Your Best Robot

[Michael Corsetto]

This year by far, even though our awards don't show it. Last year, we had a sweet shooter that turreted and tilted to shoot from any position on the field, but it shot the balls at a slow rate (about 1 per second), thus eliminating our competitiveness.

We learned from our mistakes last year, and focused on making this year's robot as quick of a scorer as possible. We made to my knowledge the only double-jointed, unfolding, lock-in elevator arm in FIRST, which started at 4 feet and unfolded out to 10. (for video of the arm unfolding check out this match, we're the robot in the middle on the right hand side) The grabber picked up off the ground fairly quickly and we scored quickly as well. We averaged around 4.5 ringers per match at the 3 regionals we attended, which is pretty good for this years game and all of the defense going on.

Even though we only won 2 awards this year, as opposed to 8 last year, I still think we moved light years ahead into becoming a real powerhouse on the field. Hopefully next year, even though I'll be gone, the team will keep a mindset of speed and simplicity and build another competitive machine.

Mike C.