[Gary Dillard]

For anyone who saw the Einstein semi's, did you see the wedge SPAM deployed to push WildStang across the field? A little background.....

We only went to one regional (KSC, the first weekend) and based on watching other regionals and the powerful robots we would be up against, our lead engineer - James Jones (I bow in his presence) - decided that we could use a wedge to lift up on any team that was lifting up on the goal(s) and tranfer their downward force to us for improved traction. We had extra weight margin since we removed our second and third goal arms at the regional, so James came up with a design and plotted out templates. When we got to nationals thursday we began rebuilding the gearboxes to beef them up (first priority - the reason we missed our first two practice rounds) and then started building the ramp. About midday friday we laid out the lexan on the heat strip to bend it, and after it was bent we discoved we had bent it along the wrong axis! We proceeded on, keeping it narrower and longer than planned, attached it and had it inspected, bringing us up to 128#.

The match with WildStang was the first and only time we ever used it. It fit perfectly between the drive wheels and under the tank track - almost like it was made specifically for that robot. We've got some serious "Stang tracks" on the wedge as a reminder of that match.

Great season everyone. We've definitely all raised the bar for next year. And to Beatty-Hammond - we definitely felt like David to Goliath. You are awesome as always.