Microsoft Seattle Regional

We have not uploaded any of the photos yet, but we have, in fact, come back from the Microsoft Seattle Regional mostly alive. It was wild and crazy, and like the announcer said, something of a "Cinderella story." Almost everything that could go wrong did, and we ended up walking off the field with medals. Pity? Fluke? Maybe I should recall the story...

We were working on "upgrade parts" before we got to the regional. We built new steering wheels, calibrated them, and built them in a way that allows us to mount them quickly. We also got a replacement gearbox with a wheel, just to switch out one of the wheels.

When we got to the competition day, we spent the entire day getting the wheels to actually work on the robot. At the end of the first day, we walked off, with a robot that could drive and do whatever else it was supposed to do.

When we came back the next morning, both of the potentiometers were reading 0. Since it would have taken us a whole day to put in and re-calibrate replacement pots, we just removed the motors in an attempt to make the steering wheels free-spinning.

This did not work, as the bearings were not quite that free-spinning. We missed most of our matches, and, eventually, decided to replace the wheels we made with wheels we took off from our cart. This seemed to work fine.

We made it out into the competition, only to have another team pull in front of us during autonomous. This broke a gearbox (a bearing popped out) and a wheel was stripped and had to be replaced. We missed two more matches, only to get on the field and have some electronics malfunction. Not a good day.

We came back the next morning ready to go, only to have another electrical connection fail. We missed a match because we were fixing the electronics. The next match the connection for the battery popped off.

In the last match, we actually managed to run around the track with a horrible drive train and won, mostly due to our alliance, but won nonetheless.

Fast forward to the alliance selection process. The Penguins (chill out) are seeded first. They choose NRG (Newport). (At portland in 2007, Newport seeded highest and chose Penguins and went on to get second place.) After coming back around, the announcer asks who they are selecting. Avenesh, the president of Penguins says "I don't know." The announcer asks the audience who they should choose, and our team starts cheering "1899! 1899!" Newport takes note because we're from the same school district (and somewhat bitter rivals).

And then the most amazing thing happens, and we get chosen for their alliance! Madness! So we spend the next hour getting ready for it. We strip a wheel in the first match because the autonomous that we programed put the robot in reverse. Next match we lose yet another connection in the electronics, and block NRG from taking off a blue ball.

We get everything fixed, even the autonomous, only to be told that we are getting traded off for another team. Oh well, we can't even drive, and I would have done the same thing in their shoes probably. They chose a rookie team, who had a very nice robot and proceed to go into the finals.

They lose two rounds to another excellent team. It was a good game to all the finalists. For some reason, we are still counted as part of their alliance. Why? I cannot tell you because I do not know!

In between awards there is music and we start dancing. Issaquah Robotics Society is across the bleachers on the other side, and we dance with them. It was pretty cool, but nobody else danced. Issaquah gets major points for being freakin' awesome and dancing with us.

Then they call up the people for finalists. We get called up to get finalist medals and trophies.

It still doesn't make any sense to me.

Anyway, our robot this year was epic fail. We tried to do too much with the drive, only to have it fail. We didn't KISS and, apparently, didn't design our robot to be easily accessible. There's also a whole list of what we did wrong in management and the like, but at least our list of "what NOT to do" gets ever-longer.

In case you're wondering, we went around and chanted our thanks at the Penguins and Newport. Penguins even gave us a "wow!" pin.

And we all walked away winners. Because in the end, it's not about the robots. It's about the people.