By Zack Posego, website editor

Beginning at 9 a.m. tomorrow morning, RoboBot teams from across the state will meet at the Meadville High School gymnasium to fight for dominance in the ring. The tenth annual RoboBOTS competition allows students from over twenty different schools to build robots with standard requirements and launch them into a ring to cause destruction to other machines. Last year’s competition saw about 300 competing students and over 1,500 spectators, and this year’s’ contest is expected to be even larger.

RoboBOTS began in 2006, when first developed by the National Tooling and Machining Association (NTMA), and the creators of the tv show Battlebots (in which homemade robots face-off in competition), in order to allow students to work together to learn more about

the robotics industry, and science and manufacturing industry in general. It continues to propel students into the workforce by giving them a chance to use the necessary skills to build machines and apply them to real life jobs that they may do in the future.

Last year’s 2015 champion robot at the event was EarthShaker of Cochranton High School, and Saegertown’s Black Widow won third place in the event out of 38 teams, as well as the “Best Sportsmanship” award. This year, the Saegertown robot Chopper will be competing in the 10th annual competition. “I feel like we have a very good shot at winning. We’ve been working really hard,” said president of the club, senior Cy Van Cise. Chopper’s first match will be at 10:12 in the arena against Calediak, the bot from Cochranton. The members of Saegertown’s team in addition to Van Cise include: Jesse Beers, Alan Chess, Michael Chess, Austin Cooper, Chris Davis, Caristian Dejohn, Wesley Fleischer, Chris Hancock, Matt Luzier, Brian Peters, Steve Siple, and Logan Weed. They are advised by Mr. Jeff Patrick.

Live action from the event will be posted at http://allprosoftware.net/robobots2016/, and you can see updates throughout the day @PantherPressSHS.