This year, the students went to the regional competition. However, we still had time leftover until the end of the year. We decided that a slightly modified version of the 2015 Half Time would be a great game for a shorter season. Our modification was very simple: instead of having to depress a lever to allow balls to fall out of the dispenser, we took off the springs and start off with the PVC stand supporting the ball dispensers. The teams get points for knocking it over during autonomous, then collect the balls off the ground. This is really great because it makes it significantly easier, and it allows them to practice a traditional shortcoming: ball collection from the ground. This year, we had our competition on May 28th. We had 5 judges, mostly the same from last year. Our two teams this year were Freedom Fries, captained by Trevor H., and The "A" Team, captained by Kelsey M. Our time frame was somewhat shorter than last year - 10 weeks vs about 12. One other change we made was that the last seven days before the competition, the students couldn't use power tools or saws. This was an attempt to minimize last-minute changes to the robot. Joey and I also had a special treat for the audience - we built robots specifically for the audience to drive around and play with. Last year, it was very awkward having the parents simply staring at us the entire time. The robots that we built were able to compete, but we used RC control rather than NXT. This allowed the students to utilize everything we had available. Overall, this competition was much more successful. Hopefully, next year we can create a completely different competition. Also, I hope we can use the new hardware, instead of going back to the NXTs. The final score from this year was Freedom Fries at 115 points and The "A" Team had 205. Freedom Fries won the Judges' Award for a better interview and more thought-out engineering process. And now for some pictures! An action shot from one of the early rounds. The robot on the left is Freedom Fries, the one on the right is The "A" Team. John H. is watching Lucas M., and Joey C. play with the two audience robots between matches. The audience robots served two purposes - it gave audience members a way to be engaged and participate, and it allowed the mentors to show the students another way to do ball collection. Namely, it allowed us to show them how to use a servo to drive balls in and out of a shovel. A later action shot. Blurry means exciting movement, right? The robot on the left is The "A" Team, and the one on the right is Freedom Fries.
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