Bad News and Extremely Unfortunate Timing
 

Teams 1592 and Team 801's trailer was rear-ended tonight on the way to the Orlando Regional load-in, only 3 miles from the venue.

Unfortunately, both robots are nearly destroyed and barely salvageable.
Thankfully, our student and mentor driver were okay and no one was hurt.

At this point in time, we don't know much about what the next step in this situation is, but we would like to thank the Orlando Regional Committee, FIRST, and all of the gracious teams that were quick to step up and offer their assistance and parts in this time of need.

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All people involved are safe, at least there is a bright side.

Man, I really feel for you guys as well as the teams up in Canada who just had their truck/trailer stolen.

Bad day for FIRST. I wish you guys the best of luck...

Did they let you unbag early because of this? I would think these circumstances call for special measures.

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Team 125 has many spare parts, including a fully operational shooter. You guys are more than welcome to it. Anything we can help with, we will be happy to do, please come see us tomorrow morning.

-Brando

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Ouch, that looks gruesome! Did you have anything in the trailer (like protective padding) to protect the robots in case of accidents? Perhaps this is something other teams should think about for transporting their robots. Between this and 216/244/288 having their trailer stolen, it's starting to look like trailers are bad luck this year. I hope you guys are able to get back on your feet in time for the competition.

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Now is when you find your true future engineers on your teams.

This may look like a tragedy, but this really is an opportunity for the students to shine. Take some deep breaths and get fixing!

Three years ago, my team pitched in to help a neighboring school's team, which had disintegrated the week before the Las Vegas regional competition. A single girl on their team was academically eligible, so we took her with us to the competition. When we opened their crate, it was apparent that their team had fallen apart well before ship. The carcas of their robot was in much worse shape than what you have pictured.

The girls from our team worked with the remaining member to rebuild her robot, from scratch, in the pits. Many great teams showed tremendous gracious professionalism helping with parts and tools. Eventually, the robot was put together, passed inspection, and hit the field. It was electric!

--Len

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I am showing up as a spectator, and all around helpful guy this year. If you need help tomorrow I'll be free all day.

- Andrew

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@Akash, at this point, we are leaving the robots in the bags until we get further information from FIRST headquarters.

At this point we are trying to make a spare chassis to fulfill our withholding allowance so we can at least get something running by the morning.

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Best of luck to you two teams, I think everyone will be pulling for you.

Chassis + 125's shooter + 10 point passive hang?

Please keep us posted, if you can find time.

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When your teams take the robot out of the bag could you take some more photos and post them. It is a little hard to see the damage through the bag.

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Ya, that's what we were planning on doing; we were told to just not touch them until we get word from FIRST. Once we do, we will take photos and post them.

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Wow Zach, I will drop whatever I'm doing today if I can help you guys please come get me. I can't imagine how that must feel. So sorry guys...

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That's really harsh. I'll be pulling for you guys to get something together. In furtherance of that, I recommend you guys designate one or two crisis managers to organize and manage all the help that's about to descend on you at the regional. There's only so many people that can easily fit in a pit, after all. You might ask if some of your people can work on part of the robot in someone else's pit to maximize productivity.

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Sorry to hear about your bots! I'm glad everyone involved was OK.

Best of luck getting rebuilt! Many of the components could be salvageable given some blacksmithing. I'm sure we'll find out when you unbag; I'm being optimistic for now.

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both excellent suggestions on how to manage the situation

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Zac and team, I'm so so sorry this happened, but like Akash said, the driver and student are both ok, this could have been worse. I know if we were down there this year we would pitch right in in getting you guys back on top. I wish you the best of luck!

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First, I'm thankful nobody was hurt.

Second, do either of you have practice robots?

-Nick

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Even though 216, 244, and 288 lost their trailers, I am more than sure that we will be willing to send people to help you guys with anything you need.

Do you know if your electronics are still in one piece, or most of it anyway?

Also, I am very glad to hear that everyone was alright. I hope you guys have a fantastic competition anyway!

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Wow. I'm sorry to learn about this.

