Week 2 Update
Hello Mythical Friends and Family,
We are digging into our work with FIRST Age, an archaeological theme for robotics this year. Our team has been super excited about this year’s game and is now hard at work coming up with ideas for a robot!
During this game there are two alliances each made up of three teams. On the field each alliance has a hub where their goal is to score as much fuel as possible. In the middle of the field is the neutral zone which has available fuel on the ground. During the first 20 seconds of the match the robots are in autonomous mode. Both hubs are activated and the robots run a pre-programmed code to either score fuel or use the climbing structure. Robots can collect fuel from various places, the depot on the ground, the human player outpost from a feeder intake, or the neutral zone. But to get into the neutral zone they must either cross over a bump or duck under a bar. Human players also have an exciting job this year as they can throw fuel from the outpost into the hub! For the last two minutes and 20 seconds of the match the robots go into tele-op mode where the drive team takes control and the remaining time is split into six shifts. The first shift is the transition shift where both hubs are activated for ten seconds. Then, there are four alliance shifts split into 25 seconds each. During these shifts the alliances take turns having one of their hubs active while the other hub is inactive. Finally the last shift is the end game, both hubs become active and the robots can return to their towers and climb to earn more points. If you want to watch the game animation in action you can click here!
After studying this awesome game reveal, the build, programming, and strategy team have been working together to build awesome robot profiles. They use these different robot profiles to play the robot paper game. This game functions as a robotics role-playing game where we get to feel the flow of the game and test out different robot profiles. These profiles help show what robot profiles will work best. Finally after prototyping different parts such as possible shooters or intake systems, a final decision is made!
As we continue prototyping and working on our robot, we can’t wait to compete this year! With our first competition only about six weeks away we have been busy. And if you’d like to cheer us on at our first competition, we would love to have you on March 4-7th at DECC Arena, Center 350 Harbor Drive, Duluth, MN. Thank you for reading, we look forward to writing to you next week!