2227 Competes at the Granite City Regional 2024/04/17
Accomplishments Between Competitions
Our main focus between competitions were major improvements to code, the addition of cameras, improving our autonomous driving, creating a method for keeping game pieces from getting stuck, and improving our intake. We went through many designs for our note-blocker, which would prevent notes getting stuck near our battery during matches, but in the end determined that more refined driving strategies would work best at competition. Our intake was improved, however, by adding a polycarbonate sheet and some bolts to the top of it to prevent notes from being pulled in too far.
Competition day by day
Day 1
We had a few team members stay and set up the pits while everybody else brought their luggage to the hotel and settled in. Assembling the pit went well, and they later joined us at the hotel. Several other teams stayed at the same hotel as us, allowing us to make friends. This made the hotel stay and competition much more fun, since we danced, swam, and played games together.
Day 2
We played several practice matches and began scouting in order to get information about other teams and their robots. We also spent time connecting and building relationships with other teams. We had some issues with the robot’s controls behaving unpredictably in matches, but other than that our practice matches went smoothly.
Day 3
On day three we started to play qualification matches. We had some rough matches, but our drive team could improvise on the field for the best outcome. The robot took some damage on its intake, with the mechanism getting bent in addition to a motor breaking. In another match, the climber got caught on the stage in the center of the field and became severely damaged. Finally, we had a loss of electronic communication to the motor controllers, finding that some of the wires were pinched in the robot frame. However, thanks to our troubleshooting skills, (and a little help from another team), we were able to fix the pinched wire in time for our match.
Day 4
On the final day of the Granite City Regional, we played our last two qualification matches and got ready for awards and finals. While we didn’t rank in the top eight teams (which are the teams that get to pick alliances for finals) nor were selected for an alliance, we cheered on other teams and joined in on lots of spontaneous dancing.
Plan for the postseason (and summer)
In our remaining time, we plan to expand our fundraising efforts and better network with our sponsors. We have a few fundraisers planned for the postseason, including working closer with a few local businesses. To better support our goal of gaining more sustainable funding, we are also working on building a booster club. We plan on having build specific meetings during the summer to help us learn and improve skills.
