Our Build Season officially started on January 4th, 2014 and ended February 18th, 2015.  This year’s FRC challenge was Aerial Assist, a game where our robot must cooperate with an alliance to throw a 2′ diameter ball through a goal about 7′ off the ground. The full game explanation and animation can be found here.

This year, we came up with a design integrating a Mecanum Drive, to move in any direction, including diagonally, without changing its orientation.  We designed a curved catapult utilizing large torsion springs to propel the large ball.  We built two identical robots; one for competition as required, and one for practicing in-between competitions.  This gave us time to work out the bugs, be prepared to deal with common problems during competition, and practice driving.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We attended the Northern Lights Regional in Duluth, MN with 55 other teams from across the country.  Our robot did extremely well, far surpassing the abilities of its ancestors, holding 5th place for a full day!  Thanks to all of the students and mentor volunteers for making the 2014 Build Season our best one yet!