Robots Redux - FIRST in 2021

Consider the matter of approaching a long dormant machine with a mind to turn it back on.  You walk around it once, twice.  You take note of cobwebs here, a bit of rust there.  If it happens to be something more modern like a computer you wince as you wonder how many required software updates will need to be downloaded at the usual agonizing snail's pace.  But eventually you just have to go for it.  Throw the switch.  Will there be a long pause?  Will it work at all?  It's hard to know in advance.....

So it is with the FIRST robotics team.

It had been almost a year since we'd done anything significant.  School had been virtual most of that time.  We'd "moved house" from a sponsor's shop area into the high school's STEM center.  A batch of highly capable students had graduated and more will do so in a few months.  Our usual recruiting systems Machines Behaving Badly and our summer Robot Tuesdays have not been possible.  

It's the kind of scenario where anything can happen.  Apathy, funding cuts, extinction?  Or pent up enthusiasm from a year of virtual house arrest?  Well you just call a (thankfully in person) meeting and find out.

We had 21 kids show up.  Granted, 7 of them are seniors and we won't have them around much longer, but also four new recruits turned up before we'd actually done any real recruiting.  After such a long layoff they were ready to get things done.  A few photos of a hard working group spread out over multiple workspaces.

The next frontier.  Brushless motors and omnidirectional swerve drive.

Miracle of miracles, we have a five person business/PR team.

As with our previous build space the fluorescent lighting makes for horrid pictures.

Here newcomers learn basic wire connectors.  A few things got botched up, but that's how they learn.

And software, doing whatever it is they do with 1s and 0s.

Like everyone else in the world of FIRST, we've taken a hit with the covid lockdown.  For one thing our school districts, like most, has taken a financial hit and our future funding is uncertain.  But from what I saw at our first meeting, I predict Team 5826 will bounce back quickly.  And a good bounce can take you pretty high...