December 2015: The Experience of Being at FTC Without Actually Helping
Hello, Internet! Cole here. As many of you will know from my December 2005 article that does not exist, I am a member of Deep Run High School’s robotics team, 1093 Blue Cheese Jr. (Side note: Yes, that is our team’s actual name. It’s based on our school colors and a technique related to robotics, or something along those lines. Of course, this means we essentially have a monopoly on cheese puns.) I can’t do much since I know very little about robotics, but I regularly attend team meetings and extracurricular activities, such as this year’s Makerfest and a Lego League meeting (hosting, not participating). This month, I attended a very important extracurricular event: the 2015-2016 FIRST Tech Challenge, or FTC for short. For those unfamiliar with robotics, the objective of FTC is to build a robot based on the year’s game and then compete with other robots for the most “points”. Eventually, though, the semifinalist teams can form alliances with losing teams, effectively giving those teams another chance. I’m too lazy to explain what FIRST stands for or anything else about its structure, though, so if anyone out in Internet land wants to find out more about it, they can go to firstinspires.org. (Yes, I am advertising my robotics program, kind of. Is that alright?)
I woke up at 6:00 the morning of the competition and got dressed. Since I’m a member of Team Blue Cheese, I had to wear a special uniform to distinguish myself – specifically, a blue shirt with my team number on it; semi-formal pants; and an oversized orange chef’s hat with a cheese motif that was surprisingly non-ridiculous. (That said, I might just have a skewed perspective, especially since our senior members wear giant foam hats shaped like blocks of Swiss.) After I helped myself to something I shouldn’t have eaten for breakfast, my Dad drove me to the parking lot of Deep Run High School, where members of the team were meeting up; at 6:45, I carpooled with a friend’s mom, and we all traveled toward Arthur Ashe Jr. Athletic Center, where the competition was being held.
The competition itself was quite eventful for our team. Our robot actually performed terribly; the two phones that we used to establish a wireless connection with the robot ran low on battery, and the robot failed to do anything for most of the rounds until the situation was remedied. We eventually “won”, but only because we managed to form a proper alliance with a team whose robot actually worked as intended – namely, the Tuxedo Pandas. (Unconventional team names are, in my experience, about as common in FTC as team names that actually relate to robotics.)
My experiences at the event were mixed. I was more interested in our overall performance than in the individual matches. I tried to participate directly in the robot’s upkeep several times but was turned down because I am only a rookie and don’t know enough… yet. I can see their point of view, but I really want to help! As such, I had to settle for watching the event. At 12:30, I got lunch from a concession stand. I bought a hotdog and fries, as well as an apple so I wouldn’t feel like garbage after eating the hotdog and fries. I also tried scouting to help the team, but when I couldn’t find one of the robots whose data I was supposed to be recording, the scouting leader gave up on me and told me that he should scout instead. After the competition ended, there was an award ceremony for the winning teams, as well as for teams that were outstanding in other regards (enthusiasm, inventiveness, etc.). Once that was over, the teams left, ending the competition. I was sad that the event was over, but after about 11 hours at the school, I wanted to move on to other things. All in all, though, it was an interesting experience.
This season of robotics is hardly over. Our team was elected to the State level of the FTC competition, which will begin in a couple of months. Additionally, another competition – the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) – is going to be revealed in January, and our team is going to participate. (If you don’t know what FRC entails, please see the first paragraph.) I plan on attending those events as well, so I may write more about my robotics career in the future. Thanks for reading, and I’ll be seeing you!