The Tennessee Tech Autonomous Robotics Club has qualified for the 2026 VEX Robotics World Championship, marking the third consecutive year the team has earned a spot in the competition.
Club President Coby Smith said the club works on several different projects, ranging from 3D printers to battle bots. Smith said any student can join the club regardless of their major.
“We need to have people who can advertise the club, like social media managers,” Smith said. “We need to have people that are actually able to design like mechanical engineers. That diversity on the team really allows us to hit each area of the robotics field.”
The club qualified for the world championship in the VEX U category after receiving several awards at previous competitions. Though competing at the world championship has become the new norm, Smith said it is still an exciting opportunity for the club.
“Not only are we competing onthis world-level stage, but we are also getting to meet people from across the world wether it’s Mexico, Canada, China, New Zealand, Australia, all of these different other countries that we get to see how their engineering programs are over there and get to actualyl learn from other people that are not just in the local area. But also, it kind of gives us an opportunity to bring Tennessee Tech to these other places and to show other engineering students just how good our teams are.”
Smith said in the VEX U category, a different game is played each year. Smith said this year’s competition consists of a game called “Push Back,” where two robots work in tandem to collect blocks on a playing field, where the team that ends up with the most blocks wins.
Smith said that typically, all of the robots from other teams are vastly different, but are all designed with the same goal. Smith said the club’s ferris-wheel like robot has notched multiple honors, including the Excellence Award, which was the highest honor at a VEX U tournament previously held in Louisville, KY.
“What it does really uniquely compared to other robots is that it is able to hold 18 different blocks, and it is able to rotate them on a Geneva mechanism around the robots, which allows it to score 18 blocks at a time, compared to the average, which is about seven blocks,” Smith said.
The club also earned both the Design Award, recognizing technical documentation and presentation, and an Innovate Award for creative problem-solving at a competition hosted by Monroe Community College in Michigan. Smith said the robot has seen so much success because the club was allowed to fail.
“Because of that, that allows us to grow and to learn and to improve each time,” Smith said. “So when we have our shortcomings, you know, we look as a team, and we say, ‘How can we improve? How can we get better?’ And every year, we have had that opportunity to grow and develop.”
Tennessee Tech’s Autonomous Robotics Club will compete at the world championship this April in St. Louis, MO. Before competing at the world championship, the club will compete next at events at Auburn University and in Bristol, TN.
Smith said Tennessee Tech has been a strong supporter of the club, providing a dedicated space for members and allowing the organization to host events.To learn more about the club, follow @tntecharc on Instagram.