RAGE Robotics

By Jennifer Coe – ReminderNews
Suffield – posted Thu., Feb. 23, 2012

Teams from all over Connecticut and as far away as Lake Ronkonkoma, N.Y., were prepared to battle it out on Feb. 18 at the 11th Annual Suffield Shakedown Scrimmage, a FIRST Robotics competition. FIRST Robotics is a national program high schools everywhere are plugging into which emphasizes the skills learned in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Hosted by Team No. 176, otherwise known as “Aces High Robotics,” at Suffield High School, the gymnasium was throbbing with excitement as a D.J. blared dance music and teams assembled with their robots, each making last-minute adjustments to their creations. Each team was given a mere six weeks to assemble, prototype, and test their robot prior to bringing it to the Shakedown.

The goal? Be able to pick up and throw a basketball into a basket. That is easier said than done, and all the teams took a different approach to making it happen.

“Ours has a custom drive base with drop omni-wheels,” said team member Robert Hunt of South Windsor’s Bobcats. “We have a tower that pivots around its center.”  The team of about 34 students spent more than 120 hours on its robot.

“We’re using a catapult and pneumatics,” said Victor Hipolito, a member of “Buzz Robotics,” from Enfield. “Buzz” has 21 team members, and they were proud to say that they “make it the biggest that we can.” According to Hipolito, they have one adult mentor for every student, making it a very one-on-one learning experience.

“Our robot sucks up the ball on the front and then we have pneumatics that pop it up to the top rollers,” said Emily Davidson, of East Hartford’s “Rage Robotics.” “The challenge is to make it in the basket.” “Rage” has 30 students on its team.

All the teams were nervous about whether or not their robot would function as planned in the heat of battle.

The competition began with the first couple of match-ups of four bots, each controlled by a team of drivers. Extra points were given for being able to traverse the bridges in the center of the playing field. Only a few baskets were scored. Match number three met with some technical difficulties and after a few games of “rock, paper, scissors” and a spontaneous dance-a-thon, the robots were ready to roll again. Each battle for baskets only lasted 2 minutes and 15 seconds, barely enough time for some of the teams to find their bearings on the game field.

After several heats and a full day of competition, winners were chosen, and in the end the teams with the largest number of points were  No. 716 – The Who’sCTEKS of Falls Village; No. 176 – Aces High of Windsor Locks; and No. 2168 – Aluminum Falcons of Groton.  All three winners will be moving on to the FIRST CT Regional Competition to be held in Hartford on March 29.

Reposted by permission, ReminderNews.

For the second year in a row, RAGE’s robot and team members were pictured in the Journal Inquirer as part of its Suffield Shakedown coverage. Connie Eckstrom, Alex Arena, and Lindsey Davidson are shown working on the robot before one of the matches. The annual competition took place on February 19 and provides a venue for teams to try out their newly designed robots shortly before having to ship them to their first regional competition.

Be sure to check out page 3 of the February 22 edition of the Journal Inquirer for several photos taken at the Suffield scrimmage on Saturday. Our own Bruce Hockaday, Lindsey Davidson, and Emily Tunila are featured in one of them (Andy was robbed!). Too bad there was no accompanying story like there was in Rochester.

Congratulations to Aces High (team 176) and all the teams who participated in this year’s Suffield Shakedown Scrimmage last Saturday. Many of the early rounds were pretty shaky as teams worked last-minute kinks out of their new designs, but by the finals, most teams had things pretty figured out.

Here are a few things our team learned from the day:

• Make sure the pneumatics are fully charged before putting the robot out on the field.
• You can’t driver over the bumps with the kicker deployed.
• Make sure you tighten all the bumpers so you don’t kick one of them off onto the ground during autonomous mode.
• A roller meant to control the ball will suck the ball under the robot when the roller is built too high off the ground.
• It’s very possible to score goals during autonomous mode, even with minimal programming and from the far zone.
• The Field Management System (FMS) is capable of locking you out of your own driver station if it thinks you’re supposed to be on the field competing.
• Carabiners on the four corners do indeed make it easier to pick up the robot.

The winning alliance was unstoppable to the end, and was made up of Team 3125, Pirates of the Pythagorean from Hartford; Team 177, Bobcat Robotics from South Windsor; and Team 178, 2nd Law Enforcers from Farmington. Great job everyone.