Our team was on the edge, hushed and scared as the rest of the Family Dome screamed with delight. Mr. Law looked his usual concerned, semi grumpy, semi pumped self down there on the edge of the field; Our student drivers had a calm, cool look on their face that masked their hopes and fears. Our robots job was to push a few balls into the goal along the way to hanging on the ten foot high bar that loomed over the rectangular field, but could it get there in time? It wouldn't tip over like before, would it?
While the final preparations were taking place, I was hanging around with the rest of the Linn-Mar robotics team, trying to keep a firm footing on the rubber mat covered ice which was the Family Dome's ice hockey rink. The announcer enthusiastically introduced all of the players in the last match on the field in front of us, the final set piece on the long road that started when we started hacking together some aluminum bars, black plastic computer boards and a heck of a lot of copper wiring back at home. It was a long road indeed. We had only six weeks to build the robot that was on the bottom left corner in front of us (or was it the bottom left corner? I can't remember now!), a process that had started mid January amid snow and a bit of angst. We constructed our machine in the back workshop of our high school, a cluttered environment with spare (and sometimes broken) pieces of metal works lying around. The workshop, in fact, was only one of many different places that we built and tested our robot – a computer lab nearby served as the programmers paradise (a place that I had stayed often), and a huge old storage area was a practice field where we got to test our contraption. Well, when we could get the thing away from our hardware guys.
Getting the bot away from the announcer on the field of our final match would also take some work. He worked his way around the symmetrically cluttered arena, hyping up the teams while waving their flags and pumping up the huge sea of faces in the bleachers. There were around fifty-fives teams involved in this regional competition, and many of these teams had brought their friends and family to go root them on. The amount of spirit in the place was crazy, with team flags being waved, people walking around in capes and robes, a copious amount of body paint in some places, and a few noisemakers from time to time to keep the groups alert. The team pit areas on the half of the arena not taken up by the play field was similarly decked out, from banners and trophies from previous winning teams to video displays and twitching bots being adjusted and modded. All of the bot teams were as nice as they were enthusiastic, since we both borrowed and received parts from many teams, some that we might even contend against. It was a mighty fun time even if we were losing, but it was quite intense when you were playing in the final match like we were about to do.
FIRST was the organization that suppled this experience to us, started about ten years ago by Dean Kamen to get high school kids more interested in science and technology. Dean is an inventor, the guy that came up with the Segway, an all terrain wheelchair that can go up stairs, and long, uninteresting speeches that seem to go on forever whenever he opens his mouth. Anyway, every year he and his lovable gang of nerds (including Woodie Flowers, the aging hippie like mad scientist figure) comes up with a game that has several tasks that our lovable robot must do to gain points. The game this year was to deposit balls into bins for human players to throw into this PVC basket, after which the robot could cap with a huge air filled bouncy ball to double the amount of points given by the balls in this basket. Nearing the end of the two minute match, the robot then had to get up two foot high steps and hang onto a bar ten feet of the ground for a massive amount of points – a daring feet that only a few bots could accomplish, ours proudly being one of them. The robot that we had slaved on all this time ended up as little more than a giant arm, built to do nothing more than a giant pull-up. This was the bot that had succeeded in so many matches so far in the two bot on two bot games that had made up the competition, and it was the bot that was going to win this championship and bring us back our first regional win trophy.
The announcer finished his spiel and got off the floor. The buzzer sounds with it's cheesy little trumpet call, and the robots start magically moving towards their prey. The audience screams with excitement, and my team members clutch at each other nervously, hoping that Murphy's Law doesn't take precedence and ruin our chances for a win. Our group, like many in high school, was a bit cliquish, with the software folk and the hardware folk usually hanging around each other more often than not, but we were still a unified team at our whole. I mostly worked on the software aspect of the robot with many of my acquaintances, spending long nights trying to get the robot to do something as simple as follow a line on it's own or even just go straight without assistance. The robot drivers had no control the first fifteen seconds of the match; therefore, getting the bot to do these things themselves was essential. After a bit of experimenting, we were able to get the robot to go up one step and up the other by itself, although it was still risky business, since if our robot tipped over like many times before we were little more than dead weight on the field. We prayed together now that this program might pull off as the robot learched forward.
Our robot doesn't bother with any of the chaos of foam balls and moving metal around it; quickly, efficiently, it moves towards it's goal. Six wheels propel the machine forward, the middle two wheels set a bit lower on the robot which makes it rock back and forth as it crosses the torn up carpet. It hits first edge with a large thud, and the motors spin heatedly to get the piece of metal up the step. The bot shudders and shakes as it slowly forces its way up the ramp – to an observer, it might seem like the robot was simply trying to chew through the obstacle. Not now. It passes the first step, it passes the second... and the second buzzer sounds. The drivers stumble towards the controllers, and our arm goes up. We hold in silence as the robot slowly guides towards the large iron pull up bar. It latches! Pneumatics kick in, and the bot uses its gigantic aluminum muscle to hoist itself up. Then something completely unexpected happens. Our opponents robot attempts the first step and stumbles onto its side. There is nothing that the opponent alliance can do. Victory is assured.
Within seconds the whole group is in a huge huddle, hugging and moshing as the rest of the stadium raises the roof. After a few months of craziness, we finally succeed and claimed our rightful trophy. The air of the stadium is jubilant, and I can remember the entire place vividly in my mind today. I had went there with the team all four years I was in high school, and it is a lovely place that brings back strong memories of FIRST. The team spirit is overwhelming there; the other teams robot designs innovative and sometimes stylish; the merry participant's cheerful and active; the competition both frightfully fierce and positively friendly. I will definitely go back there someday to visit as I am in college. This is an awesome activity to be in.
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