The Children of the Corn 167 I.C.C.S.D robotics club finished second in Iowa and earned a spot in the upcoming world championship in Houston.

Liam Asher and Cody Rhinehart joined the team and have been practicing and building their robot at the Kirkwood Regional Center.

“So our robot, as of right now, weighs about 113 pounds and uses swerve drive for the wheels. It has four of them. And what they do is they can turn and go in all directions, so it can move wherever it needs to. The robot also has an elevator on it, which is two-stages, and it has a coral mechanism, which is just a PVC pipe inside of it,” Liam Asher said.

Children of the Corn built the robot to go up to a height of eight feet. The robots don’t fight but are dropped into a coral station, which is where the robot can grab the game pieces.  Video game controllers move the robot.  There are different levels worth different point values.

Liam is considering pursuing degrees in engineering or building-related fields.

“I think I like the whole building aspect of it. That’s what I’ve been doing. And I like it because we’ve been able to use power tools and learn how everything works and build things. And it’s really cool because we get to learn how everything works,” Liam said.

Heading into the world championship in Houston the team is working on final adjustments to their robot.

“We’re hoping to do decently well. We know we’re one of the better teams. So we’re hoping to really show off what we can do, and hope to get a good place in Worlds,” Asher said. “We’re fixing some things, making sure everything works as it’s supposed to. We’re just keeping everything in shape and trying different things as of right now. We don’t have a whole lot of time, so we can’t make major changes, but we can make small changes here and there.”

Students interested in joining the team can email Coach Maddison at info@iowacityrobotics.org.