The Green Machine packed up the robot trailer and traveled to Simley High School on February 19 to test out our 2011 robots, ZEEBO and Zaboomafoo. With an 8 AM pit load-in, FIRST teams from Wisconsin and Minnesota were anxious to try out their robots. It was a test drive to see if the weeks and hours of endless work had paid off. More importantly, it gave teams an idea of what elements of the robots would have to be tweaked in order to perform at their very best at upcoming regional events. In fact, after shipping out of Edina High School on Tuesday, February 22, ZEEBO is off to Duluth for the Lake Superior Regional on March 10th – 12th.
In Inver Grove Heights, 24 teams gathered in the Simley cafeteria. Pits were on the perimeter and a smaller-version of the playing field was placed in the center. A driver’s meeting was held ahead of the practice rounds to ensure rules were met and things would run as planned when LOGO MOTION began. The different ways teams from Minnesota decided to create their robots is quite interesting. Team 2052-KnightKrawlers, Irondale High School, New Brighton, decided to build a very tall robot balanced on mecanum wheels, which allowed its robot to always keep facing forward. Other teams, such as Team 3042-The Eastview Constant, Eastview High School, Apple Valley, decided to go with a defensive robot, smaller but at times very effective. ZEEBO’s impressive performance in the warm-up gym had us in high spirits moving into the afternoon. Yet during the matches, we quickly learned that it would be back to the workshop for some last-minute adjustments. Some teams were jubilant about their 2011 robots, others frustrated at the realization that it would take still more work ahead of the robot shipping deadline February 22. Our visit to Simley was a good practice to see what works, what doesn’t, and what we still need to build.