State Fair Prep – Ally L
This Monday was the last open room before we sent our robot to the state fair! While Lefty was working well mechanically, there were a few things that we had to do for our robot to be ready for the State Fair event and judging process. Firstly, we needed to test out the controls to see if we could have kids drive the robot at the state fair, and secondly, we needed to record the final videos of the robot to submit.
When we began testing controls, no one in the room quite knew what buttons on our controllers did what. All of the controls to drive our swerve robots are generally the same from year to year. One joystick turns the robot to face whatever direction the joystick is twisted. The other drives the robot in whichever direction you push the joystick.
However, there are many other buttons on the joysticks that are completely unlabelled, which we needed to figure out and label if we wanted kids to drive Lefty at the State Fair. Specifically, we wanted to find the button that would make the robot automatically drive to the right spot and score. We ended up pressing random buttons in order to find the right one, but we got there eventually!
Lefty in Action!
When we bring our robot to the State Fair each year, we are able to talk to so many people about STEM education and FIRST, but we are also able to submit our robot for awards. Last year, we got second place with our robot Cronus. The State Fair requested a video submission this year, so on Monday, we recorded a few video clips of our robot scoring and driving to add to the video. You can find the final video on our social media, @frc_2502 on Instagram!
We needed to film Lefty scoring on the lower levels of the reef, because we did not do so very often in competition. The lower levels were not worth as many points, so most of the videos we had of our robot were of the highest level scoring. Our robot is still great at scoring on the lower levels, so we took some videos of Lefty doing so in a hallway, as well as a short video just of the robot driving. Here’s some of what we filmed:
Other Event Preparation
While much of the open room was spent preparing for the State Fair demo (thank you Outreach!), we are also starting to get ready for a variety of other upcoming events. Our Sponsorships subteam will had their first meeting on Monday, the 11th, and they began working on some brand new events for Talon. Thank you Sponsorships! In addition, Fundraising focused on getting our next fundraising opportunities up and running. We are looking forward to their next event! If you want to keep tabs on what we’re up to, you can view our upcoming events page!
Buddy System!
Inclusivity announced their Buddy System this week, which will be implemented in September! It will make it easier for new members of our team to learn about all of the different parts of the team, and make it less intimidating to get involved in our huge team. If you are a returning member of the team and not a captain, feel free to apply here to be a buddy! If you are a new member interested in this system, keep an eye out! We’ll have information for you coming out later!
Stay Connected With Us During The Entire Season!
If you want to stay connected with the team during the entire season. Feel free to check out our social media pages: