After ranking third alliance overall at off-season competition, THOR III, we knew we needed to make some critical improvements to our new robot, Arthur, in order to perform to the best of our ability at SCRIW V. With a mere two weeks between THOR and SCRIW, our main priority for this off-season competition was to be able to lift a recycling container successfully each time we attempted it and place it atop a stack of six totes. We made the necessary decision of meeting five days a week for the two weeks we had to work on our robot. After several design ideas and building efforts, we were able to create a highly efficient, reliable lifting mechanism that met our needs. We managed to finish with a few days left to spare which we used to get some practice before the competition. Despite only having enough space to practice making stacks of five totes with a recycling container, we were confident in our robot’s ability to achieve our goal of making a stack of six totes topped with a recycling container.
At SCRIW, we started out with a rough match, but managed to consistently make two stacks of six totes topped with a recycling container and litter every match that followed. Sometimes we even had extra time to make a third stack of a couple totes with a recycling container. The performance of our robot made us alliance carriers in every single one of our qualification matches. As a result, our ranking, though fluctuating, remained within the top three throughout the majority of the qualification matches.
By the end of the qualification matches, we were ranked number one, thus being the first team to pick in alliance selections. Our alliance consisted of four teams: Team 4451, Robotz Garage; Team 1226, The Gorilla’s (1225) B Team; Team 3976, Electric Hornets; and ourselves, Team 2059, The Hitchhikers. Although Team 4451 was also capable of making two stacks of six totes with a recycling container, we knew we needed our other alliance members to be able to work the landfill and possibly get a fourth container from the center step on the playing field. Our strategy worked to our advantage and at the end of it all, we were named SCRIW V Champions!
A few weeks before THOR, North Carolina’s FRC off season competition, we had the idea to rebuild our robot, Dent. We knew it would not be easy because it required us to build another one in a little over three weeks that was better than our old one. Wanting to challenge ourselves, though, we decided to take the risk and start rebuilding. The project of creating another robot also provided the opportunity to train our new students.
By the time we finished building our new robot, Arthur, we only had a couple of days to practice driving and making stacks. Once we arrived at THOR, we found out that practice matches were not being run, which meant that our drive team was unable to get practice on a full field. As a result, our first few matches were a little rough because our drive team was still trying to get familiar with Arthur. As the morning progressed, our drive team got better and better. We ended up being able to stack four totes with a container and noodle on top, and get one to two stacks of three totes.
After the qualification matches, we ended up being ranked twenty-fourth, a result of being unable to catch up after our first few matches. During alliance selections, the third highest-ranking team chose us as their first pick. Our alliance ended up consisting of four teams: Team 5160, The Chargers; Team 2640, The Hotbotz; Team 2655, The Flying Platypi; and Team 2059, The Hitchhikers. The elimination rounds followed in quick succession, and our alliance ranked third overall. THOR was a great learning experience and will help us improve our performance in the offseason event, SCRIW, next week in South Carolina!
Having participated in the Palmetto Regional a few weeks before, our team came into this regional with a good idea of what we needed to do to perform well. Thursday went well and we were able to get autonomous working. We were also able to get in a lot of practice with the improved mechanisms that we had been working on during the weeks in between the competitions.
On Friday, we started off well and created multiple stacks, but did not have many of them capped with recycling containers, which caused our ranking to be low. As the morning progressed, our average score increased and we were slowly climbing up in the rankings. In our sixth match, we got the highest score of the regional, moving us from 39th place to 8th. After seven matches, we ended the day in 8th place.
The following day, we had another high scoring match and finished up qualifications in 8th place. We were the first pick for the first ranked team, Team 1225, The Gorillas. By the end of alliance selections, we had an all North Carolina alliance, with Team 900, The Zebracorns, as the third robot on our alliance.
We soared through qualifications as we scored over 100 points in both of our matches and advanced to the semi finals in first place. During the semi finals, one of our alliance partners’ robot was not working properly and we were close to getting knocked out. However, we took our one time out to get their robot fixed, and in the third match, we scored the highest score of the elimination rounds, which advanced us to the finals. In the first finals match, we outscored the other by three points, giving us a 1-0 lead for the win. In the second finals match, we had a rough start having the first couple of stacks getting knocked over and the other stacking robot having pneumatic issues. At the end of the match, we came out as the winners with a score of 72-65.
