| | INSIDE THE BAY AREA’S PREMIER STEM PREP HUB | October 2026 |
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| | 100 Tournaments, 3,000 Miles, One World Away |
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| October delivered. Last month we counted down to our 100th VEX Robotics tournament, and this month we hosted it. We also ran two more events in Pleasanton, sent a team across the country to Maine, and got our first look at this season's VEX AI rules. And One World is just weeks away. Here's the rundown. |
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Tournament No. 100: Mission Accomplished |
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It's official: Robolabs / Dublin Robotics Club has hosted 100 VEX Robotics tournaments. Number 100 took us on the road to Ravenswood Middle School in East Palo Alto, proof that everything we've built over eight years travels well: the fields, the electronics, and the team that keeps a tournament day on schedule.
Once the fields were down and everything was packed, our tournament support team went out to dinner to celebrate, and that's them in the photo. These are the people who set up before the first robot arrives and keep matches moving all day. Tournament 100 belonged to them as much as anyone.
Here's to the next hundred. |
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Two More Saturdays in Pleasanton |
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| The count kept climbing. On October 17 and October 24, we hosted two more tournaments in Pleasanton, one for the VEX IQ Robotics Competition and one for the VEX V5 Robotics Competition.
Both of this season's games, Override (V5) and Level Up (IQ), are evolving fast. Strategies that looked bold in August are now standard, teams are getting more consistent every weekend, and more matches are coming down to the final seconds. |
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| Dublin Robotics Club VEX IQ Tournament #1 (Oct 17) |
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| DRC VEX V5 Robotics Competition #1 (Oct 24) |
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From California to Maine: Robolabs Takes on Harbor Havoc |
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On October 16 and 17, teams 3134G and 3457B traveled to South Portland, Maine, to compete at the inaugural Harbor Havoc Signature Event, a two-day high school competition drawing teams from across the country.
Competing out of state is one of the best ways to grow: new opponents, new strategies, and a firsthand look at how teams from other regions are playing Override. 3134G and 3457B came home with fresh ideas and plenty of motivation for the rest of the season. |
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VEX AI: Never a Better Time to Join |
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This season's VEX AI Robotics Competition manual is out, and it's the most welcoming version yet. In VEX AI there are no drivers: each team fields two fully autonomous robots that sense the field, make decisions, and score on their own for the entire match.
What's new this season: A simpler field. Four Goals are removed, leaving one in each quadrant plus the center, each marked with its own AprilTag so robots can find their way. Room to experiment. The rules ask referees to give grace. Autonomous robots will sometimes do things their teams didn't intend, and that's treated as part of the challenge, not a penalty. Robots you may already have. Teams bring one 18" robot and one up to 24", instead of 15" and 24". That means a standard V5 competition robot is VEX AI legal without a rebuild.
Our VEX AI team, 3134X, is already building for the season, and there's room for more students. Our first VEX AI tournament is January 9, 2027, open to teams from anywhere, and 3134X will be there to show what they've built. |
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Months of planning come to life this month. One World, our VEX V5 Signature Event at UC Berkeley, brings more than 120 teams to Pauley Ballroom, competing for three spots each at the 2027 VEX Robotics World Championship. High School: Saturday and Sunday, November 21 to 22 Middle School: Sunday and Monday, November 22 to 23
Both divisions are full. If you're nearby, stop by, catch a few matches, and see what a Signature Event feels like. We'll see you at Berkeley. |
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| | | 💡 RoboFact: How a Robot Reads a Sticker
Those black-and-white squares on every VEX AI Goal are called AprilTags. They look like QR codes, but they do a different job. A QR code stores information, like a website link. An AprilTag tells a camera where it is: by measuring the tag's size and angle in the image, a robot can work out its distance and direction in a fraction of a second. AprilTags were created in 2011 at the University of Michigan, and today they're used by robotics labs and drones around the world. This season, they're one of the ways VEX AI robots know where they are on the field. |
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| | Hands-on and immersive VEX and FIRST Robotics for kindergarten - 12th grade. |
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| | Fun, and valuable Robotics learning over a break. For students from 1st to 12th grade. |
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| | Journey to become a high-school author and inventor! |
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| | Leverage the entirety of Robolabs to get you into your dream college. |
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| Summer Academy at UC Berkeley |
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| Explore AI and robotics at UC Berkeley with expert mentors. |
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| | Design and code real-world apps from scratch. |
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| | Master SolidWorks & Onshape to design real robotics parts. |
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| | Create, prototype, and build your own product with 3D printing and CNC milling. |
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| | DUBLIN ROBOTICS CLUB, ROBOLABS DUBLIN |
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