Indiana Teams

[Scott Ritchie]

Just got back from AZ and boy was that a great weekend. We had some success in the qualifying rounds but ran into a little trouble in the semis. All in all I was pleased with our performance. Glad to here that other Indiana teams did well. Good luck to 393 as they take off for Detroit this weekend and we will see some of you in Chicago soon.

Go "Indiana Teams"

(Can't say Indiana cause it sounds like I'm cheering for the Hoosiers, and being a Boiler fan I just can't type it.)

[Andy Baker]

This is a report from the TechnoKats at GLR.

We ended up 5-2 in the qualifications, ranked #10, and scooted up to be alliance captain of the 7th seeded alliance.

We ended up getting beat in the first round of the finals. It was fairly dramatic. We had about 12 balls in the stationary goal, and were going for a 2x cap. Then, our gripper fell off of the arm and crashed to the ground from about 10 feet up. At that moment, I remembered that the hook we previously removed has a double function - to keep the gripper on the arm. Ooops.

During the next match, as we were frantically fixing our arm, our alliance partners could not match our opponents. We lost in 2 matches.

All in all, I'd say we did OK. Our team was great, as everyone pitched in to make the usual TechnoKat effort. We had a great pit crew, a good cheering section, and numerous people in other pits, helping teams out.

My favorite moment of the weekend was fixing our arm after it broke in the elimination rounds. Although we did not play again, it was a sight to see. Here was the scene: Our robot's arm was not functional and it was positioned almost straight up. I was standing on our robot cart, attaching the hook. Another student (Steven Jones) was helping me attach the hook while sitting on a student's shoulders. Right below us, our lead electrical student (Greg McCoy) was re-wiring a Globe motor. At the other end of the arm, 2 students and 2 engineers were replacing a drill motor and plastic mounts.

So, it was one of those moments where we HAD to get the robot fixed and it did not matter who did it. Being one of those teams who gets accused of having the engineers do all of the work, we were proud that we proved that our students were the ones who helped to fix the 'bot when it was crunch time.

We will definitely be ready to roll in Chicago.

Andy B.

[dlavery]

Originally Posted by Andy Baker

At that moment, I remembered that the hook we previously removed has a double function - to keep the gripper on the arm. Ooops.

Classic! I know exactly how you must have felt ("hey, does anyone remember whether we used English or Metric units on this spacecraft???").

Andy and all the TechnoKats - congratulations on your performance, both on and off the field. Once again, you are demonstrating the power of a real team - both students and mentors - to pull off miracles and have a real impact.

-dave

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by Andy Baker

We ended up getting beat in the first round of the finals. It was fairly dramatic. We had about 12 balls in the stationary goal, and were going for a 2x cap. Then, our gripper fell off of the arm and crashed to the ground from about 10 feet up. At that moment, I remembered that the hook we previously removed has a double function - to keep the gripper on the arm. Ooops.

I have video of the "oops" moment. The gripper did a graceful loop around the arm as it swung loose, then fell free. The remarkable thing is that it never lost its hold on the multiplier ball, even after it hit the ground!

[Andy Baker]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

I have video of the "oops" moment. The gripper did a graceful loop around the arm as it swung loose, then fell free. The remarkable thing is that it never lost its hold on the multiplier ball, even after it hit the ground!

I really, really DON'T want to see that video. It has been on an endless loop in my mind for the past 2 days. I can't wait until I replace that memory with better ones in Chicago.

Andy B.

[Chris Hibner]

Originally Posted by Andy Baker

I really, really DON'T want to see that video. It has been on an endless loop in my mind for the past 2 days. I can't wait until I replace that memory with better ones in Chicago.

Andy B.

Andy,

Don't feel so bad: I have a LOT of those endless loops playing in my mind, such as...

#1: In 1999 at Nationals, our team was ranked 9th going into our final match of the seeding rounds. Our partner was team 1. Our two opponent robots didn't move the entire match, leaving the field free for us to get a perfect score. Had we only scored 320 points (out of a possible 540), we would have been the number 1 seed at Nationals. However, our pit crew replaced the left-rear motor and had assured us that the pre-match checklist was completed and the robot was working. Guess what: it was wired backwards! Our robot just sat there and could 0nly spin around in a circle. Instead of being the #1 seed, we wound up 19th (the top 16 got to pick) and no one picked us - we sat out and watched the elimination rounds. This was perhaps my saddest day in all of FIRST.

#2: At the 2000 Nationals, we were ranked around 20th with a couple of matches to go. We were up against 126 (Gael Force), who had a great robot. Some judges were at our pits looking over our robot just before our match, so we were forced to rush to our match, and set the robot on the field without doing the pre-match checklist. The match started and guess what again: our robot didn't move! The guys in the pits unplugged all of our drive motors so the judges wouldn't get hurt. Upon seeing this, our drivers tried to use our arm to crawl to the bar. Time ran out when we were about 6 feet short of the ramp. We lost the match by 8 points. Had we hung, we would have won (hanging was worth 10 pts.). We ended up seeding 21st. Had we won this match we would've seeding around 12th. Once again, we didn't get picked and we had to watch the elimination matches wondering what could have been. On the good side, we did end up winning the Leadership in Control award at nationals, so I guess the tradeoff wasn't too bad.

There are a couple more, but I can't bring myself to go on.

[Paul Copioli]

I have to chime in on this one!

The TechnoKat repair moment was an awesome sight to see! I was the announcer at GLR and had a close up view of the action. I came over to the TK alliance to tell them they had a few minutes left in their time out before they had to declare who was playing in the next match. I really thought they were going to get that arm fixed in time!

Here is the scene:

Andy and a student high in the air fixing the gripper mechanical issues. The student was sitting on another student's shoulders while turning wrenches .. it was incredible. In between Andy and the other student was the electrical student crimping on electrical connectors above his head. There were various other students doing many different things and I actually stopped what I was doing to observe this beautiful vision of FIRST in action. It is a moment I will NEVER forget.

-Paul

[hcperdan]

Team 135 was at St Louis. Ended up ranked 28th and weren't chosen for finals which gave the pit crew an entire afternoon to continue working the robot. We needed it.

See you in Chicago.

[Amanda Morrison]

1020 ended up 32/52. I think the kids were pleased with our rankings. Our last win pushed us up from 42.

Most of all, though... I think we got quite a few inspired juniors out of this event. The whole way home, all I heard was ideas on what to do next year to make our program better...

[Ryan Dognaux]

Wow! Just goes to show you the quality of Indiana teams

And everyone thought we were all about the corn