Edina Robotics FIRST Team 1816 – The Green Machine won its way to the 2013 FIRST Championships, winning the Regional Engineering Inspiration Award at the North Star Regional. The merit award capped a Week 5 competition in which the team also won the UL Industrial Safety Award as well as the Entrepreneurship Award. We again wowed the Judges, teams and visitors with our Frisbee delivery system comprised of three, 3-D printed augers made specifically for our robot by our sponsor, Stratasys. Stratasys came to the event on Friday, taking a lot of video of our robot in action! Our 2013 Robot, Zed, was able to score about 50 points per match by itself!
Although we ended the seeding rounds ranked 39th, we were picked by the 6th ranked Alliance Captain, Team 3691-the Raiders, along with alliance partner Team 2883-F.R.E.D. We managed to score 106 points in our second quarter-final match but it wasn’t enough to advance and we were eliminated from the competition. Still, the Green Machine was not done yet. The Judges honored us with the Entrepreneurship Award, sponsored by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, which recognizes a team with a comprehensive business plan. UL also had its eyes on us. Co-Captain Karl was awarded Safety Star of the Day; we were recognized for outstanding pit safety, plus The Green Machine won the Industrial Safety Award sponsored by Underwriters Laboratories. The UL award recognizes a team that goes beyond the fundamentals of safety and eliminates safety hazards, from the initial un-bagging of the robot to the final sweep of the pit at the end of competition. Finally, the North Star Judges selected Team 1816 as winner of the Regional Engineering Inspiration Award. This award celebrates a team’s outstanding efforts in advancing respect and appreciation for engineering and engineers within our school and community.
At the same time, The Green Machine hosted Team 4667- Synergy from Cuernavaca Mexico, a sister city of Minneapolis. We took care of their robot, transporting it to and from the 10,000 Lakes Regional Competition across the street from North Star; we also built a pit for our sister team and helped them with robot and pit set-up. Team Synergy so impressed the Judges with their team spirit and enthusiasm, they won the Rookie All-Star Award. This award also sends Synergy to Saint Louis for the World Championships. Team 1816 is handling shipping of their robot and will meet them in St. Louis with their “pit” from Minnesota.
Be FIRST was also a part of each of the Twin Cities events. The Green Machine and 2500-Herobotics distributed be FIRST buttons to teams in each regional and learned how each team was expressing the values of being a FIRST Robotics team. In the North Star Regional, Team 1816 awarded the be FIRST trophy to Team 3883- Data Bits for their excellent communication and Gracious Professionalism on and off the field. In the 10,000 Lakes Regional, Herobotics tapped Team 2181-ROBO TECH, Blaine, MN for the same reasons.