FIRST Robotics Canadian final: Day two!
by Adelaide Z | April 1, 2011It's been another long day, albeit a little shorter than yesterday. It was still a good 14 hrs from the time I left this morning to the time I got back to the hotel. The qualifying rounds are largely done and will conclude tomorrow before lunch.
Update on our robot: Our hook at the end of our forklift-arm wasn't functioning well, so we replaced it with something much simpler. Although we can still score on pegs of all levels, we decided that our robot is best served as a defender or as a support to our more aggressive teammates. This also means that chances of us continuing beyond the qualifying rounds are slim. But the team doesn't seem to mind. It's unfortunate that our driver only began to figure out the best way to play defensively after most of the points have already been tallied.
Over the course of the day, our robot performed well and didn't suffer the mechanical problems so many of the other bots had. Although we worked on the minibot and deployment system in the limited time between matches, we weren't able to complete it. This isn't overly disappointing as there are only a very small number of robots which have managed it properly. Some teams kept their robots so simple that the only thing they can do is play defence (no autonomous mode, no ability to score, no minibot)!
During the official competition tomorrow, the two most impressive robots to watch 1114 and 2054. These two not only perform with remarkable speed and accuracy under user control, but their autonomous modes go well beyond that of all the other robots in that they are able to consistantly place the tube in their claws at the beginning of the match on the highest peg and then go in search of a second tube on the ground and virtually always place it on a different peg at the same height before the 15 second timer is up!