More History @ Capital City Classic

How close our robot Heimdall's intake
was from the stack in the 2nd finals match.
If our robot had been touching, the stack
would have been void.

Today was Day 3 of the 2015 Capital City Classic. 17 teams attended, including us, the Citrus Circuits, the Buchanan Bird Brains, and Kennedy Robotics. We ranked 6th at the end of qualifications. We were picked by the #1 seed, Citrus Circuits, making history: this is the first time since the creation of our team that we have been picked by Citrus Circuits. At a qualifying regional, we picked the Citrus Circuits ourselves the year that we helped start their team. Ever since, they have ranked so high in all the competitions that both of us attend that we are unable to be in a position where we could pick them. Anyways, our alliance, along with team 751, Barn2Robotics, scored the highest match of the day at 226. We won the finals and came home with a big trophy. During this competition, rookies on our team got the chance to drive and co-drive Heimdall on Day 1 and Day 2.

"Intercompetitional Imbroglio"

At CalGames on Friday.

Fixing broken tab.

We didn't leave CalGames as we had hoped. Though Drive Team B got much experience from the competition, we had numerous robot and drive team problems throughout the day. It was in our last qualifications match that we realized that the front right Mecanum CIM motor was not responding. After the match, we traced it to a dead Talon that had been unresponsive the entire competition. It was then that we understood why we had made 6-stacks in each match but were unable to fully move throughout the match. Along with that, 2 tabs on our hay squeeze broke, making manipulating containers and totes almost impossible if not for the use of a Dremel and pairs of safety glasses. We had no raw materials. Team 649, M-Set Fish, a team on our upcoming match's alliance, proposed the idea of adding parts of a pair of safety glasses. We tried out the idea, and with rivets and a tape, it happened to be stronger than our originally made tabs. We were able to manipulate containers and toes for the rest of the day. Drive Team B's driver didn't realize that one can't strafe and turn Heimdall at the same time, as it heavily drains the robot's battery voltage. Nevertheless, Drive Team B learned from mistakes and got experience. We end 24th out of 36th, being a 2nd pick on the 5th seeded alliance. The video is a very close attempt of a 3-tote autonomous during practice while at CalGames.

Into CalGames

A lot has gone on since school started. We have almost 20 rookies in the Manufacturing Technology and Robotics classes combined, along with 15 veterans. We just got a new laser cutter (above), and it works pretty well. CalGames starts today. A group of veterans and rookies from out team left during 7th period for San Jose to set up the pit, robot, and do a couple of practice matches. The whole team is leaving tomorrow at 5:30am for Lynbrook High School for all of the matches.
Also, the Vanden Robotics Foundation is now listed as a charity under Amazon. If you shop using Amazon.com, you can help donate to the Vanden Robotics Foundation by simply doing normal Amazon shopping. Our rohotics foundation and team get a portion of the proceeds. All you have to do is shop by clicking the link on our website (www.vandenrobotics.com) or by simply clicking the link below. You can bookmark this link on your web browser whenever you want to shop via Amazon.com!

AmazonSmile Shopping Link