Team 1778 - MTHS Robotics

The 2008 Competition:


The game this year is called OVERDRIVE. Overdrive is like Nascar and Katamari Demachi (video game) put together. The Nascar part is going around the track as many times possible within the time limit. The Katamari portion would be rolling the ball around the track and either throwing it over your overpass or rolling it under your overpass. If you throw the ball over the overpass vs. rolling it under you will receive more points. 8 points are awarded each time a robot throws the ball over the over pass and only 2 points for rolling it under. Each time your robot passes its own finish line; your team receives 2 additional points. An alliance is a group of 3 teams and 3 robots. In a normal match up, there is usually a 1 vs. 1 alliance match or 3 vs. 3 robots matching... [But sometimes teams don't get to their match on time making the balance lean towards one side]

Our Approach:


Materials we used to make our robots this year were mainly 80/20 and angled aluminum. 80/20 is a newer type of metal derived from older versions of aluminum structures and is an amazingly strong compound metal. This new form of metal is also very light compared to its size and strength.

Some of the electronics we are using on our robots this year are Victors, Motors, Distribution blocks, two Gold plated Fuse boxes, lots of wire, and the robot controller. These are the basic electronics that all teams put on their robots except for that we had to put on 1 extra fuse box to handle the Victors.

This year we are using traction wheels for the first time and I have to say, they aren't all that good. The brand we got was Iinnovation FIRST, every one recommended it but when we got them and tried them out they didn’t perform as well as everyone kept saying. BUMMER.....

One problem we have this year is to figure out how to make or lift work because it is powered by a cable which is in turn powered by a lead screw. You think we would have learned not to use a cascading lift from last year but I guess not. Our arm is made of foam that is wrapped in fiber glass. I have never used fiber glass so it was great to see how much weight it could hold before it would break. They turned out not to be as strong as we once believed so to make up for the possible chance it might break, we are making 4 of them. Our arm is shaped to cradle the ball from the bottom. It is like a fork lift that can tilt, the point of the tilting is so that the ball doesn't roll off of the forks. One thing we recommend to all teams whether or not if that team is experienced or just a rookie is that the design that works the best is the design which has the simplest functionalities.

Thanks and good luck teams!