With new adjustments to the robot, Team 1816-The Green Machine entered the 2010 Minnesota North Star Regional with a fresh strategy for the “Breakaway” game challenge and aimed to dazzle the crowd with Zazu’s prowess, as well as continue to demonstrate their reputable gracious professionalism both on and off the field.
The Green Machine upheld its reputation as a Chairman’s winning team at the 2010 Minnesota North Star Regional by supporting other teams with various technical issues, as well as volunteering to help distribute safety glasses in the pits, handle field reset, and take apart the playing field after the end of the competition. While we did not win the regional Chairman’s Award this year, we were recognized for our “one-of-a-kind dedication” to supporting other teams and volunteering for the regional; for this, the team received the Johnson & Johnson “Gracious Professional Award.” The team also won the Best Website Award for a second year in a row, which will go on to be judged at the Championships among other regional website winners.
Though things robot-wise did not go as smoothly as hoped for, there was definite progress from the Wisconsin Regional two weeks ago, and the team has high hopes for the Championships April 15 – 17 in Atlanta, GA.
Championships this year will include not only Team 1816, but a total of nine Minnesota teams will take to the both the FRC and FTC fields. This budding “Northern Alliance” includes: Team 2169-KING TeC, Prior Lake; Team 2500-Herobotics, Minneapolis; Team 2574-RoboHuskies, St. Anthony Village; Team 2667-How ‘bout Dem Apples, Apple Valley; Team 3038-ICE, North Branch, and Team 3200-Warehouse Crew, Chaska, and FTC Team 2887-Bucket Brigade, Edina, and FTC Team 3855-Tempered Steel, Prior Lake. Check out all the action in Atlanta, including webcasts, here.
At the North Star Regional, Zazu quickly proved to be a much more reliable robot than it was two weeks earlier at the Wisconsin Regional, Milwaukee, WI. The renovated roller was successfully able to keep soccer balls within its kicking range, and thus displayed a much more impressive autonomous mode that could kick soccer balls into the next section of the field. Zazu also maintained its strong defensive abilities, successfully preventing much scoring from opposing alliances, and also scored quite a few goals itself.
Of course, this does not mean the competition was without technical difficulties. In fact, the technical problems that arose were even more drastic than those in Wisconsin. They consisted of a shattered Toughbox and a broken USB hub, gamepad, and e-stop button, as well as countless other mishaps, all of which resulted in much confusion among the builders of the team as they attempted to fix the problems. Hours of trouble-shooting later, the team pulled through, and by the last match Zazu was kicking, defending, and scoring once again.
Though we didn’t finish in the Top Eight-seeded teams, we were picked by the fifth-seeded alliance Team 2418- Tomahawks, Minot, ND, and their alliance partner Team 876-Thunder Robotics, Hatton, ND, and advanced to the elimination matches. Unfortunately, at the beginning of the first match Zazu mysteriously stopped moving, which was later determined to be because of the driver station’s battery-saving mode that no one knew about. The problem was fixed for the second elimination match, but our alliance just barely missed winning the match and we did not make it past the quarterfinals. Still, it was a good game and a valiant effort on the part of The Green Machine and our alliance partners.