Bedford FIRST Team Has Surprising Debut Success

Submitted by Laura Chen FIRST Technical Challenge Team 7912 Assistant Coach and Mentor.

Team 7912 went into a qualifying tournament at Andover High School in Andover, MA, on Sunday, January 12, 2014 not knowing how they would fare against 13 seasoned teams from across Massachusetts. The team was actually one of three from New Hampshire, all new to the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) this year and last.

Participating Team 7912 members were Taylor Lee and Fern Gagnon, both 7th graders at Ross A.  Lurgio Middle School, Mac Chen and Ajay Kancherlapalli, both 8th graders at Lurgio, and Cary Lee, a freshman at Bedford High School. While Cary and Mac were the gunner and driver in most rounds, Taylor successfully ran the gunner position in one round and Fern and Ajay took turns along with a team mentor,  Mandy Chen (BHS '12), to act as coach at the field.

Team 7912 competed in six matches through the competition's regular 24 rounds. In each match, they were paired with another team to compete against another pair of teams. Many teams won four of their matches, but only one won five and two won all six. Team 7912 was one of those six-match winning teams, finishing in second place to another rookie team. Teams could score points by sensing an infrared beacon and dropping a block in basket on a pendulum shelf over the beacon, by dropping a block in any basket, and by driving the robot onto a platform in the middle of the competition field during 30-second period in which the robot performs pre-programmed functions. This period is followed by a 2-minute period in which the robot is driven and operated through game controllers. In this period, called tele-op, a driver and a gunner work the robot to score points by moving blocks into or under baskets on the pendulum shelves adjacent to a two-sided ramp. In the final 30 seconds of this period, the teams score points by raising a flag at the corner of the field and by hanging from a bar across the center of the ramp. A robot, if unimpeded, could both raise a flag and then go hang on the bar, but no team succeeded in doing that in the competition.

After the regular rounds came a crucial part of the competition as the top four finishers prepared to go into the elimination rounds. These rounds had a best two out of three semifinals and finals.  The first place team, Team 7054, could choose any of the other 15 teams as an alliance partner for the elimination rounds. They contemplated pairing with Team 7912 but thought that would prevent Team 7912 from being able to advance to the state tournament in the event of a win. The teams that advance to States are mainly  award winners and the captain of the winning alliance. The winning alliance partner might not get in one of the available slots to advance depending on the Inspire, Motivate, and other awards. So Team 7054 asked another team to be their ally, leaving Team 7912 with the chance to beat them. Team 7912 had paired with a team from Sheffield, MA, Team 3085, during the regular rounds. The players found they worked well together and their robots had very compatible programming and capabilities. Team 7912 invited Team 3085, which happened to be the fourth place team after the regular rounds, to be their alliance partner and the invitation was accepted.

In the semifinals, Team 7054 and their partner prevailed and advanced to the finals in two straight match wins. Teams 7912 and 3085 needed all three semifinal matches to advance,  but they did. Team 7054 took the first final match and then had issues in the second. Team 7912 took the second match easily.

The winner of the tournament came down to one match, the third in a beat of three finals. The teams had a few minutes to check over their robots and make repairs. Team 7054 and their robot had performed consistently well throughout the day. Many thought the second round of the finals was merely a fluke and expected the third round to be an easy win like the first.

The autonomous period of the third match would likely predict the final outcome and it did. The four robots went through their autonomous programs. Two robots succeeded in dropping blocks in baskets, but Team 3085's flew long and landed near the ramp that the other team's robots would soon be trying to mount.

All four robots were supposed to proceed onto the ramp at this point. Team 7912's robot executed its program cleanly and went onto one side of the ramp. Team 3085's robot made it onto the other side of the ramp fully as well, ending just facing their partner. Team 7054 and their partner were not so fortunate. One robot ran under the pendulum shelf and the other got fouled up by the errant block that landed in their path near the ramp.

The tele-op period came next. The drivers and gunners had a last chance to earn points by moving blocks, raising a flag, and hanging from a cross bar above the ramp. Team 7912's end-effector, a claw, was not working by this point, so the robot could not lift blocks into any baskets; it could only push blocks into a lower scoring area and that it did until it was time to raise the flag. The robot handled the task easily while their partner maneuvered onto the ramp to hang on the cross bar. At the end, Team 3085's robot was hanging and the other teams’ were not. Teams 7912 and 3085 went into the elimination rounds as the second and fourth place teams and came out on top as the winning alliance. Both teams have now earned a spot at the Massachusetts State Championships being held on March 1, 2014, at Bridgewater State University.

Team 7912 will be having a bake sale at Harvest Market on Saturday, January 25th from 10:30 am to 1:30 pm to raise money for their continued season and to prepare for next year. The team demonstrated the robot at Ross A. Lurgio Middle School on Friday, January 17th, and will be in other locations during the spring.

More information about the FIRST Tech Challenge  and the other two robotics challenges, FIRST Lego League and FIRST Robotics Challenge, can be found at www.usfirst.org. The team appreciates the support of Dean Kamen, founder of FIRST, Rockwell Collins, and PTC for their commitment to FTC.