This year’s game, Diabolical Dilemma, featured a four-team alliance whose goal was to complete the two-minute game with as many points as possible. Teams are seeded in a quasi-random manner with their partners for each round and their average after six to ten rounds would determine their eligibility for finals.

This year, the playing field was divided in half by metal railings and there was a bridge that connected to two sides. The bridge was like a balanceable see-saw that robots can use to access the other side. Two six-foot tall, hexagonal goals are initially on the side of the field. Ten kickballs lie behind the alliance station and twenty are along the edge of the far side of the field. Four giant (three-foot diameter) balls (of different colors) also lay on the far side of the field. The four robots, with different colored lights, all started at the near end of the field. Each kickball placed on a goal is worth one point and each giant ball placed on top of the goal is worth ten points. Each robot that is behind a line at the far end of the field is also worth ten points. Each goal that is successfully balanced (at the end of the match) on top of the bridge doubles the total score. The alliance can end the game at any time during the two minutes allotted, but depending on when they stopped time, their score can be increased four-fold. Finally, if a giant ball that is on top of a goal is the same color as one’s robot’s light cover, that teams get another ten percent tacked on their score. (Photo: Playing field in the New York FIRST competition after a round)

Our robot, Botler, featured a serpentine belt system and a “goal grabber” on either side. The drive system was powered by two ribbed tracks, running the length of the robot. It allowed the robot to climb a 4”x 6” on the middle of the filed, while staying short enough to not hit a 14’ bar that ran across the field. The treads were driven by two drill motors, found on common Bosch brand cordless drills. The design of the two goal grabbing arms were mimicked from a gate latch, so it could grab onto a goal automatically without motors. A spool attached to a motor individually releases the latches upon the command of the drivers. The front latch recesses inside the robot, so that the robot can fit into the size limit. A pneumatic cylinder can push the latch out with 150 pounds of force, making it easier to latch onto a goal.

Being our first year, we fortunately received a grant from NASA and a sponsorship from Smith Industries at the nick of time. We went to the New York City regional at Columbia University. The robot was only mildly successful because of a problem in the drive system, were the belt world “track” and bind into the sides, disabling the robot. From this experience, we learned a great deal about designing such drive systems. (Photo: Botler with a battery removed)

The competition this year was called Zone Zeal, which was a two-on-two game. Teams of two robots (are marked with different colors) fought to rearrange the field of four robots and three movable goals to their advantage. The field was rectangle with the driver stations on the short sides. Five zones were divided parallel to the driver’s stations. Three movable octagonal goals are initially arranged in the center zone, twenty soccer balls lined the two sides of the field, and ten soccer balls accessible to each alliance’s human players. Assuming that the zones are consecutively numbered from one’s starting zone (as one) and the farthest zone is five, each goal in the fourth zone would award them ten points and each soccer ball in a goal in four or five zones will award them one point. Each robot in that team’s starting zone would also give them ten points.

The caveat of Zone Zeal was that the winner final score would be three times the loser’s score. Thus, it is advantageous to play a close, but winning match. The ability changes the score at the final moment and the ability to defend against such action, would be heavily rewarded. Each goal is nearly a tenth ton, providing a challenge to any robot who wanted to move it. (Photo: Playing Field before first round at Virginia Common-wealth University)

Our robot, Bessie, was designed to grab onto a goal and pull it around. This was done with a bar that went in vertically between the bars on the goal that would lock by turning it. We could also shoot balls into a goal that we were towing behind us. The robot had a roller that spun to push the ball into place inside the robot. A pneumatic wheel that was spinning at several thousand revolutions per second, kicked the ball up a ramp and out of the back of the robot, and hopefully into a goal. This system was inefficient and had to be constantly repaired, but it was a learning experience. The drivetrain was the best designed and most important part of the robot. Two timing belts provided traction to the carpeted playing field, which are powered by four motors. The left side was driven by two drill motors, which were spare parts for a common cordless drill. The right side was powered by two motors that were designed for an RV jack.

Our team went to the regional competition held at Viginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in Richmond, Virginia. Though our team placed well, we didn’t get into finals. We also went to the National Competition at Epcot in Orlando, Florida. Again, our team performed adequately, but we still were not selected for finals. (Photo: Bessie, the Space Cow.)

The 2003 FIRST robotics challenge, Stack Attack, required the ream’s robot to accomplish several tasks to win the game. The purpose of the game was to earn points by collecting and stacking plastic boxes in a scoring zone on the field. Any stack of boxes in the scoring zone acted as a multiplier to increase the score. A bonus was also given to teams who were able to get their robot on top of the bridge at the end of the match.

The Field was designed so that there was a bridge in the middle of the field that had a pyramid of boxes in the middle of it. The scoring zones were located at either end of the bridge. The starting zones for the robots were in the opposite teams scoring zones.

Each match lasted two minutes. This time-period was split into three sections, human player, autonomous mode and layer controlled. In the human player time-period, the team’s human player would place their allotted four boxes in their scoring zone. The autonomous mode took place in the first fifteen seconds of the match. This time the robots would run on a program that was written by members of the team. These programs would control the movement and actions of the robots with no input from anyone on the drive team. Different robots use the time in different ways. Some were designed to knock down stacks with an arm without moving their robot while others drove up the ramp and knocked down the pyramid of boxes. Finally, in the player-controlled time the team’s drivers would carry out their strategy based on how their robot was designed. This time-period lasted the remaining one minute and forty-five seconds. (Photo: Playing field in the New Jersey FIRST Competition during a round"

In 2003, the robot’s name was Daisy. The teams are given six weeks to design and build their robot from the time the game is announced at kick off to when it must be shipped to the FIRST competition. During this time, we met twice a day and, on the weekends, planned, designed, built and tested the robot for the competition.

Our team used the first week of the build season to decide what our robot should be able to do and how we would accomplish that. After much deliberation and planning the team agreed to have a robot driven by four-wheel drive system instead of a tread-based system which had been used the two previous years. Also, our robot had two pneumatic winds that were used to maneuver boxes and knock over opponent’s stacks during the match. These wings increased the width of our robot from 3 feet to 8 feet. With the wings deployed our robot was able to take up the entire tip section of the bridge to earn points at the end of a match. The last major system on our robot was the forklift. This system was used to stack boxes to act as a multiplier in the scoring at the end of a match. Our forklift was able to stack up to five boxes.

In the 2003 Robotics season, our team traveled to tow competitions, the Chesapeake Regional in Annapolis Maryland and the J&J Mid-Atlantic Regional in New Jersey. While at the Chesapeake regional, our team performed very well. The alliance that our team was placed third overall in the completion. At the J&J Mid-Atlantic Regional our team placed 17th out of the teams that participated. (Photo: Daisy)