By Sadie Newhouse Alpha+2130
As of January 10, the FIRST robotics team Alpha+ 2130 has been preparing for their yearly competition that will take place March 26 through 28, in Nampa Idaho.
The competition will span over 3 days with qualification matches over the first and second day, and the semi-finals, and finals over the second day.
This year the game is inspired by archaeology. To accomplish this, they titled the game REBUILT, as well as making some of the game pieces inspired by pieces from past games. The game pieces this year are small yellow balls made out of foam called fuel. Most start out in the middle of the field, but there is a component called the trench that can hold up to 24 fuel. The goal is to shoot the fuel into a large box with a hexagonal shaped funnel on the top to score the pieces. Each piece scored is one point. The scoring zone is called the Hub. There is a Hub on either side of the game field that a bot can score in depending on what alliance they’re on.
On the back of the field there is a spot for the robot to climb a steel structure that resembles a ladder. The robot can score points in the last 30 seconds of a match by climbing onto one of the 3 levels. The team earns 10 points for climbing on the lowest level, 20 points for the middle level, and 30 points for the
highest level.
Let’s break down a match. During the first 20 seconds the robots are autonomous. This means that the bots are running purely off of code and no one is controlling them. During the autonomous period, robots can start with up to 48 fuel pre-loaded, obtain fuel from the human player, collect it from the depot, or pick up fuel from the center of the field. During this same time period, robots can either score their fuel pieces or climb the tower.
The next section of time is 1 minute and 50 seconds. This is when the team members are able to control their robots. During this time, robots will be able to score in
the Hub. Hubs will switch between being active and not active, and robots can only score points in the Hub while it is active. Whoever got the least number of points in the autonomous period will have their Hub active first, meaning that the alliance with the most points in autonomous will have an advantage with their Hub being open last. There will be four different shift periods where the active Hub will switch, and the shifts will happen every 25 seconds.
The last section of the game is called End Game, and it takes place during the last 30 seconds. During End Game robots, both hubs are activated and points will be able to be scored for each team. During this time robots can also climb the tower and earn even more points for their team. When the timer for the 2 minute and 40 second match comes to an end, the robots freeze and the game is officially over.
The robotics competition, and FIRST organization as a whole, provides all the participating students with a place to learn about important life skills, such as teamwork, collaboration, not being able to choose who you work with, critical thinking skills, and creativity.
The team would love to have you follow along on our Facebook page FIRST team 2130 or by following the Idaho Regional at https://www.thebluealliance.com/
We will be hosting an open house at our shop after competition date to be determined. We invite you all out to visit us at our shop at 6577 Main Street, in the back of Boundary County Middle School.