After the final matches, we were awarded with not only the win, but also the Industrial Safety Award and the Engineering Inspiration Award. We are having a great season and are looking forward to competing at the FRC World Championships in St. Louis!
Thank you to all of our sponsors, volunteers, and fellow teams who have all made this possible!
After a decent run in Palmetto, we knew we had what it would take to succeed in North Carolina; Trillian was performing outstandingly and would often score more than fifty points a match. At the same time, however, we realized we would have to continue to perform in order to stay competitive with the fifty-five teams from around the world attending the regional.
Thankfully, by the end of the second of our nine matches, Trillian was performing so well that we were the top ranked team. After a couple of challenging losses, however, we fell back to seventh place on Friday, but we managed to gain back a spot to sit in sixth place at the end of qualifications on Saturday.
Trillian at practice
Because we were in the top eight, we knew we would select or be selected by two other teams to join them in a permanent alliance for the elimination rounds, which would eventually determine the winner in a best-two-out-of-three tournament. In the end, we were selected by Blue Eagle Robotics.
In the quarterfinals, our alliance, which included Blue Eagle Robotics and The Flying Platypi, faced G.R.E.A.T., Team Spork, and the Pitt Pirates, all of whom had performed outstandingly in the qualification rounds. After winning the first round 61-48, we barely edged out our opponents on a tie-breaker, advancing with a score of 88-87.
“After alliance selections, I was feeling pretty nervous,” said team spirit lead Megan McGrew, “But we all came through.”
Trillian hanging
Next, we found ourselves in a close contest in the semifinals against the Hedgehogs, Gorillas, and Aluminum Assault. Losing the first match, we bounced back and won the remaining sudden-death matches to make it into the finals. It was exciting to hear the crowd chant the team cheer, “Don’t Panic,” as the drive team steered the robot off the field to prepare for the finals.
Against the top-seeded alliance of the Robodogs, Mechanical Mayhem, and the Robo Eagles, we arranged that the other alliance members would play defense while Trillian scored as many points as possible.
“We managed to block a lot of Mechanical Mayhem’s shots and delay the Robodogs quite a bit,” said mechanical lead Keegan Pierce. “We did really good.”
The strategy almost worked; our alliance got within four points of upsetting the top alliance in the second round. Eventually, however, we lost both matches.
Though we may not have won the regional, we still won the Regional Finalist Award and take pride in how we performed despite their challenging match schedule and other difficulties.
“It’s a very good end to the season,” said Megan. “It was so close, but we are still really happy.”
We are looking forward to another great year. Thanks to all the volunteers and fellow teams who made this all possible!
This was it. After six weeks of brainstorming, designing, and building a robot for ULTIMATE ASCENT, we were finally getting the chance to compete in the 2013 Palmetto Regional, a first week FIRST Robotics Competition Tournament.
The Palmetto Regional was big. With 65 teams, it was the largest regional of the year.
When we arrived on the first day of the regional, we had a functional robot that we could drive and shoot consistently. The team was out early on the field practicing and by lunchtime, we were able to squeeze in three practice matches. During these, we calibrated our autonomous and potentiometer, making a lot of progress becoming even more ready to compete by the end of the day.
Friday began the qualification rounds. In our first match, we were off to a great start, scoring a few Frisbees into the 3-point goal and earning 10 points by climbing up to the first bar. Despite missing during autonomous, our alliance ended up winning the match. After competing, we returned to our pit and continued our calibration.
Improving our robot throughout the day, we ended Saturday by scoring 128 points, the second highest score of the qualification rounds. Eventually, we were selected to be on one of the alliances in the elimination matches with M’Aiken Magic (Team 1102) and Team Spork (Team 3196). Although our robot played two very strong rounds, our alliance was eliminated in the quarterfinals.
Back in Raleigh, we reviewed video footage of our matches to identify our strengths and areas where we could improve during our next competition at the Dorton Arena in Raleigh. Trillian is very solid, but with a few small adjustments, we hope it will be one of the top robots at the NC Regional. Overall, Palmetto was a huge success.
