2009 Lunacy
Honoring the 40th Anniversary of the first manned mission to the Moon, the goal of the game was to score as many of the game pieces in the opposing side's trailers as possible.
2009 marks the team's first robot, "Taz", built in the lab, having purchased a CNC mill, allowing us to design pieces and cut them out in house.
Taz, named after the tasmanian devil cartoon character, was designed to be able to "drive on ice" using mandatory slippery plastic wheels on the plastic sheeting covering the field. The robot needed to pick up woven plastic balls that littered the field and shoot them in the trailer towed by the opposition robot. The balls diabolical
Taz, named after the tasmanian devil cartoon character, was designed to be able to "drive on ice" using mandatory slippery plastic wheels on the plastic sheeting covering the field. The robot needed to pick up woven plastic balls that littered the field and shoot them in the trailer towed by the opposition robot. The balls diabolically locked together, making them very hard to pick up, store or shoot. The basic premise of Taz was to use rotating brushes to pull the balls into the robot and then a central spinning brush that would queue them up along and Archimedes screw, which would lift them up to the shooter mounted at the top.
The brushes provided enough agitation to prevent the balls from interlocking.
The design proved to be a powerful competitor winning the Industrial Design and Driving Tomorrow's Technology Awards as well as winning the Pittsburgh Regional thereby qualifying for the FIRST World Championship. Along with our alliance partners 2573- Team
The brushes provided enough agitation to prevent the balls from interlocking.
The design proved to be a powerful competitor winning the Industrial Design and Driving Tomorrow's Technology Awards as well as winning the Pittsburgh Regional thereby qualifying for the FIRST World Championship. Along with our alliance partners 2573- Team Overdrive and 222- Tigertrons, Team 1218 won the Archimedes Division and qualifying to advance to the Einstein field for the second time. The alliance was eliminated in the semi-finals, tying us for 3rd place in the World.
Julia L., Vicky C., Ainsley R., Sophie R., Lenny L., Zach S., Franny D., Hannah L., Mac L., Liam R., Tony R., Ryan C., Ellie S., Carson K., Paolo M., Danny O., Hans B., Lizzie S., Jordan L., Reid D., Shaun G., Karina C-V., Alexandra C., Devin G., Cameron L., Jorge B., Hudson B., Stone X., David X.
- Industrial Design Award, New Jersey Regional
- Driving Tomorrow's Technology Award, Pittsburgh Regional
- Winner, Pittsburgh Regional
- Winner, Archimedes Divsion, FIRST World Championship