Team 175 in the news, fact checker needed

[ScoutingNerd175]

Team 175 was in the Journal Inquirer today, unfortunately the headline says that we came in second and we won. But, at least they took the time to write about it. At one point the robot did weigh 128 pounds, this resulted in a design re modification bringing the weight down to >120. So, that's a bit misleading as well.

http://www.journalinquirer.com/site/... 569380&rfi=8

Fermi's Buzz Robotics team takes second place in regional competition
By:Tracy E. Gilchrist, Journal Inquirer
03/27/2006

ENFIELD - Fermi High School's Buzz Robotics team nabbed the title of second-place regional winner at the Chesapeake Regional FIRST Robotics competition on March 19 in Annapolis, Md.



The team's second-place win ensures the 18-student team - including two members who attend Enfield High School - the chance to compete in the national competition in Atlanta, Ga. in late April.

Fermi's Buzz Robotics team - along with two top-seeded teams from Maryland - nabbed a first-place finish in the final round of competition when the teams' robots joined together like players on a basketball team to defeat three robots on the opposing side.

Fermi's robot weighs in at 128 pounds, about 30 inches wide, and 38 inches long, according to Steven Olson, a Fermi science teacher and the team's advisor.

Teams are charged with the task of creating a robot capable of picking up balls and shooting them into a hole in the wall, climbing a ramp, and running for about 10 seconds in an autonomous mode.

Game competition is a bit like basketball with three robots on each side. The robots shoot balls into the holes in the walls, and robots can attempt to block the other side, Olson said.

First place went to the team from Maryland's Garrett County Public Schools - one of the teams Fermi students played with to win the final match-up.

Engineers from United Technologies Corp.'s Hamilton Sundstrand Space, Land, and Sea helped the students to
create the robot.

The company also helps to underwrite much of the cost for the program, according to Fermi Assistant Principal Lia Barnes, who also works with the team.
She said of the work that goes into the project, "It's a monumental effort on the part of the kids and the technical engineers."

The winning robot was built with two magazines that hold up
to 11 foam balls.
And with its two-speed transmission it travels at either up to 4 or 9 feet per second, Olson said.
Earlier this year the team and the robot didn't fair as well at the New Hampshire regional competition, according to Barnes, who said that the team members were disappointed.

Olson said that the team members hadn't fully developed the autonomous mode at that competition, which cost them a tremendous amount of points.

But because the team was knocked out early in the seeding rounds in New Hampshire, the members had additional time to program the autonomous mode before they packed the robot up and shipped it off to Maryland to await competition, according to Olson.

He said that getting knocked out of competition early in New Hampshire might be the reason the team did so well at the Chesapeake regional.

Following the recent competition the team boxed up the robot and shipped it ahead to Atlanta, where it awaits the nationals next month.

©Journal Inquirer 2006