Rockford robotics teams unite to refine their skills during off-season competition

ROCKFORD, Ill. (WTVO) — Four high school robotics teams from the stateline are uniting to refine their mechanical skills during the off-season.

The teams are competing against 29 others from Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Wisconsin. The competition consists of multiple three-on-three games with robots programmed by the teams.

“We’re thrilled to again help area high school students showcase their skills in science, technology, engineering and mathematics by designing, building and programming robots in a competitive format,” said Karen Hill, R2OC co-chair. “This program has long helped students develop the necessary skills to succeed in high school, college and beyond!”

Students had to build and program the robots before the competition.

“A match is two and a half minutes. The first 15 seconds are autonomous. So the students have programmed their robot, and if they do any scoring during those 15 seconds, the points are worth more,” said Hill. “After 15 seconds, they step up, take over their controls – which might be joysticks, game controllers, whatever they figured out works – and go about driving it.”

Anyone interested in watching the robots and their teams compete this Saturday can head to Rock Valley College between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. to watch the event free of charge.