Aquabots in action at the NZAquabot challenge. PHOTO/SUPPLIED
A team of underwater robotics experts from Masterton Intermediate School has excelled at the 2018 NZAquaBots Challenge in Nelson, taking out second place in the intermediate section of the national event.
In a field of 24 intermediate teams, MIS’ two other teams also took out fourth and seventh places.
The competition involved three challenges using aquabots – underwater robots – built from specified materials.
They had to complete a three-dimensional obstacle course, a game of noughts and crosses, and a ‘Captain Cook’ challenge involving the discovery and retrieval of treasure from a sunken chest.
The MIS Chappie team took out second place, just behind Hobsonville, a previous winner.
The event took place in a Richmond swimming pool at depths of up to 2m, with the three-person teams operating their aquabots using a control unit from the side of the pool.
For the Captain Cook challenge, some out-of-pool paperwork was also required.
The MIS teams progressed to the national event after success in the Wairarapa regional competition, won by a team called the Jaquabots.
At the nationals, the Jaquabots recorded the second fastest time overall through the obstacle course, just seconds behind the overall winners from a secondary school team, also from Hobsonville, which has now won the event three times.
“We went down with the purpose of winning it, but we’re very proud of the result,” the teacher-in-charge Robyn Hamilton said.
