Our 2013 FIRST Robotics season has just legitimately started as of 11:30 on Saturday January 5th. The anticipation for the new FRC challenge was really grinding our gears. Mercury could not wait to see what we would be building this year. The rick-roll via FIRST’s game hint didn’t help, in fact it hindered our guess, but it all makes sense now. Needless to say, returning to Montgomery High School for their annual kickoff event brightened the lives of many Highstown FIRSTers, some opening their eyes to the world of FIRST, others inviting them back for the same action that hooked them years ago. As we sat in Monty’s Auditorium awaiting the 2013 game our eyes caught every detail, attempting to discover the game before everyone else. When the moment hit, when the game was announced; the room fell silent, eyes widened, jaws dropped. The first thing heard was an audience member inquiring, “Is that a Frisbee[®]?”. Yes, yes it was.
The robot this year will be designed to do one or more of the following: project discs into goals and climb a metal pyramid frame. There are so many good and better ways to go about designing and building a robot, just today (perhaps incorrect) talk of a leaf blower came across the engineering discussions–pshh totally not a thing. Our real goals in the first few days are to, as a team, prioritize our agenda as to our development requirements such as, building a shooter and solving Frisbee® pickup and loading. Having a decent-to-great autonomous mode seemed more than imperative to our early game success. While it is really still to early to call, ideas are floating around and science is being done, I assure you. If build season schedule is upheld, mock-up and actual prototyping should take place this week. This will surely be a blast!
Good luck and we’ll see you at the competitions.
For more information about the 2013 FIRST game, click the link below.
ULTIMATE ASCENT
or go to FIRST FRC Youtube Chanel