Photos: Matthew Hatcher/The Marion Star

Students from Ayb High School in Armenia’s capital city made their second trip to Marion this week to compete in the National Robotics Challenge, reports.

The three-day open robotics competition started Thursday and continues through Saturday at Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

“Last year we heard about it and decided to participate,” said Vazgen Gabrielyan, director of the robotics laboratory at Ayb High School. “We really liked that the competition has no limits, not limiting us to any kits and having the chance to create things from scratch. That’s our approach to robotics.”

That approach proved to be successful as the Ayb students captured a Honda Innovation Award and a silver award in the lightweight/self-controlled sumo robot competition at the 2016 edition of the NRC.

“We’ve had a lot of success in both local and international championships since the school opened,” Gabrielyan said.

The Ayb team’s accomplishments in Marion had both the school and the country “boiling,” according to Gabrielyan.

“That was a a big pleasure for us to get that (Honda Innovation Award), because we put a lot of hard work into that robot,” said Armen Barseghyan, a senior at Ayb. “Reporters were coming to our school and doing interviews, asking how it was to go to the National Robotics Challenge from a little country and take the silver medal and the higher award.”

Barseghyan and classmates Areg Kalantaryan, Areg Karapetyan, Felix Ghandilyan, Simon Zohrabyan, and Arman Mnatsakanyan have entered two robots in this year’s competition — one combat robot and one maze robot.