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January 11th, 2016
In this Issue:
Preseason Activities
Kickoff 2016 - New game challenges team to think "medieval"
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By Aila Ikuse
Spartronics Team 4915 had a busy preseason. We met every other Wednesday for two hours until Kickoff, and during that time taught the new members about the subteams, how to use tools, and what being in robotics could do for them. We also put on the following events:
Marketing Webinar - Washington FIRST asked the marketing team to be one of the hosts for a marketing webinar on October 13th discussing advocacy, branding, and communication. This was a great opportunity for us to share our knowledge with the wider community of FRC across the Pacific Northwest.
Barnes and Noble - On November 11th, members of the team and 2014's robot ATLaS were featured in Barnes and Noble's Mini Makers Faire. We demonstrated our robot to the shoppers, and showed the kids how to drive ATLaS. Principal Mr. Fish also tried his hand at driving!
Kiwanis - The marketing team presented to the Bainbridge chapter of the Kiwanis club, telling our story and raising awareness of the importance of STEM in schools. Mr. Chee, our coach, was recognized as Educator of the Year by the Kiwanis club last year.
FLL Competition - We hosted a FLL (FIRST Lego League) competition on December 5th, which is the robotics program FIRST offers for elementary students. Four teams from Bainbridge competed, with three moving on to the next level.
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FIRST Stronghold - A Summary
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By Aila Ikuse
On January 8th, the team woke up early to watch the live Kickoff at 7:30 am. The game this year, revealed after a teaser in November hinting at a medieval theme, is called FIRST Stronghold.
Robots start in the middle, or the neutral zone, and attempt to get across the opponent's outerworks, or defenses, by "breaching" the defenses. "Breaching" the outerworks means that robots have crossed 4 out of 5 defenses twice, and earns the alliance a qualification point. There are 8 different types of defenses, and they change from match to match based on audience and alliance selections. From drawbridges to rocks walls, the robots have their work cut out.
Alliances can also shoot boulders into the other team's tower to get points and weaken the tower. Once the tower has been shot into 8 times, the tower is considered damaged and can be captured. Capturing a tower by surrounding it at the end of the game gains the alliance another qualification point. For more points, robots can scale the tower.
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By Aila Ikuse
Before Kickoff even began, the strategy subteam held a "Faux Kickoff" where they chose a previous year's game and split the team into groups to design a hypothetical robot. The exercise allowed us to get to know our design groups and iron out the kinks in designing a robot before the actual kickoff.
Once this year's game was revealed, the team spent four hours going over the rules and understanding the game. The next four hours we split back into our design subgroups, and started laying out strategy and design for the new robot.
Over the next week, we will be furthering our design process in our subgroups, and start prototyping. On Friday, we will vote on the final design of the robot. Stay tuned!
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