Robotics team competes at World Championships in St. Louis

The CIHS Robotics team # 5465 had 3 competitions this season, two qualifying and the world championship. We performed well in all three. The first regional competition we competed in was the Lake Superior Regional. That competition was held in Duluth, MN. We competed against 63 other teams. Our team placed 35th overall. The Minnesota NorthStar regional was the second competition we participated in. The event took place in St. Paul, MN. We placed 6th overall among 60 teams in the qualifying rounds. There we did our best to be one of the top eight robots which sealed our spot in the elimination rounds. Our robotics team having been in 6th place was able to select two other robotics teams to join us in the arduous battle to the top. We knocked the number 3 and number 2 teams out in the quarterfinals and semifinals. We ended the competition as the second place team, grabbing a spot to qualify for the World Championship in St. Louis , MO.
The skills based game seems simple yet is far from it. The objective of the game is to prepare your airship for flight. The best way to do this is by transporting 12 gears from the loading station to the airship. To score with the gears the robots had to place the gear on a peg at the base of the airship. Then the gear is lifted into the airship to be placed in the necessary spot to complete the link and start the rotors for flight. Every airship needs fuel so another task to be completed is filling the boiler (the shooting goal) with fuel (yellow wiffle balls). Boilers are located in the four corners of the field. In the final 30 seconds of flight the robots were tasked with climbing a rope of choice to gain 50 extra points and become ready for takeoff.
To perform so well at completing those tasks, we needed to have an effective robot.
Each robot has to fit into 1 of 2 size constraints. A tall skinny robot or a short little squat robot were our options. The team went with the short squat robot design because we knew a robot for this game needed some pushing power. We made our drive train to be very tank like with high torque. We used blue rhino tracks to achieve this. Our robot had the capability to score using both gears and balls though we quickly learned the gears where the primary priority. The G.C.S or gear carrying system is a trapezoid-shaped box made up of Plexiglas. The shooter was made out of ⅛ inch aluminum. The balls were picked up from the ground using a rubbery cord called poly cord. The cord spun around on its track very quickly to effectively suck balls up from the floor to shoot them into the high goal.

2017 season highlights

Mr. Almos, our head coach, received the Woodie Flowers Award. The award celebrates effective communication in the art and science of engineering and design. It serves to recognize mentors who lead, inspire and empower using excellent communication skills to train young students of FIRST ideals. On our way to the world championship our team was given the honor of having the Cambridge police and fire department give us an escort to the county line. That made all of the students pretty excited. While in St. Louis the robotics team enjoyed some of the local attractions. We got to ride an elevator to the top of the St Louis Arch, 630 ft in the air. The 2017 season was a very successful season. Our team faced many new opportunities to learn about robotics and have fun while doing so.