club put on a demonstration to show the students what their robot could do.
    "Right now, we are just doing the basic demonstration, a couple of days ago we were running it up and down the lunch aisle," said Daugherty. "Some of the kids liked it, other kids were freaked out by it. It is just a fun thing when kids see something that is cool, it has a bunch of motors and mechanisms."