Robotics Team At Central High
Ignite Philly, which is part of a worldwide network that entertains and educates people in short five minute bursts, made a $1,000 donation to Central High School’s
robotics team, the RoboLancers, FIRST Team #321. Ignite Philly focuses on people in Philadelphia involved in cool projects.
Read more here: Ignite Philly Donation Press Release
Hi all, it has been a while since my last blog post.
The RoboLancers recently participated in the Springside Chestnut Hill FRC District competition on the 14th and 15th of March. I have previously been a part of the drive team for off-season events – Ramp Riot and Duel on the Delaware, however it was my first time being part of the drive team for an actual qualifying competition. My position was the coach of the drive team. This experience was exciting and a little stressful. Being able to strategize with other teams and being up front and watching the robots competing on the field was amazing. After this competition, I am very looking forward to the Lenape-Seneca regional this week. Hopefully the team will be able to yield better results this competition.
-Zhen
On March 14th and 15th the RoboLancers attended the FRC Chestnut Hill District Competition. In the previous year I was able to attend this competition, however, this year was my first time as a member of the pit crew. I had the opportunity to work on the mechanical aspects of the robot, repair various complications that had occurred with the robot, and prepared the robot to compete in the field.
Last year I was able to see the competition from a different perspective. I witnessed the different teams and robots compete out on the field and the illuminating spirt that was rendered through the teams. This year I was allowed to participate in the action that occurs behind the scenes. Pit crew was chaotic, everyone scampered to ready the robot for the matches. The mood was high paced and stressful. When in the pit, one is able to ultimately understand that the robot is never thoroughly complete.
Although our robot did not function to its full potential. I have to admit that being a part of the pit crew was one of the most extraordinary experiences I was able to be a part of. I am optimistic about the improvements that our team has decided to make on the robot and am excited and looking forward to attending next week’s Lenape-Seneca Regional Competition.
– Melissa
On March 15th, we headed to Chestnut Hill for the FRC competition with our FRC counterpart of the team. Some of us had to carpool to get there, but when we got there, we were excited for the things to come. Our team worked hard for our robot, and the Robolancers had a great time interacting with other teams, from mascots to chatting during lunch and down time.
Our robot played defense with it’s speed as it tackled robots and denied points for the other team. However, we dropped to the lower ranks as other teams overcame us. Although we are not the best team, we are rapidly improving and even as we dropped down, we still saved face and cheered for the other Alliances and finalists.
Overall we had a great time together, and it was a great event. Together with our teammates, we cheered, laughed, and collected a ton of pins and badges. We won the Judges award, and so Callan, Stanley, and Etienne will be presenting for Chairman’s again next week at Lenape. We’ll be looking forward to things to come, and learning from our mistakes. Some of us are really good dancers too.
On 3/1/14, 40 Robolancers, 20 Crimson, 20 Gold, went to Millersville University to participate in the FTC competition.
When we first arrived there, we set down everything and were calm. However, when we actually saw other people’s robots, we were amazed at how creative and amazing their designs were. One of the robots even shot out blocks, similar to a cannon. We couldn’t really compete with them, having rebuilt and changed our entire robot in about 2 weeks, but we did try anyway. We came 27th place out of 37 teams, which wasn’t too bad actually. Although our original idea was to have the robot spin the flag, and THEN hang, we ended up only spinning the flag due to a silly mistake that no one noticed until the competition was over.
One of the things that really amazed me and made me smile were the costumes other teams had. I thought our Rock ’em Sock ’em costumes were ridiculously creative, but then I saw dragon costumes, viking costumes, a gorilla costume, and even a giant banana costume as well.
I really loved the team spirit there. Moe (the team that has everything colored in an unbearably bright green) was the team that I thought really had the most team spirit. Not that we didn’t try to compete with them in team spirit, though. Throughout that entire competition, Gold was basically cheering “Red Alliance!” while Crimson always cheered for the opposite team.
Even though we didn’t win, it was still a lot of fun, and an enjoyable learning experience that we hope to pass onto future FTC members that may be interested in Robotics.