THOR (Thundering Herd of Robots) was North Carolina’s first off-season tournament, where FIRST Robotics teams competed with an official field in an unofficial event. We had been looking forward to it for almost a year, so when we finally rolled up to Reidsville High School, we were very excited.
Starting Out Slow
Team 2640, Hotbotz, set up their robot under the climbing tower in preparation for a match at THOR.
For this event, we had decided to give new students a chance to drive Trillian in competition. This choice, however, did have its trade-offs; Trillian was broken on several occasions and we lost many matches due partially to inexperienced driving.
Picking Back Up
Bethany and Megan enjoying the event.
In order to better prepare for the looming elimination rounds, we eventually decided to bring out our more experienced drivers. It was amazing; Trillian scored over 60 points in one round!
With this, we had the confidence we needed to finish up qualifications.
Eliminations
Trillian lining up
Our time in eliminations started out well; we won our first match with a score of 42 to 40; however, we had some issues in the second match and we ended up losing. This forced a third match to decide who would enter the finals.
The Final Blow
Unfortunately, things would go downhill from there; toward the beginning of the sudden death match, we ran into a problem. Literally.
As we were driving to the feeder station, Trillian received a bump that knocked her off her trajectory and directly into one of the tower legs.
Due to this, we were unable to shoot for the rest of the match, which eventually led to our loss and elimination.
Conclusion
Trillian hooked on
We had a blast participating in THOR (Thundering Herd of Robots), North Carolina’s first off-season tournament. Though we may not have won, we really enjoyed driving Trillian and reconnecting with other teams.
One could label a robot demo “showing off with a purpose.” That is exactly what we have been doing for the past month.
With two, high-performance robots at hand, we have traveled to local events such as the BEST FEST in Raleigh, Robot Rumble in Durham, and the SR7B Conclave in Carthage to spread the word about our team and others in our area.
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.
Early on in the first week of Ultimate Ascent, we decided that we wanted both a Frisbee shooter and pyramid climber. But how would we do it? Our climber design transitioned through various designs before we assembled this ten point climber.
For this year’s FIRST Robotics Competition, Ultimate Ascent, we knew that we had to be quick if we wanted to both shoot Frisbees and climb the tower. Thus, by week two, we had started on our shooter prototype and by the end of the fourth week, we had completed assembling our shooter.
We were rather surprised not only by how powerful the shooter was, but also by how successfully the hopper performed. The piston and the Frisbees worked flawlessly together, which will hopefully help our robot shoot more consistently. Overall, things seem to be going well.
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