Yay LigerBots

Today was our first competition day this year.  It was at WPI in Worcester.  We finished the qualifying rounds in 6th place out of 29 teams.  We won the Image Award for looking pretty awesome overall, great job everybody.  Our robot died a couple of times on the field. We started the day with a defective router, and replaced that. Next, another communication broke down (cat5 cable, perhaps)? After that, another team hit us and our battery cable severed right at the crimp.  On the last match, our wheels wouldn't move, but the kicker worked.  The pit crew did a great job fixing everything when it broke, and the whole team ran incredibly smoothly during the competition.  When the robot was working, it was fantastic! The kicker kicks a fair distance and will kick over the bumps on the field, and the Lexan plow (soon to be replaced with metal) lets us push the ball and score into a goal with ease.

One last note: The arm was nearly complete at Worchester, but it needed a cable tensioner because there are two cables (one raises the arm, the other pulls the robot up). For the arm to work correctly, both cables must be tense. Otherwise, the cables will fall off of the pulleys, then bad things happen. Anyway, Rosie Robotics suggested a cool idea for a tensioner, but we needed access to our own machines to build it. Expect a working arm for Boston.

Good job guys, see you at Boston.