After two weeks of preparation, the North Carolina Regional has come and gone in three short days. But despite that short time period, they passed anything but quickly or easily. The team got to feel a diverse range of emotions through the 72-hour period.
We arrived Thursday confident of a good showing based on our success at the Palmetto regional. We started the day making a few repairs to the robot, resulting in us missing our two practice matches before lunch. One of our worries was our front right wheel. We spent an hour getting in back in alignment but finished just before break.
After a quick lunch, our pit crew took Benjy out on the field to try to calibrate the camera, something we overlooked in South Carolina. Unfortunately, the sheer number of windows in Dorton Arena made it all but impossible to isolate the targets from the background light. It was simply too bright for the camera to be of much use to us.
That afternoon we made full use of the filler line, fitting in a team record five practice matches by filling other team’s vacancies. Our first match was a little worrying because our arm didn’t work, but as soon as we looked at the robot we realized we had left our pressure release open on our pneumatics system and pressure couldn’t build to hold the arm up. We laughed and remembered to check that before every match from there on. After that match we performed well in our final four practice matches and ended up going 2-3. At five our seniors joined in the senior picture and then we all left, several hours before the pits actually closed, spirits high from a successful day. We were ready for qualification matches to start.
Friday was a day filled with disappointment for us. We lost all seven of our matches, ending the day the only winless team. The only redeeming quality of the day was the few coopertition points we got, but through the day we were seeded as low as 51 of 53, and ended the day seeded 44. We were nearly tipped three times on the coopertition bridge. In our sixth match we got up and balanced the bridge at the two second mark. As our drive team backed off the controls, the bridge tipped and Benjy rolled off. As our driver jumped back to rebalance, the buzzer rang to end the match. We lost by five points.
In the downtime we had between our last two matches, we went to the practice field. We looked at our camera tracking, our shooting locations, our strategy, everything and anything that could help us win a match. We tried taking shots just as we had been on the field and we hit every three we took. It was bewildering. We weren’t doing anything different, but for some reason we could use dead reckoning perfectly on the practice field. In the end, we decided to change our strategy from taking long three point shots to drive right to the fender and sink much easier two point shots instead. We tried that in our final match of the day, but we were up against a very good opposing alliance and still lost.
Saturday was slightly more positive. We had three matches to try and show what we were actually capable of. While we stood in queue, our driver’s came over and handed us buttons with the logo of our lucky fast food restaurant from Palmetto. We ate lunch there every day and performed well in the afternoons. Since we couldn’t eat there, the buttons were the next best thing. When we won our first match, we knew it was real.
We won our second match as well, but didn’t manage to sweep the morning. Up against tough competition, we were down in the closing minute but only needed a single robot balanced to win. As we started up the bridge, one of our alliance mates rushed up behind us. As we tried to balance with the unexpected guest, they pushed us too far forward and we tipped over, our first and only this far. Luckily nothing was broken on Benjy, aside from a slightly bent arm. We took him back to the pit and then went up to the stands for alliance selections.
Sadly we were not picked, and since we were not seeded near the top we weren’t in the running to be a backup. After lunch we went down and took down our pit. We stripped Benjy of his arm and some of his Jaguars to replace the ones we took from Marvin so he will be operable at Robot Rumble, our demo next Saturday at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham. We’ll modify the arm before St. Louis and replace everything we took from Benjy when we see him next at Championships.
We finished in time to watch the finals matches as a team in the stands. We watched on as the top seeded alliance won in two matches. Congratulations to Team 2642, The Pitt Pirates, one of the teams we beat in the finals at Palmetto; Team 1519, Mechanical Mayhem, the top seeded team after qualifications, and Team 1311, Kell Robotics. They were very deserving regional champions.
We’d also like to congratulate our friends Hawktimus Prime for winning the Judges’ Award and Pyrotech mentor Linda Whipker for winning the Woodie Flowers Award. In addition to them, congratulations to team MARS for winning Chairman’s Award.
All in all, it was a disappointing competition for us as a team, but it was exciting to see teams we know so well win such prestigious awards. We got some more practice in before Championships, and now we’ll be even more ready to hold our own against the best of the best there. It’s coming sooner than you think!
Dates to remember:
Robot Rumble in Durham at the Museum of Life and Science: 5 days
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