Competitions
One really great thing about the competitions is that every team helps every team. A few years ago, a team didn't have a flag, but had all of the materials for one. The only problem was that they didn't know how to put them together. They asked our team to help them make their flag. Our lead programmer knew how to sew, but he didn't have a sewing machine with him. He looked around the multiple pits and saw that a team had randomly brought a sewing machine. With all of this multi-team cooperation, the team was able to have a flag for the competition. |
We build our robots for a new competition each year. The competitions are massive gatherings of teams from around the region, state, country, and around the world.
Throughout the competition, there are multiple rounds and qualifiers. After each round of competition, we bring our robot back to our designated area, called the pit, and make repairs and improvements. |
Each competition starts with the opening ceremony. The national anthem is performed, and the multiple judges, volunteers, and other staff members are introduced. After that, inspectors come around to the different pits to examine the robots. They check the weight, dimensions, wiring, and several other aspects of the robot to make sure we are playing fair. Once inspections are wrapped up, the games begin.
To score points, robots place power cubes on the switches and scale. For every second one of those elements is tipped to your side, you score points. Robots can also push power cubes through the exchange, an opening in the wall. The power cubes would then be placed in the vault. The more cubes you have in the vault, the more power ups you can play. There are three power ups: force, boost, and levitate. Force allows you to score points even if the switch or scale is not tipped to your side. Boost increases the number of points per second you earn. In the end of the game, robots can climb a bar and score 30 points per robot. If one robot isn't climbing, levitate counts that robot as climbing. Whichever alliance has more points at the end of each match wins!
Each match begins with a 15 second autonomous period. This is where the robot scores points based off of pre-programmed instructions. Our programmers spend several weeks perfecting it. To ensure the robot never misses, we take sensor input from encoders and gyroscopes so the robot can know its orientation and adjust itself if it is off-target. The remaining 135 seconds of the match is the tele-operated period, where drivers take over the robot to score points. Throughout the qualification matches, teams earn ranking points. 2 ranking points are awarded if you win, 1 if you complete the auto quest, and 1 if all three robots have climbed. These points are used to determine the best robot.
The top 8 teams with the most amount of ranking points get to choose two other teams to compete with in the elimination rounds. If you lose twice, your alliance is eliminated. The alliance that wins the elimination rounds is the winner of the competition!
In addition to the robot competition, there are several awards up for grabs. If you win an award, your teams gets special recognition and bonus ranking points. The awards range from the Spirit Award to the Engineering Inspiration Award to the Chairman's Award. In Michigan, if you are in the top 160 teams in terms of ranking points, you qualify for the state competition. If you are in the top 92 after states, you qualify for the world competition.