For competition season in 2021 (in lieu of our typical build season and large regional competitions), FIRST Robotics Teams were given a series of challenges that they could do at home, in small groups, and socially distant. FIRST called this Infinite Recharge at Home (IRaH).
For this one set of challenges, Teams needed to test their speed and accuracy. The following two challenges tested both the drive teams as well as the robot! The goal of both challenges was to score as many points as possible. If the team was using a traditional Power Port field element (as we did for the accuracy challenge), then a power cell that goes through the inner port is worth 3 points, and if it only goes through the outer port, it was worth 2.
If, however, a team uses a 2-dimensional target (as we did for the Power Port Challenge), then the scoring was defined by what percentage of the Power Cell was over the “line” that delineated the inner port from the outer port, as can be seen in the illustration below:
Our fantastic drive team, along with some helpers, did a great job in the videos you can see below.
- Base Driver: Isaac
- Aux Driver: Alex
- Coaches: Nicole and Ben
- Human Players: Nick, Elliot, & Ishan
Power Port Challenge:
In the Power Port Challenge, teams had one minute to score as many power cells as they could. Teams could only use 3 power cells, and had to re-load them back into the robot in the designated “Reintroduction Zone.” Only two human players could touch the power cells, and the robot could only shoot the power cells once in the “Scoring Zone.”
We chose to use a 2D target for this challenge, as it made it easier and faster for our human players to retrieve the power cells and get them back to the Reintroduction Zone as quickly as possible.
Accuracy Challenge:
For the Accuracy Challenge, teams had 5 minutes to test the accuracy of their drive team and robot by shooting a series of Power Cells from several different distances. Sets of 3 Power Cells needed to be shot from each “Zone” at a time, with a total of only 15 Power Cells available. For the fifth set of Power Cells, the robot could shoot from any one of the four zones. The highest score possible is 45, which would mean that every single Power Cell went through the Inner Port.
