2024–2025Competitive Robotics

VEX Robotics — High Stakes

Built to compete in the 2024–25 VEX High Stakes season. The robot picks up rings and scores them on either a mobile goal or a wall-mounted goal, and finishes a match by hanging four feet in the air.

Timeline: 2024–2025
Status: Completed
Team: Team 5225A — PiLons
Role: Team CaptainLead Mechanical Design Engineer

Technologies

Autodesk Fusion 360Autodesk InventorVEX V5OdometryOmnidirectional DriveC++

Recognition

2025
Excellence Award — 1st Overall
VEX Provincial Championship
Finished the season as the top team in the province based on qualifications, tournament performance, judging and documentation.
2025
Design Award
VEX World Championship
Recognised for exceptional engineering design process, documentation and robot performance.
2025
4th / 830 Teams
Skills Ranking, VEX World Championship

Overview

High Stakes is the 2024–25 VEX Robotics Competition game. The robot had to pick up rings and score them on two different kinds of goal — a mobile goal that moves around the field, and a wall-mounted goal — then finish the match by climbing.

The robot we built does all three: it collects rings, scores them on either goal type, and hangs four feet in the air at the end of a match. It closed out the season as the top team in Ontario and took the Design Award at the VEX World Championship.

The 5225A robot on the competition field, viewed from the side.

The robot lined up against a wall-mounted goal stake on the field.

CAD & Mechanical Design

CAD was used extensively to plan and save time in the design process.

CAD render of the intake assembly, isometric view. — Intake — isometric

CAD render of the intake from the front. — Intake — front

CAD render of the intake from below. — Intake — underside

CAD render of the complete robot loaded with rings. — Full robot with a loaded ring stack

Technical line drawing of a gearbox and mechanism assembly. — X-Drive Pod Drawing — Expanded for Ease of Understanding

Fabrication

Hand holding a custom metal gear. — Removing the centers of steel gears to lighten them.

Lightening steel linear rails.

Close-up of the robot linkage and lift hardware. — Creating an ultralightweight deployable aligner.

Hang Mechanism

The endgame: four feet, vertically, in the closing seconds of a match.

The robot suspended from the overhead bar during a hang test. — Hang test

Gallery

The robot on the competition field under the VEX World Championship banner.

Three-quarter view of the robot on the field.

The robot photographed from the front on the competition field.

Side view of the robot with its intake visible.

Excellence Award signage from the Ontario Provincial Championship.

CAD render of the robot beneath the hang bar.

Robot with the E-Bots 5225A team plate mounted.

Results

World Skills Ranking: 4thout of 830 teams
VEX World Championship: Design Award
VEX Provincial Championship: Excellence Award — 1st OverallTop team in Ontario
Hang height achieved: 4 ft