On Saturday December 4 Penn State Abington with their major sponsor Abington Bank held their annual VEX scrimmage. This is a unique event, we call it a “Grab and Go” event. When your robot is ready to play, grab it and go stand in the queue, you will be the next team to play.
When you are not working or driving your robot there is breakfast (donuts, pastry and juice) and an all you can eat Pizza lunch with 5 kinds of pizza and cookies for the afternoon snack.
With most teams getting their design and construction of their robot started late September (start of school) this is the first chance to see their robot on the field with other teams. The non pressure of trying to make match times makes it easy for teams to build and then test it on the practice field before playing a match. It’s impressive the number of robots that show up as a box of parts and leave being a working robot.
There were 28 teams, including two college teams PSUA and KTOR. Teams were from Pennsylvania and NJ. The student engineers from PSU Abington did judging for design and gave 10 awards out to outstanding teams.
The coveted most matches played award went to team 197a Harrinton Metal Heads who participated in 14 of the 30 matches played. Driver Award went to 677 who were in matches that scored 654 points for the day.
Robots to watch from the competition were:
Team 2616, Army of Two - It looks like the team couldn’t decide on a snorkel or a custom claw, so they built both into their robot. Very compact design, and a very maneuverable robot. They also won a programming award.
Team 777b, Dockateers - This was the only robot to hang, and it hangs inside the ladder!. They approach the outside of the ladder, pull themselves up and over the lower rung and get inside the ladder. They then cross over and hang on the other side. It looked like to me that with a little work they will be able to make it do the high hang.
Team 677a, Liam’s Toy - This was the crowd, mentor and judges favorite. Liam built an Ackerman steering robot with dual 4" tires on each side. The steering has latex to keep the wheels in camber. On the power side, there are two motors connected by high strength chain driving a differential. The diff drives dual 4" wheels, giving the overall look of a monster truck. The frame is made out of 1 by metal, with a bow tie effect on the frame. Mounted at the rear of the frame is a “wheelie bar” made out of impellers that have the vanes cut off.
Above is a tower with a shoulder driven by two motors and some lightweight chain. The long arms are four bar linkages made out of 1 by with standoffs creating the box structure. Latex tubing acts as a supplemental lift to make the arm easier to move. At the business end is a smaller version of the 677 claw.
This little robot (when folded about 121212) is a major mechanical wonder. Hopefully he will post pictures so you all can marvel in the construction. Of course it plays well, it was one of the top play makers of the day.
Thanks again to Penn State Abington and the event sponsor Abington Bank