Teams from four Louisville middle schools met on March 15 to take part in Special Olympics Kentucky’s Second Annual Unified Robotics Competition. Teams of students from Anchorage School, Kammerer Middle School, Stuart Academy and Westport Middle School met at UofL’s Founders Union for a day of Lego Robot battle with Westport and Stuart Academy each fielding two robots.

Competition started with the Clear the Board event where robots are programmed to locate and knock over a series of obstacles that are set up in the playing field. Robots get a maximum of one minute to complete the task with points awarded for each target knocked down. If more than one team clears all targets, the fastest time wins. Anchorage school’s Captain Anchor robot triumphed in the event with a time of 17.7 seconds.

Next up was the Battle Bots event. The event is similar to the television competition of the same name, but instead of fighting until one robot is incapacitated, it is more like Sumo wrestling where bots try to shove each other out of the playing field. Westport’s Mohawk robot knocked off Dragon from Kammerer Middle to claim the title.

After lunch came the competition everyone had been waiting for…the Battle Royale! All six robots enter the arena and they fight until only one robot is still within the playing field. Once again it was Mohawk from Westport Middle School that triumphed as the last robot standing.

In addition to the events, awards were also presented for best design and for team spirit. Kammerer Middle School’s robot won the best design award and Stuart Academy – who fought issues with their robots all morning but kept fighting – took home the spirit award.

See Photos from the 2024 Unified Robotics Competition

While the Unified Robotics Competition is the culmination of the robotics program. The process begins much earlier in the individual schools. Unified teams – which involve students with and without disabilities meet to design, build and program their robots together and then test them to make sure they are ready for competition.

Our thanks to all of the schools for participating and to our volunteer judges who helped make the competition run smoothly. For more information about our Unified Robotics program or about how your school can get involved, contact Michael Justice at 502-326-5002 or [email protected].