The most unlikely robot on Einstein

[jijiglobe]

If you're anything like me (and I suspect most of the FIRST community). Einstein has always been an exalted place, separate from the mortal plane. Robots that make it to Einstein are beautiful, precision-made, masterpieces that function at the highest caliber of the game with near perfection. I never thought that my team would be able to make it to Einstein (at least not as an alliance captain or first pick)

This year, however, there was a robot on Einstein that was built in-house without the help of waterjets or state-of-the-art technology. A robot whose CAD had to be loaded onto a floppy disk to interface with the CNC mill. This robot had duct tape holding it's intake together, and though it had working auto-aiming on the practice field, it was never able to auto-aim on the competition field. This robot ran a slightly modified version of the AndyMark kit chassis. This robot went into the final day of Championships so badly broken that the team considered completely dropping out of the competition. This robot played it's way through all of eliminations with nothing holding its wheels together but hopes, dreams, and copious amounts of epoxy.

No this robot was not a third, second, or even first pick. It was an alliance captain. It was a robot with a big name, and nothing else going for it. A robot that seeded 36th at it's second regional, and was projected to rank 53rd in the Curie division. This robot was StuyPulse Team 694's 2016 robot: DEStiny.

As the President of Engineering for team 694, I never dreamed that we'd be able to make it to Einstein. During our last qualifications match, our center wheels sheered off of their pulleys, rendering us unable to cross most defenses. At this point, we considered quitting, but instead decided to give the competition one more last-ditch effort. We lathered some bolts in epoxy, jammed them into the spokes of our center wheels, and then through to the pulleys. To this day, the sponges that held the bolts in place while the epoxy set are still inside our wheels. I promised myself that, if we made it to Einstein, I would make this thread, so here we are.

I'm still kind of in shock about it, but I guess the moral of the story is to never give up.

P.S. Huge thanks to our alliance partners: team 3339, 379, and 1511 who helped us make it this far. We couldn't have dreamed of a better alliance.

[scca229]

Thank you for writing this. This is an example of why I wanted to become an FTA so badly, even though my kids aren't old enough yet for FRC.

Also remember, you can always say that it took the eventual World Champion alliance to knock you out on Einstein

[Dan Petrovic]

Incredible. Such a fitting name for your robot - DEStiny. Nothing was stopping you from reaching Einstein, not even sheared drive pulleys!

[GuyM142]

It was an honor to play with you guys!
Together we did the unbelievable, the 8th seeded alliance hasn't won a division since 2007!
I hope to see you again next year

[Sperkowsky]

When I heard you guys made Einstein I was soo excited with you guys being one of the first NYC teams ever on Einstein. Then I saw you guys march out with you (The OP) holding the field standard. When I realized you guys did it as alliance captains and the 8th seed I almost could not believe it.

You fought hard and what you overcame was incredible. We look foward to hopefully competing with you guys during the offseason and next year.

[GreyingJay]

Please take photos!

[jijiglobe]

Originally Posted by GreyingJay

Please take photos!

Photos will be uploaded as soon as we get our robot back

[trumpthero786]

This is one of the best stories I've read on here. Thank you for sharing it with us. Truly an inspiration for all teams. Congrats on all of the success!

[anishde]

Congratulations on your incredible achievement! Your team has worked hard since day one in 2001, and have proved that hard work, cooperation and duct tape can bring teams and their robots together. It's been an honor competing with you year after year in New York City, and here's to more to come...and remember, out there on Einstein, you're always repping New York

[Hjelstrom]

Congrats on making it so far in the tournament!

[Trevor1523]

Absolutely loved seeing this robot at South Florida. Such a cool design. You guys were actually my first pick, if we were to have been an alliance captain. Your ranking 36th wasn't having a bad robot, it was purely match scheduling.

When I saw you guys had reached Einstein I was absolutely extatic. Congratulations to you and your team!

[Akash Rastogi]

Never bet against Joe Blay!

It was awesome to see more friends on Einstein this season, congrats on an amazing accomplishment!

Always a fan of StuyPulse!

[caboosev11]

Before joining this team, my brother was on it since 2011. We were alliance captains in our division that year. It was great watching it, but I never realized what it would be capable of. I joined this team in 2014. I started seeing potential, but with all of the robots we've seen so far, I never expected us to get this far.

This year, I wasn't too sure about how far we would get. Our robot was designed better than normal, but it still was like most other StuyPulse robots, it had duct tape on it, and at New York, we put zip-ties on our roller to make it work. Then we won New York. We set our sights on Einstein, but I wasn't too sure if we'd make it. We put up a huge fight, and we did.

I think what took us far is having a great team with awesome people on it, especially someone like you Jion.

This was a post that needed to be made and I'm glad you did Jion. It's not always the engineering that brings a team the furthest, it's the team itself.