Robots and ag come together at RodeoHouston – KHOU.com

Kids between the ages of 8 and 18 went head-to-head designing, building and programing robots to tackle six ag-related challenges.

HOUSTON When you think of Texas agriculture, what comes to mind? Livestock. Farmers. Probably tractors. What about robots?

"These kids are doing some awesome work in the area of STEM related to agriculture," said Dr. Toby Lepley, superintendent of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo's Ag Robotics Contest.

"The cool thing about it is these arent the kids we would traditionally look at showing at the livestock show," Lepley said. "These are young people from urban areas here in Houston all the way to our rural areas who have that interest in STEM."

On Wednesday, kids between the ages of 8 and 18 went head-to-head in NRG Arena, designing, building, and programming robots to tackle six challenges.

"Its difficult," said Caleb Kocmoud, part of Brazos County 4H's Team Sabotage.

This years challenges focused on pollination and bees, so each team's robot had three minutes to harvest honey, plant seeds, spread pollen, build a hive and identify bees (colored pegs), and help them find their favorite plants,

"That was very hard to program because you have to get it just right, tweaking it every single time," Noah Vieira, who is part of Team Null, said.

Issues identified in one round have to get fixed before the team goes again.

"It really helps develop communication skills, conflict resolution, really decision-making as well because these kids are having to use their heads very quickly to change and revamp whats happening on the playfield," Dr. Lepley said.

In Team Sabotage's case, the robot missed some cubes for the "hive" in the first round.

"We made some tweaks to extend the program further to get the last cube because we didnt get all the cubes in," said Kocmoud.

Those tweaks did the trick. Caleb and the rest of the Brazos County 4H team took home top honors. But every kid who competed walked away with valuable skills.

"Were educating them on bigger things than just livestock, but how STEM plays into livestock and really helps us live a healthier life," Dr. Lepley said.

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Robots and ag come together at RodeoHouston - KHOU.com