Team 2918A just received the 2012-2013 New Zealand VEX National Championship Excellence Award (High School). Here is a quick reveal of the team and the robot we used for the competition.
THE TEAM/THE AWARD:
The robot was an original design developed by a few of our team members that we are yet to see anywhere else (please link us photos if you’ve seen others!)
In the collective team 2918 – GCEC we have 6 teams (A-F) who range in age and ability from 13-18 years old and 0-2 years of competition. This will be the first time 2918A attends a World Championship. (Our only other attendance was 2918B in 2010)
Each year GCEC hosts a series of interactive demonstrations and workshops at approximately ten primary and intermediate schools (elementary and middle) in the area, along with a couple of kindergarten classes (children aged 3-4). We take along six or seven robots to a class, do a quick presentation, and then take the kids through having a go at driving the robots and scoring with the previous year’s game elements.
We also keep a design book which is updated at least weekly, sometimes daily, throughout the entire season. This includes written entries, photos, CAD diagrams, and anything else relevant we come across. The judges all gave great feedback about the book and praised how frequently it was updated and how thoroughly it documented the design process.
We believe these were the main factors that contributed to our receiving the Excellence Award today, and we are extremely grateful to the judges involved for talking to us and choosing us as their Excellence Award winners for 2013.
THE COMPETITION:
We ranked 21st at the competition (mostly due to bad luck and VEXnet disconnections) and were lucky enough to be picked by 2921B (Freerange Robotics) and 2941B (Oats Robotics). Between the three of us we made it through to the Finals and met an unfortunate demise against 2941A and D (Oats Robotics) and 2915A (Lynfield College Robotics)
THE ROBOT:
- The robot was designed as a Descore/Rescore robot. It collects the sacks it descores into a basket so they can easily be rescored into our own trough.
- The lift runs on a 1:15 ratio. It is a little slow, but it has the power we need to lift and score 20-30 sacks at a time
- The robot runs on an X Holonomic chassis with 4" omni wheels. Originally it ran on 2.75" wheels, but these sank into the field tiles too much with the weight of the sacks in the basket.
- The descorer lifts and drops using pneumatics, and the “intake” mechanism on it is sprockets, tank tread and stand-off beams. (No, it doesn’t damage the field elements)
- A spatula style ground intake is also present, on a 1:5 ratio, which can pick up 2-3 sacks at a time from the ground. However, the robot is predominantly filled by descoring.
**THE THANKS: **
As per our speech after receiving the award, we would like to extend our thanks to a few people who have made the journey so amazing.
To Jack (2915A) for his encouragement, support, and friendly rivalry throughout the season;
To Steve (2915S) for the enthusiasm and excitement he shared with us on and off the field, and the alliance at various points of the season;
To George (2921B) and Seumas (2941B) for giving us a shot in eliminations – we hope you’re as pleased as we are with how far we all made it;
To Chris Hamling, Johan Potgieter, Hayden, Nathan, Chris, Matt, Andrew, and countless other volunteers for investing their time and energy into these events and being such great organisers;
To David Aston for being such a great teacher in charge, and investing so much time, effort, and money into the VEX program at Glenfield College;
And to all the other teams we have met and befriended at events (Cuthbots, K-Force, SymbiOHSis, Wingus & Dingus, W.H.A.T and others I’m sure I’ve missed) for the constant support and entertainment you provide us.
