New Vex IQ challenge

Last week Vex IQ just announced the new 2025-2026 challenge Mix and Match as seen in this video:

This game seems to be relatively complicated compared to past challenges, involving stacking pins on top of each other, using beams to add bonus points, and also involving a loader and some standoff goals. However, Vex has done stacking games before, and we can learn from past teams. For example, this robot from the 2014-2015 competition Highrise can preform functions similar to what this year’s robots need to do, including stacking and collecting blocks of a similar size to this year’s pins.

This robot uses a flywheel intake and a hopper system with a clamp to load and stack the blocks. This robot design can be modified for use with this year’s pins, though it won’t be able to reach the starting posts or the central standoff. Our team is currently working on a prototype to see if this is possible.