After arriving in Orlando, FL on the afternoon of March 9, 2010, M’Aiken Magic Team 1102 spent the next 36 hours working on homework assignments and team building activities. During these hours, the team members and mentors developed a spirit of unity and friendship that would be crucial over the next couple of days.
On Thursday March 11, the team arrived at the University of Central Florida Arena to uncrate their robot and to take the robot to be inspected. Unfortunately, the bumpers of the robot did not pass inspection due to a slight rule change that the team had not previously noticed. The team members, however, did not let this inconvenience stop them. They banded together to redesign the bumpers and the bumper mounts in just a few hours. This task could have easily taken much longer to do, but the team worked together to get it done in time to pass inspection by the end of the day!
Despite their tremendous effort to complete the new bumper system, the time that it took was irreplaceable. Some of the other teams were able to use those hours to practice driving their robot and to find possible glitches in programming.
Friday morning brought the beginning of the competition. There were a total of 53 teams competing. During the first few matches, there were programming and hardware glitches that were easily fixed but that caused just enough problems with driving and kicking to knock Team 1102 pretty low on the rankings from the start. The drive team and programming team persevered to fix each problem as it came along, but it was not enough to bring the team to the top. At the end of Friday, Team 1102 was ranked 49th out of 53.
On Saturday, the team faced the competition with renewed enthusiasm. Out of three matches played on Saturday, Team 1102 won two! The autonomous programming finally worked as the team wanted it to. During the teleoperated period, the drive team finally had the desired amount of control over the robot to become an almost impenetrable defense team! The robot stood its ground with, as the team members like to say, “the strength of ten bears” in its tank tread design. The team’s efforts were successful throughout the day, bringing Team 1102 to 40th place by the end of the competition.
Overall, the trip was a success! The drive team is now very comfortable with the robot, and the programming team now has the robot doing what they want it to do. The team grew closer and was able to work well under pressure. Members from Team 1102 are now working on slight alterations to make the robot even better for the upcoming Palmetto Regional that will take place at Clemson University in less than two weeks. The FRC Orlando Regional was an experience that Team 1102 will not soon forget.
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The Aiken Town Crier
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