555 created a float once again for the Montclair 4th of July Parade. The float featured a modified overpass with cargo net to catch the trackballs. 555’s 2008 robot drove on the platform hurdling the balls as the float was driving through town. The team won 3rd place for best float.
Id have to say, that is probably one of the most creative floats i have ever seen.
then again, this is coming from a guy who hasn’t seen many floats (disregarding the 32-bit ones). still pretty darn impressive.
Did you have many problems with trackballs getting launched off of, or falling off of, the sides of the float? That just seems to me like it could cause a precarious “trackball of doom” sort of scenario in a crowd :ahh: (actually, might be sort of funny to see(assuming that no one got injured). Reenactment of an Indiana Jones scene at a parade=Awesome 
)
Regardless, that’s really cool. You guys only won third place? I’m surprised. I personally would have loved to have been there to see it.
We had a couple of people (I was one of them) walking along side the float “protecting the crowd”. The robot drivers, who were for the most part new, did an excellent job keeping the trackball under control. There were only a few times when the ball fell off and had to be placed back on the platform.
Thanks for the complements, the team worked hard for the past couple of weeks putting together an awesome looking float. One of the best parts of the float is actually not seen in this picture… maybe i’ll post another picture later… The team made a retro more “typical looking” robot with moving head and arm and had him stand on the back of the float. Little kids kept looking up and saying “Robot! Robot!”. They were almost as excited as when they saw that we also had bubble machines on the back of the float as well. 
That looks really awesome! 
Hey, what were the guys we see in the picture doing ? I mean, you had your 2 drivers, but what were all the rest doing ?
We can see someone sort of protecting his head with his hands under the overpass, I was wondering what his part could be…
Either way, great idea and I bet the crowd had a blast seeing something that creative!
Very Cool. Parades give the greatest local exposure for the team.
Let’s see, on the back of the truck their were two drivers (Jen and Ben for most of the time), then one of the 2008 captains/driver was on there to help them and help fix any technical difficulties, there were a couple people taking care of the music and sound system. The one person protecting his head was probably just wiping his face. He is one of the team member’s little brother. He and (I believe) a couple of the other FLL team members were responsible for controlling the retro robot with a vex controller.
Good stuff - a lot of planning went into it, you can tell. There’s a photo you have that shows all the elements of the ‘float’ and how long and detailed the whole thing was. (The one that shows the truck pulling the float.) It had to be a great crowd pleaser and a lot of fun.
This should be the public link to that picture in my 4th of July album. Feel free to scroll through all the pictures.
That’s the one. Yay!
What it did for me (someone who loves parades and the 4th of July) is show that the team worked hard to use the space well and to present the concept of FIRST and robots in ways that show off the technical aspects and the game challenge. You guys took it a step further with the retro robot, etc., making the team approachable and bridging the space between people who don’t ‘get’ robots/robotics and the team that is providing the opportunity for them to try, using humor and something they can easily identify with as part of the bridge. Very cool.
Ditto what Jane said. Great float; plus everyone loves bubbles! What your team pulled together shows a lot of planning and work. Great outreach & a wonderful way to strengthen team skills. Thanks for the photo link.