This year’s Competition features DroneBlocks’ DEXI!

DroneBlocks is proud to announce that the top High School Robotics competition in the Nation is nearly underway- with none other than the new DEXI Drone as a featured part of this year’s gameplay challenge. The Advanced Vertical Robotics Competition (or AVR) is a high-level multi-modal aerial and ground robotics competition that integrates real-world engineering challenges, emerging technology, and extensive team engagement with multidisciplinary learning to help high school students acquire vital skills for the future…and have fun! The annual competition culminates with a Championship Event in Dallas, Texas, where top teams compete for various national awards and are judged by engineers from Bell Helicopter. Down below, we speak with Competition founder Rohn Olson.

DroneBlocks has been a proud sponsor of the competition, assisting students on-site during competition play, as well as through donations for local schools fundraising to compete. This year however, DroneBlocks has sponsored the competition by offering the DEXI drone and kit which was added to the fleet of robotics students will build and manage to complete challenges. If you or your school have been looking for an opportunity to purchase DEXI, the AVR competition fee includes DEXI at a discounted price built into the registration fee!

How did DEXI fit into an already advanced national Competition?

We spoke with AVR Founder and former Bell Helicopter Engineer, Rohn Olson, who said, “We were actually looking for a replacement for the DJI Tello that would be a real big step-up. This is a high-end competition and the capabilities of DEXI got me excited. Not only for its advanced abilities but because it brings accessibility to the competition thanks to the learning resources DroneBlocks already provides.”

What role will DEXI be playing in this year’s challenge?

“DEXI is doing all the major challenges with its sensors. The AVR Drone is doing a lot of the heavy lifting as far as mechanical tasks, but the focus is on the DEXI and its coding and recognition abilities. It is also a great Drone to have after the competition, the learning process lives-on back at school independently of the competition.”

What is unique about the AVR Competition?

“Teachers tell us that they join AVR because there are so many roles for the kids to engage in. Most other competitions are composed of ‘teams’ where there’s only an opportunity for one person to play Quarterback, and everyone else sits and watches. At AVR, there are at least seven subsets that all have a role and specialty, so every student is engaged in their own responsibility and, of course, our high-end hardware, like DEXI.

Do some teachers hear “High-End Hardware” and feel in over their heads? “Maybe at first, but that’s why we introduced DEXI because it comes with all of the DroneBlocks learning material, it is accessible, and the learning curve is open to anyone. We also include an online forum, “Ask the Engineer,” for competing students and teachers who need help or guidance…so nobody is ever alone. We also have expert volunteers and sponsors at competition events who assist students – much like how the DroneBlocks team has been involved the past few years.”

Registration for the annual AVR Competition is now open through mid-September. Visit the website to learn more, and check out this year’s Infrastructure Recovery Challenge in a video walkthrough below! DroneBlocks hopes to see you at the November Qualification events and even better, to see you make it to the Championship event in December!

LEARN MORE & REGISTER HERE