Knob Noster Robots delivered candy to people walking past the Knob Noster High School Stealth Panther Robotics team booth at the city fair.

The group built and entered robots in the national First Robotics Competition, which began with a January challenge to teams to create a certain type of robot, student Joey Baker, 15, said.

We have to make a robot that will play a game, Baker said.

The team built a robot with a delivery system, he said. He demonstrated at the fair with one robot that carried one piece of candy and another that threw Tootsie-Rolls to people.

Fuel we collected off the floor with our amazing motor. (The fuel) goes into our hopper, which will get spun around into our shooter, and that will shoot it into the boiler, Baker said.

Fuel consisted of Wiffle Balls.

Knob Noster finished 20th out of 68 teams in the World Championships in St. Louis, with no divisional breakdowns for schools of different sizes. Before going there, the team went north for the 10,000 Lakes Regional Robotics Competition in Minneapolis, winning the Rookie All-Star award, the highest award for a first-year team.

We were able to compete with veteran teams that were 10 times bigger than us, as rookies, so I feel really good about the future of the program. My dozen kids from here go up against 50-member teams, Stealth Panther Robotics head coach Chris Adams, a technology and engineering education teacher, said.

Competing well nationally is a tribute to the students and the teams sponsors, Adams said. Sponsors include Northrup Grumman, which built the B-2 bombers stationed nearby at Whiteman Air Force Base. He said volunteers who put in hundreds and hundreds of hours individually this year are a critical element in the teams success.

Our team put in 8,000 hours building these two robots, Adams said.

The Stealth Panthers look forward to 2018 competition, he said.

Were going hot and heavy back in next year, Adams said.

What worked last year may not work next year, Baker said.

We get a new game every year, he said.

Other than the motors and gear boxes, you cant fabricate anything in advance, Adams said. Its a worldwide reveal and theres thousands of schools nationwide that will all reveal on the same day.

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Robots deliver candy - The Daily Star-Journal