My initial thought was... if it's going to happen, let it happen in Orlando.

By that I mean - a lot can happen in a day's time and the Orlando Regional is known for making good things happen. Especially with the determination of the two teams involved and those attending who will step up to help. I'm also thinking of the amazing volunteers and organizers of this event and how they will help to make everything run smoothly, keeping the way clear for you to do what you need to do.

Thoughts are with you,
Jane

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Back in 2006 on the last day of build season things were hectic and we were in a big hurry. That was when your robot had to be sent to a storage location in a crate. In the final minutes the robot (in it's crate) was loaded on a flat bed truck for one of our mentors to drive it to the storage location. There was only one problem, in all the rush nobody tied the crate down. As the mentor was driving on the interstate at 70 mph, he noticed a strange object tumbling end over in the median. You guessed it, it was our robot sans crate. The good news it didn't hit any other vehicles nor did they hit it. The robot parts were gathered up and when it arrived at the storage location they were shrink wrapped to a pallet. There was nothing like showing up the Thursday morning of the competition to see your robot in less than operable condition. Now for the good news. Everyone at the regional pitched in and by Friday morning we had a functioning robot. The people of FIRST are amazing and I'm sure we'll see that again in Orlando.

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Wow, I'm really sorry to hear about this. We on 2338 are rooting for you guys to pull through for this weekend.

By the way, thanks for overnighting us that cRio module. We're putting it to good use.

-Adam

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Man, that's a worst case scenario! I wish there was something I could help with.

Save your BOMs. In the post-mortem of the accident, depending on the insurance involved the teams should be able to get reimbursed. At least that way you can rebuild for an offseason & demo bot. Frisbee bots are probably the only thing cooler for demos than ball-shooting bots.

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Wishing you best of luck.....so sorry this happened. Glad everyone was ok

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How are these teams doing right now?

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Word on the street is both of these teams had operational robots by the end of the day today! FIRST has allowed them their practice robot and any spare parts they have on hand in order to compete this weekend. I even heard that 1592 shot discs, has a working auto mode and even played a match today!

A tip of the hat to FIRST for being really accomodating, and a tip of the hat to 1592 and 801 for working hard today!

-Nick

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From what I've dug up, both teams passed inspection and were on the field today. I know HQ game them no ceiling for the holding allowance so I assume the practice bot that is split between the teams might be a full replacement for one of the teams (presumably 1592) and 801 is probably using a simple chassis with the 125 shooter mentioned here, or something else entirely. I assume there are a lot of people who put a lot of work into these two robots today and they are way too tired to come on Chief Delphi and give a full update, but I do hope someone lets us know.

There are also some pictures of the whole damage around here somewhere, and they looked pretty brutal.

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Glad to hear they were able to get some stuff together to compete!

I would expect RoboShow Orlando to at least touch on this in their 17 minute recap tonight, hopefully we'll get some good details from them.

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Both robots now bear a striking resemblance to their original selves. I am amazed by what they were able to do today.

They split up the practice robot, 1592 got the drive train and 801 the shooter. 801 used the drive train they frantically constructed last night and 1592 used a refurbished shooter from one of the original bots I believe. Both have passed inspection and driven on the field

Everyone in the pits and the stands cheered when the first of them (1592) went out to a practice match, it was awesome to see them driving around and operational, really goes to show what the FIRST community can do.

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I am happy to hear this. If there anything their teams would need when they make the trip to the alamo city im sure we can find a way to help them. Just let me know by pming me. We are all here to help them.

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Things are looking good for 1592 and 801! We took apart the demolished robots and salvaged what could be used, made a new chassis for 801 and used the chassis from our joint practice bot for 1592, put the shooter from the practice bot onto 801's new chassis, and salvaged the shooter from 1592's old bot to use on the new one, added parts and pieces from various donations (THANK YOU!) and there you have it. Two new bots ready to go! Easy! (Let's not do this again....)

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Could somebody take a picture of the two new robots sometime tomorrow and post them here in this thread.
I'd be nice to see the final salvaged results.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=DQfOCbN7Sdw

Go to 15:00 you can see 801's chassis

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I was wondering what kind of vehicle rear ended you?

