DEWBOT XVIII Steel City Showdown

For the first time, FRC 1640 participated in Steel City Showdown, 5-August at Carnagie University, Pittsburgh PA. This competition introduced a lot of rule changes, reintroduction of game pieces and scoring schemes back to 2015, and a rather relaxed approached to game rules overall. It was both chaotic and a lot of fun.

There was also a Tor-Mentor robot (666), which team mentors could drive. 1640 mentors drove this robot in two qualification matches.

We brought two robots: Our competition DEWBOT XVIII (Prime), with our 2023 competition drive team playing as 1640; and our practice robot (Deux) with a new roller intake driven by a new drive team and playing as 9990. Running two drive teams was an awesome training experience.

The Field Management System (FMS) was not working, so robot communications were directly from drive stations to robots.

How did we do? Not bad. 9990 finished qualification matches in 2^nd place and 1640 in 4^th (after removing 666, which finished 2^nd). There was a field of 15 teams (excluding 666). Both 9990 and 1640 were alliance captains. Alas, both Sab-BOT-age teams were eliminated before Finals, with 9990 hanging in longer.

We won "Best use of Carbon Fiber" because we blew a few people's minds with the pivot forks and panels.