By Richard Bammer
Robotics season for California middle and high school students gears up at this time of year.
Just in time to distract them from semester-ending exams and the holidays, the 2015-16 VEX Robotics Competition will be Saturday at Vanden High in Fairfield.
More than 40 Northern California teams will vie for honors for doing their best to satisfy the requirements of a game called “Nothing But Net,” with teams try to place small balls into high and low goals or by elevating their ’bots in a “climbing zone.” With each team using, essentially, pint-sized robots, the competition will be played on 12-by-12-foot field. Two alliances — one “red,” the other “blue” — of two teams each will compete in matches consisting of a 15-second “autonomous” period, followed by one minute and 45 seconds of play controlled by the robot’s driver. The object of the game, of course, is to achieve a score higher than those of opposing alliances.