DEWBOT VIII Bridgewater-Raritan Battle Royale
Another competition with a driver training focus. As a result of limited turnout, Sab-BOT-age was able to register two robots (Prime & Deux) as 1640 and 1639, respectively. Three new drive teams were able to gain competition experience. A concerted pre-competition effort was required to bring Deux into working and fighting trim. This effort paid off.
Our 2nd robot, Deux, playing under the nom de guerre of 1639 (Tipsy Honeybadgers) and shared by two prospective drive teams, together with 1st alliance partners 869 (POWER CORD, alliance captain) and 25 (Raider Robotix), was a champion of this competition.
Team 1640 (Prime) was selected just ahead of 1639 by the 2nd alliance, teams 1403 (Cougar Robotics, alliance captain) and 225 (Tech Fire).
Each team's first six qualification matches were 2-on-2. The last two were the normal 3-on-3. The last two 2-on-2 and first 3-on-3 matches were mentor matches.
Who was there
Students: Douglas, Sasha, Andrew, Molly, DJ, Yahya, Jack, Nicole, Mike, Kira, Ian, Patrick C, Patrick D, Lucy
Mentors: Julie Christopher, David & Rita Wall, Faith & Clem McKown, Ben Kellom, John Weissman
Parents/Family/Friends: Deborah Drago, Bill Curran, Ellen Kellom, Sue Rogers, Ruth Morganto, George Christopher, Gillian, Tanis, Hannah, ?
- Driver: Douglas, Yahya & Kira
- Operators: Jack, Patrick C & Lucy
- Coaches: David Wall, Sasha & Andrew
- Human Player: Patrick D & Yahya
- Administrator: Faith McKown
- Pit Captain: Molly
- Scout: Ian
Problems Encountered
- Prime's bridge arm sensor was not working due to a coupling/calibration problem
- Deux's shooter tachometer was not working
- Prime lost its lift belt twice before it was noted that a bolt was missing and replaced
- Deux was unable to cross the barrier, as this motor was not the same as in Prime - FIXED
- Despite purchasing (2) new batteries (giving us 10), battery management was challenging. Batteries set up to charge the night before did not (reason unknown). At the event, battery chargers did not indicate charging progress (again, reason unknown). The Battery Beak was used to confirm charge on all batteries going into robots. No battery problems were experienced in competition. We participated in 22 (maybe 23) matches during the event.