During the Greensboro playoff rounds, our gear collector was destroyed in the heat of competition. As a result, we worked on making a new and improved one. It would still be automated, but it would allow us to collect a gear in the open field instead of chasing the gear to the wall like the previous collector required. This would allow for faster cycle times. We accomplished this by moving the roller out to the edge of the collector, allowing it to make instant contact with the gear. We also made it so that the gear would sit higher in the robot, making it easier to place the gear on the peg in teleop and in autonomous.

On the first day of competition, we started off strong as a result of our drive team’s growing experience and confidence with operating Slartibartfast. Our improved gear collector and the ability to get a gear in auto was a huge help to the alliances that we were on. We ended the day ranked in 5th and showed that we were consistent and one of the better performing robots at the event.

On the next day, we continued to perform well and ended up ranked 3rd at the end of qualification matches. During alliance selections, we became the 2nd alliance captain. Our alliance partners were Team 3196, Team SPORK and Team 4795, EastBots. The playoff rounds followed in quick succession, and we made it to the finals. We won the first round by one pressure point, but fell short of winning the other rounds. Though our team was disappointed that we did not win (we were short one climb), we were pleased that we ended the event as winners of the Excellence in Engineering Award!