FIRST Robotics 2023 - Tournament Time 1.0

A very memorable robotics tournament in Duluth for team 5826.  I considered writing something pseudo fictional in the form of me pitching an improbable movie plot to a studio but that would detract from what the students did.  Which actually is more impressive than me attempting to write clever things.

We have a very good team.  Our resources are just OK so we have to make the most of them.  The decisions made early on in the design process got us a robot that was mechanically perfect to play this game in an early event scenario.  Fast, maneuverable, does not drop things.  And our initial autonomous sequence was so good that in many matches we started out with a hefty lead that our opponents had to scramble to match.  It is difficult for them to play defense on us while also trying to play offense and score points.

So with just a few more pieces of the puzzle we could have blown through the qualification rounds in fine shape.  But there were gremlins.  Odd events in which the robot would freeze up for either a few seconds or until our radio rebooted.  We lost our first match due to a very avoidable issue (laptop overheated!) then went on a run of wins that put us up as high as 3rd place in a 60 robot field.

But the gremlins were persistent.  One match we lost because our wheels had worn down their treads.  But we replaced them and were again doing well.  We finished at 14th.  Pretty good considering the early hiccups.  

In FIRST the eight top finishers get to each pick two alliance partners to go into the elimination rounds.  We went unpicked until near the end, which put us on the number two alliance.  This is fair, if you don't know how reliable a partner is you go looking for less flashy but more durable options.

And.....early in the elim rounds we just died.  That was embarrassing.

The issue was vague.  In some fashion the motors were pulling so much current that the control system browned out.  Eventually one motor pulled so much it melted.  But we did not have this figured out at the point where the matches had to continue.  So we told our alliance captain to go with the established procedure and call up a stand by substitute robot.

Our team kept working on it....just out of curiosity.  Various event officials who knew the control system well also came by.  Most teams were already packed up and out of competition, they probably just wanted something to do.

The root cause was identified.   It would be hard for me to describe it as the place where hardware and software interact is a netherworld.  In earlier days people so affected would be considered possessed by demons.  It may still be so with machines....   But they exorcized the demon, did a quick functionality test, and we were again Live.

Out of politeness we informed the alliance captain but suggested he should keep running with the substitute robot.  But, if anything happened to it we were ready.

Something happened to it.

There was a very quick conference.  "Are you sure it works?"  We said yes.  "Can you prove it will hold up to some impacts?"  We asked if they'd like us to crash it into a wall for them to prove viability.  "Yes, please".

Onto the practice field.  Bang.  BANG.  At this point I said "C'mon, is that all ya got?"   BANG!  

At this point the representative from our Alliance Captain got a very odd look on his face and took off at a dead run to the area where their team was staging.

A few minutes later we were playing in the Final match.  Now I'm not bragging here but we more than carried our weight in the game play.  And in the final end game where we needed three robots to all balance on a narrow teeter totter we got up there, leaned dangerously over the edge, held our breath.....and got nudged off with one second to go.  Here, see if I am exaggerating....SO DARN CLOSE!

And so we missed a shot at Worlds by a quarter inch or a couple seconds.

Honestly, you can't make this stuff up.  Second place is fine.  A trophy, medals for everyone.  One of our team members also won a very prestigious individual award.  And the silly goat video we made for FIRST to use as a time filler at events premiered just before the final dramatic match.

Oh.....and we play again in four weeks......