End-Tech, the first robotics team from Endon High School in Staffordshire, has enjoyed an outstanding success at the regionale competition. They’ve now earned their place at the first ever first Lego League UK National Final later this year! The team has now recorded their second straight victory in this round of the competition. Regardless, this victory underscores their amazing dedication and talent in the field of robotics.
From groups across the region, some coming all the way from as far away as Bradford to compete—the five-member team was up against serious competition. The competition this year was more intense than ever before, as teams had made real leaps and bounds to build upon their projects. End-Tech gained points by successfully completing a series of challenges set by the judges, including a presentation about the robot they built.
The team put in hundreds of hours after school as well as on weekends to code and build their robot. Eventually, they designed multiple iterations, adding improvements along the way, including adding new high-tech features like colour sensors. With these sensors, the operation of the robot has become very intuitive to control, very easy to maneuver and perform operations.
“We’ve swapped to a new coding software that uses Python so it’s much more accurate than it used to be,” said Malachi, one of the team members.
The scoring for the entire contest really was a gauntlet of tasks that demonstrated all of the robot’s abilities. Key to their success were the team’s strategic, tactical improvements against their own robot. Owen, a member of End-Tech, said their most recent improvements are particularly noteworthy.
“We’ve got a whole different robot with colour sensors this time, that makes it a bit easier to use,” he remarked.
As End-Tech makes their final preparations to head to Harrogate for the national tournament, they are excited to stand under the flag of Staffordshire. Their journey is a testament to the technical excellence, industry collaboration and fierce determination required to reach this goal. This year, the competition has been particularly fierce. The team’s accomplishments speak to their creative and inspired approach to robotics and competition.