2016 Recap and History Making

Well, our goal was our motto this year: Einstein 2016. Although we did not achieve that goal this year, we still made history yet again. We became the 10th team in California to complete the Engineering Quinfecta in its team history: Engineering Excellence Award (2007), Quality Award (2006, 2013, 2015), Creativity Award (2013), Industrial Design Award (2012), and Innovation in Control Award (2016). Along with winning Innovation in Control at Idaho, we won the Judges' Award at Central Valley and the Gracious Professionalism Award at Sacramento. Edesiri, our co-outreach director, was a FIRST Dean's List at Sacramento, and is headed to the FIRST World Championships.

Back At It Again with the High Goal Shots!

Well, these past couple weeks have been extremely busy. Although we had a rough time in Madera, we walked out of the Central Valley Regional with the Judges' Award. Since we were having trouble with aiming with the camera, we focused on breaching and scoring in the low goal. We ranked 6th overall, being the captain of the 4th seeded alliance with teams 2073 and 2761. We lost in the quarterfinals in a 3rd match. After returning home, we got right back to work. We created a photon cannon to help with accuracy in possibly shooting into the high goal. We got some more drive practice in as well. At Sacramento, we had great success with high goal shooting. On our last practice match on Thursday, we scored 7 out of 7 high goal shots. Then, during Friday and Saturday, we struggled through a tough strength of schedule that pitted practically all of the top teams against us. We placed 17th, being the 1st pick of the 5th seeded alliance. We squeezed through quarterfinals but fell in the semis after Loki tipped over in autonomous while attempting to traverse the ramparts. We left Sacramento with the Gracious Professionalism Award (we got that at champs last year) and a FIRST Dean's List Finalist (Edesiri Mushale). We are doing one more drive practice before we fly out to Idaho on Wednesday.

Central Valley Photo Album
Sacramento Photo Album

Headin' Out

Since build season ended, we have been using Practicebot for drive practice over at Sierra Vista. We have been working on our pit setup, Chairman's video, and team standard. Today we are heading out to Madera for the Central Valley Regional, our first competition of the year.

Day 46: Minutes to Midnight

Well, we worked on Loki throughout the Bag and Tag Party. While parents were watching the Robot Reveal video and Mr. Green and Gabby and Edesiri were thanking individuals for their hard work this season, a portion of the team cuddled around Loki, working on replacing the small chain with big #35 chain. We got it finished late, but Loki is done.

Day 45: Mission Control

Now, we have run across a bigger problem. This deals with our ability to scale. We are currently discussing if we should go ahead with scaling, considering the tiny, squeezed-up space of the robot as well as the amount of battery drained over one match and the weight limit. We also did drive practice yesterday. We worked on the consistency of shooting, crossing defenses, and, of course, shearing sprockets. We again modified the shooter skids, and now they pretty much work fine. They definitely have a longer life on the field.