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I believe it was a Ford Ranger.

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1592/801 Progress at the end of the day today:

1592's bot is nearly competition ready, just needs a few tweaks and sensors to be calibrated/installed.

801's bot is coming together quite rapidly. This robot started from nothing at 10am this morning and at 8pm, this is what it looked like.

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Both came out of the pits and linked to the field. Both will be competing tomorrow.

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What is the verdict? How did Thursday work out? I contacted the local Fox affiliate with the info and links to posts as of 1000 yesterday. Gave them the idea to approach this as Gracious Professionalism in action.

Good Luck in Orlando to all the teams.
Greetings from snowy, Falls Village Ct. Home of 716 the Hous C Teks!

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It always makes me proud of our kids and what they can do when I hear a story like this. I'm sure there was a lot of help and chipping-in by gracious professionals, but this has got to make these two teams feel really good about themselves and their abilities.

Good luck in the competition, everyone!

Dr. Bob
Chairman's Award is not about building the robot. Every team builds a robot.

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Very sad to hears this happened to these two teams. Glad to hear that no one was hurt.

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After what happened. 1592 picking 801 for eliminations as the 7th alliance seed captain is going to end up being the story of the year in FIRST robotics. This is great story and I hope it can become a story book ending for the two teams. Good luck in eliminations and be proud of the fact that both teams came together to inspire the FIRST world.

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Wow, so sorry to hear about what happened and I am SO GLAD that no one was hurt!

What a way for the FIRST community to come together in a time of need - its one of the best things I love about our kids and the community as a whole. It warms my heart.

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The conclusion to our "Terror on Highway 50" The Horsepower / Bionic Tigers Saga is the lead story in Episode II at http://www.theroboshow.net/

Special thanks to FIRST Regional Director Chuck Kennedy for giving an official statement for the story.

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All I can say is wow, what an emotional roller coaster this weekend has been for 1592/801. I cannot convey in words how thankful I am to all the teams that helped us nor can I remember all of them as it was a hectic weekend. Hard to imagine right? Sorry if I miss your team, but all the help was appreciated.

744- Thank you for switching pits with us. With out being able to be right next to 801, it would have been really hard to accomplish what we did.

180- Thank you for all of your help and assisting in testing components for us. We were not sure what survived the crash and what did not. Whether it was motors or speed controllers, you were right there to help us out. Bryce was in our pit more than he was in his own on Thursday, which truly shows how deserving they were of the Gracious Professionalism award.

1251- Thanks for helping us test out our components as well and all of the offering of help throughout the weekend. Even though you were having some troubles of your own, you stepped up to the plate and asked us if we needed anything. You even offered us the use of your van the night of the crash.

1902- Thank you for the help at the crash site as well as offering us your kitbot frame. You even took us to your build space and offered us anything we needed.

The Robo Show Staff- Thank you for coming to the crash site to help
us move the robots into the trucks. We greatly appreciate how you waited for 3 hours for FHP to show up.

125- It was very gracious of you to offer us your full shooter assembly; fortunately we were able to salvage one of the damaged ones. You guys were awesome all weekend.

Sorry if I missed anyone, but as I said it was a very busy weekend.

To cap it all off, being an alliance captain was surreal after what happened Wednesday night, much less than on the same alliance with 801. I really thought we had a shot.

Lastly, I want to say thank you to 86 for saying yes to join our alliance. I am sorry we were not running at 100%. We were a fierce alliance coming out of the number 7 slot - just imagine if we all actually worked at the same time lol.

Again, thank you so much to everyone at the Orlando regional and the FIRST community for your support. We all consider this weekend a victory for every team that was there even though we got knocked out early. All I can say is we have a lot of work to do in two weeks to get back up to 100%. Look out Alamo here we come.

Thanks Again to all from teams 801 and 1592,
Zac

* re-posted from Orlando regional thread*

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And welcome a new sponsor for 2014: Allstate!