Aggravating things about the competition itself..

[archiver]

Posted by Gui Cavalcanti at 03/17/2001 1:28 PM EST


Student on team #422, Mech Tech, from Governor's School (GSGIS) and Verizon.




There are some aspects of this game we're all enthralled with that I really don't like, and I have one major example for you.

Team 615 came to the VCU regionals without a robot, essentially. They had a couple of pieces of plywood, a cage for their drive train, and two globe motors. No program, no electrical system at all, barely even a mechanical frame. Nearly half our team ventured over to their pits (including me, for most of the competition) and helped them build their robot from the ground up. We wired, we soldered, we drilled, we cut, virtually did everything except for machine shop work and what we were teaching them. Sorry if I start to sound cynical, but I'm getting to the bad part.

During the practice rounds, their robot was on globe motors for a drive train with a 1:3 gear ratio (shudder). They moved at about 2 inches per second, got shoved up and over the bridge, and got stuck on the TAPE that marked the ENDZONE... eventually needing another robot to push them over. After that, everything started to break. We got them wired up, swapped out the globe motors with drill motors, and got their robot fired up with them. Then.. it constantly broke. They did not move more than two feet per match, and they used up all their stretcher coupons. But guess what? They placed 16th!!!! I saw so many other teams with so many more qualified robots! They were constantly on ridiculously high-scoring (relative to the VCU regional) alliances, scoring 150, 108, 116, and 126 in 4 separate matches. I saw so many other teams making so much more effort.. I mean, I understand the fact that they came with nothing, but still.. not even an electrical system at all. It just bothers me that such a team could make 16th out of 67 if they put no effort into their robot in 6 weeks!

You know what the kicker was? They got the Sportsmanship Award, too. Nobody paid attention to what the 422s did, but that didn't bother us too much.



I'll go back to programming now..

-Gui
Team 422 (Mech Tech)
Richmond, Virginia