We went back to the school and met several times to review what worked and what didn't at that qualifier. We decided to ask GENUIS Girls if they would help us with getting our notebook into shape and they asked us for help on their electrical and drive-train. We met in November and worked on those areas nearly all day one Saturday.
2014-15 FTC Season
CASCADE EFFECT℠ is played on a 3.66 m x 3.66 m (12’x12’) square Field with approximately 30.5 cm (1’)-high walls and a soft foam mat playing surface. Two randomly selected teams are paired together as an Alliance to play a match against a second Alliance. Alliances are designated as either “Red” or “Blue.”
Scoring Elements are 160 white plastic balls - large (40) and small (120). In the middle of the field is the Center Field Structure which contains two Ball Dispensers with trap doors held in place by Alliance-specific Kickstands. There are also two Center Goals - one Red and one Blue - with Infrared Beacons placed beneath each Goal. The field has six Alliance-specific Rolling Goals with clear Ball Tubes of various heights (30 cm, 60 cm, 90 cm) as well as two Alliance-specific Ramps, Platforms, and Parking Zones.
The Match starts with a 30-second Autonomous Period where Robots are operated via pre- programmed instructions only. Prior to the start of the Autonomous Period, the Center Structure will be rotated to one of three positions. Points will be awarded for Robots achieving certain tasks including placing Autonomous Balls in the Rolling Goal and/or Center Goal , Robots moving off the Platform, knocking over the kickstand (and releasing balls into the field of play), and moving their Rolling Goals into the Alliance’s Parking Zone.
In the next two minute Driver-Controlled Period, Robots are tasked with collecting Balls and placing them in the Rolling Goals. Balls Scored In the Rolling Goals are worth points based on the length of the Ball Tube and the Ball Height (at the end of the Match), as shown in the table below.
The last 30 seconds of the Driver-Controlled Period is called the End Game. During the End Game, Robots may Score Balls into the Center Goal as well as the Rolling Goals. Teams can also earn bonus points for every Robot and Rolling Goal that is not in contact with the floor when the Match ends and by moving their Rolling Goals and/or Robots into the Alliance Parking Zone.
Our next opportunity was at the Wheeler Qualifier at the end of January. We had modified the robot in a variety of ways with a more reliable lift, better scoop for the balls, better programming, and MUCH more detailed and better documented notebook. We drove well and the robot required no maintenance at the Wheeler Qualifier. The judges were very interested in the fact that we had over a dozen CAD parts that we had 3D printed ourselves that were on the robot and all of them, other than our numbers, were functional parts! We ended the day with the second highest overall points for the robot and got the 1st place Inspire Award. Wow, quite a transformation from dead-last at the first qualifier to first overall.
We spent the weeks between the State and Super-Regional Championships practicing our driving, updating our notebook, and redesigning our all-terrain wheel drivetrain to make it more reliable. We dropped our stacked gear setup in favor or a chain drive for the wheels. We also had to make arrangements for 4 days off from school and travel from Atlanta to San Antonio. We flew to the meet this year, last year we drove nearly 20 hours to get there, and made a box to transport the robot on the flight with us.
The Rockin' Robots came off a solid 2013-14 season in Block Party as the Finalist Alliance Captain at the Georgia State Championship and a trip to the South Super-Regional Championship in San Antonio. We had two team members graduate from Faith and brought two new members up from the school's FLL Team to maintain our roster of four members.
We started the season by attending the kick-off for the new game at Southern Polytechnic State University in September. We worked for several months and took our first robot out to the opening qualifier for Georgia at the Cobb Galleria on November 1st. We didn't do very well with lots of mechanical problems, poor autonomous programming, and our notebook was a mess.
GA FTC State - Qualifying Match 6
GA FTC State Finals - Qualifying Match 6: Rockin' Robots & FPD Robotics (Blue) versus DarBots & CougarBots (Red).
Red won 454-298.
San Antonio was fun and we got there a day early to make sure our robot was in good shape to compete and to settle in before the competition. We went to judging on Wednesday night late and had 8 qualifying matches on Thursday and Friday morning. We won 7 out of 8 matches and ended up with points placing us 6th overall in the Ochoa division. In the semi-finals we got to captain the 4th place Alliance because the 3rd and 4th place teams were chosen to join the 1st and 2nd place teams in alliances. We played hard but came up just a little bit short in the semi-finals losing to the 1st place Alliance. Out of the 74 teams at the South Super-Regionals we were the only Middle School team to make it to the Semi-Finals or to Captain an Alliance. At the end of the day we were 19th out of 74 teams at the South Super-Regionals and earned a spot to go on to the World Championship in St. Louis at the end of April!
We even got a note in the Atlanta Journal Constitution (3/26/15, Pg. B5) about our team and how we did at Super-Regionals!
Our win at Wheeler earned us a ticket to the Georgia State FTC Championships held February 14th at Mt. Paran Christian School. Our driving wasn't the best that day and we had several mechanical problems so our robot performance wasn't great. Our notebook and judging earned us a 2nd place Think Award for the day and we were named an alternate to go to the South Super-Regional Championship in San Antonio in March.
The 2nd Place Think Award was nice but we thought our season was over at that point. We were very surprised a few days later when we got an email offering us an opportunity to replace one of the Georgia teams that could not go to the Super-Regionals.
Georgia Qualifier November 1, 2014
CougarBots & Gear Devils (RED) versus Rockin' Robots & Night's Watch (Blue) in GA Qualifier, Nov 1, 2014.
Red won 134-130.
CougarBots & Tigerbytes (Red) versus Gear Devils & Rockin' Robots (Blue) in GA Qualifier, Nov 1, 2014.
Red won 38-30.
CougarBots & Tigerbytes (Red) versus Gear Devils & Rockin' Robots (Blue) in GA Qualifier, Nov 1, 2014.
Blue won 186-110.
Season Kickoff
Wheeler Qualifier
South Super-Regional
We thought we were the only team from Georgia to go on to the World Championship for FTC's 2014-15 season but while driving up to St. Louis found out that Darbots from the Darlington Academy in Rome were able to go as an Alternate. It was great that Georgia had two teams representing FTC at St. Louis. We were only two of 100 teams from the United States at the Championship. We had an AMAZING time at Union Station in St. Louis!
We were featured by 11Alive (WXIA Channel 11 – Atlanta) on their feature show “Tech Edge” on 4/11/15.
The Marietta Daily Journal, our hometown paper, did an article on the team that appeared April 20th and was picked up by the AP Wire Service and used as an article in most of the regional papers across Georgia. The original article can be found here: http://bit.ly/1P3K88a