With the money and bodies to compete, the team started focusing on what skills it could exploit from its members and its first foray into the actual world of the F.I.R.S.T. Robotics Competition- the 2007 Oregon Regional Kick-Off Event at the LaSalles Stewart Center in Corvallis. Kevin, Logan, and seven other students attended, ably assisted by Mr. Jakobsson and Paul and Prudy Reno.
At this event the team was informed of its infant challenge- to design a robot that would be able to lift inner tubes onto the central rack: Rack-and-Roll. In addition, the competition would award extra points to teams that could raise or lower themselves above floor level. Upon returning to the school the team set to inventorying the parts received and oh, how the ideas flew!
Initial design committee meetings produced a design based on the human elbow: the basic chassis with an arm that could rise up to an angle in order to deposit the inner tube onto the rack and also to be able to pick up the inner tube off the ground. This design did not actively take advantage of the potential bonus, but instead could gather many points through the inner tube system.
When the chassis and the drive-train for the robot came together it became quickly apparent that this design would not be very practical and thus the final design for the robot came together: a scoop on a tower. This design used two hooks which could pick up inner tubes and then raise them to the level of the rack through a pulley system. This system was very effective, though when coupled with the string for the pulley and the plywood that formed the body it was quickly deemed “Ghettobot” despite the relative prosperity of the team.
A robot completed and shipped off by the due date, a team itching to be with its child again, bags packed, and all arrangements made – it could mean only one thing, that the F.I.R.S.T. Regional Competition was nigh. Arrangements had been made by January for the team to attend the F.I.R.S.T. Regional Competition in Portland, OR on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd of March, and all in all 15 members attended accompanied by Mr. Hanna and several other chaperones.
The robot performed well with only a few mishaps and in one round we were the only robot able to score points by lifting the inner tubes, which was encouraging for us! Overall we placed 14th in the competition (though our highest placement was 5th), but because we were a rookie team we were not able to gain enough attention to be picked for an alliance in the finals. Everyone had immense fun though, and hopefully we will be able to surpass this past record in the coming build year, 2008!
This first year in our program has been one of many learning curves: we have managed to build alliances with the community; we have figured out that the structure of the club must be able to incorporate everyone’s ideas; we have learned to work together on an engineering feat far beyond what each of us as an individual could accomplish; and we have tried and are trying to work on the principle of gracious professionalism. Most of all though, we have learned in these past few weeks that F.I.R.S.T. is one of the most amazing experiences of each of our lives.
