Once again, End-Tech — the robotics team of Endon High School in Staffordshire — demonstrated their ingenuity. They triumphed at their qualifying competition in Newcastle-under-Lyme. The team, consisting of five members—Owen, James, Ethan Saunders, Malachi, and one unnamed member—secured their victory through a combination of skillful design and coding of their robot, which features advanced colour sensors.
The competition provided a set of unique obstacles that pushed the team’s creativity and determination to the limits. During the entirety of the competition, End-Tech’s robot was challenged with a multitude of different tasks created by the judges. The team dedicated hour after hour during and after school to crafting and programming their robot. More importantly, they learned to test the limits of its capabilities with every implementation.
Besides competing, End-Tech had the opportunity to show off their work with a formal presentation on their robot. The teams then gained points for completing challenges successfully, netting them enough points to earn their second regional win in a row. As you can tell, this year’s competition was out of this world! As Malachi reported, “Everyone [was] just better this year,” which only highlighted the depth of talent at the top level.
End-Tech has put on a stunning performance. Now, they’ll be taking Staffordshire’s brilliant and unique culture of innovation to the first ever UK National Final for first Lego League in Harrogate! Congrats to the team on achieving a huge milestone! They are now well-prepared and equipped to face challengers from further afield including a team that made the long journey all the way from Bradford.
The team’s approach this year included adopting new technology to enhance their robot’s performance. Owen commented on their upgraded design: “We’ve got a whole different robot with colour sensors this time, that makes it a bit easier to use.” As they told us during our visit, this innovation is a testament to the team’s commitment to pushing the boundaries of robotics technology.
Malachi further elaborated on their technical enhancements, stating, “We’ve swapped to a new coding software that uses Python so it’s much more accurate than it used to be.” This strategic hardware/software transition played a large role in their success in the contest.