Robotics

Robotics ruled the spring semester my senior year. I was part of a F.I.R.S.T robotics team. F.I.R.S.T is a program started by the inventor of the Segway to help high school students become more interested in Science and Technology. There are over 1300 teams all over the world. We have 6 weeks to design build and test a robot. Each year the task is different. This years game was similar to a giant tick tack toe game. At the end of the round we had to deploy ramps from the side of our robot so other robots could climb up them.

Every thing I thought about had something to do with robotics. Whenever I saw a digital clock form the sequence of numbers from a familar team, I wondered how their robot was doing. Whenever I got on the internet I looked up other teams design ideas. We went to two regional competitions and the Championship. One of the regionals was right here at home. It was being held in the Armory on the Purdue campus. This was our home regional, and I desperately wanted to win.

I was confident in our robot, and my driving performance. Our drive team had four members, Jorge, our coach, Will, the operator, Sean, the human player, and me, the driver. I knew our whole drive team working together could bring this beautiful machine to the winners platform. We started off average, winning a match and losing a match. we honed our skills as the matches went on, and we started winning more.

Friday rolled around, the second of three days. this was our time to show other teams what we could do. We got paired with some good teams and some bad teams. Overall, I was disappointed with our performance, but I was still confidant we could do well.

Saturday was finally there. This was it, the finals. We weren’t in the top eight, but I knew we would be picked. From the research I had done during the competition, I thought we would be picked by the seventh seed alliance. One through six picked their first of two picks. The seventh team Capitan hesitantly said, “Team 1023 would like to ask the assistance of team…1747.” My heart sank. I thought they would have picked my team, 461, but they picked our sister team instead. A guy behind me was yelling that we were next. The eighth team captain asked for another team. I was relived, but still hesitant to celebrate, because we hadn’t been picked yet. The seventh alliance got their chance to pick their third member next. They stepped forward and said, “Team 1023 and team 1747 would like to ask the assistance of team…461.” It took me about a second before I took it in. Even though I was expecting it, it still seemed surreal. I jogged onto the field, and said, “Team 461 graciously accepts!” I shock the hands of the captains from team 1747 and team 1023.

We had only a couple of minutes before the first match to formulate our strategy and get our robots in top shape. We went out on the field and dominated our competition. Match after Match we won. We got all the way to the final alliance. The winner was the won who won the best of 2 out of 3. We played our first match, and they won. We won the second one. Right before the third match started, our alliance shock the hands from the opposing alliance. This was it. We got back to our drivers stations, and I started to do my usual focus routine to shut out the crowd. Right before I started, I heard from our team, “Savvaiiannno…Savvaiiannno!” I just smiled to myself, and shut my eyes. The crowd was suddenly hushed. I could still hear them, but I was tuned into the field. I open my eyes, and felt the controls. I backed up, and the match started. The first 15 seconds are preprogrammed, so the drivers don’t do anything. I watched our robot do its usual routine. The buzzer went off, and I jumped forward, and started driving. I went around and put on a couple tubes. We had about 45 seconds left, so I drove back to the wall. I made sure I was clear, and then yelled at Will to deploy the ramps. Down one of the two went. One was stuck. I tried to get it down by shacking the robot a little, but to no avail. I looked at it closer and saw that it had gotten caught on itself. I looked up at our other alliance members. 1023 was trying to go up the ramps, but they were having trouble. 1747 took their turn, but there just wasn’t enough time left. The buzzer went off, and I knew we hadn’t won. My heart, along with my whole team’s, sank. It would have been the first regional we would have won in our eight years as a team. We got so close.

The picture attached is the back of the drivers stand just before the final match. My team is in yellow, team 1023 is in red, and team 1747 is in green.  I’m the only one with shorts on.

Advertisement

~ by aero528 on September 5, 2007.