When you think about the Fort Worth Stock Show And Rodeo, you probably think about livestock. There’s a lot more to agriculture than raising animals and the stock show has a competition for that. Noelle Walker has the story.
The Fort Worth Museum of Science and History hosted competitors for the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo on Friday. None of them had any livestock, but they did have robots.
This was the 5th year for the FWSSR Junior Ag Robotics competition.
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WATCH HERE"Well, it could help, like, design things to take care of cattle," 9-year-old Allee Shelton said.
Shelton is on 'Team Code Crafters' for Tioga FFA with her twin sister Jolee, and 11-year-old Kallie Isbell. They were among the few all-girl teams competing.
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SIGN UP "Girl power," Jolee said smiling. "I like being with my girls," Allee said.
The Ag robotics teams had to build and program robots to perform a series of Ag-related tasks, like moving bales of hay. Teams had a set amount of time to tweak their robots and programming on a trial run before competing for the judges. The work is very detailed.
"Very important," Allee said. "Because if you get a detail incorrect, that could change the entire score of your team."
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There are real-world applications for what the students are doing with small robots.
"It applies today with a labor shortage and the high technology of stuff, people are doing more with less," FWSSR Ag Robotics Superintendent David Unger said. "The robots are the ones that are augmenting the workforce, so these kids here today are programming the workforce of tomorrow."
"I wanna be a vet who also, like, invents things to make cattle's lives easier to do," Allee said.
Code Crafters finished in 9th place out of 37 teams. Erath County 4-H won the Junior Ag Robotics competition. The winner of the senior division gets scholarship money and a FWSSR belt buckle.
