On Saturday the 18th of April we competed in the Munster Analog Devices Primary School Robotics Competition. This competition took place in the Analog Devices building in Limerick. When we arrived we collected our team poster from our teacher Conor. This poster was all about archaeology and how robots can help archaeologists. We were then shown to our table and on our table was a computer and a box of lego spike. The host then announced that we were going to be making sumo wrestling robots on the day. We were very excited when we heard this! We then had two to three hours to build a base model and armour. After this we tested out our robot on other teams in practise matches. It performed very well during these matches. We then had a short break for lunch and after that we began the group matches.
We had seven matches competing against other schools across Munster. We won seven out of seven of these matches and made it through to the quarter finals. We then progressed to the semi-final and eventually the final. In the final we were against Scoil Mhuire from Broadford in Limerick. Unfortunately we lost this match but we did not give up hope yet! In the end it all came down to the points that we scored on the day and we scored higher than the other team by one point. The judges looked at teamwork, our poster, creativity, communication and the robot itself. We couldn’t believe that we had come out on top on the day and we were over the moon! We are the Munster champions and a few weeks later we were interviewed on Clare FM by Alan Morrissey about our great win. We are so proud of our team and our journey to the Munster final!
By Orla Brooks, Donnacha Mockler and Adam Maguire.
Knockanean National School 