Team History

Our robot for this season included many new ideas we haven't tried yet. We switched our drive train from bevel gears to belt drive, and tried a new slide system with string and Misumi slides. We continued to use GoBilda as our main building material and their straffer drive base.  In programming we switched from block code to writing our own code and the importance of including 'COMMENTS' in the code. We also got more training with OnShape CAD system and used that to create the 3D printed parts (in Orange) on our robot design this year.

Our team remains middle school focused with ten out of 13 students attending middle school in grades 6-8.  Three of our students are in high school. Half of this year's team are rookies to the activity with only one student having more than one year's experience.

We have four mentors that help with the team primarily with build and outreach. We are looking for a programming mentor and are filling that position with guest appearances from other FTC teams in the area.

We attended 2 preseason scrimmages, 2 qualifying matches, and will be attending1 post season competition in North Carolina.

Our robot this year was a new complicated advanced design.  It included a separate intake and placing mechanism. We had noticed how many teams used dedicated systems and a handoff technique for speed and accuracy.  We used two GoBilda Viper Slides as well as all GoBilda parts to make the robot. Our ideas were difficult for a young team and in the end we learned the importance of time management through the season and set goals for next year to include more drive practice and less build through the season.

Our team this year was all middle school students from two schools in the Orange County School system., Orange Middle School and A.L.Stanback Middle School. We had three returning members and the rest were rookies to the activity. Our team had four mentors, 2 rookies and 2 who worked with the team last year.

We attended 1 preseason scrimmage, 2 qualifying matches, and 1 post season competition in North Carolina

Lizzie our first robot. Made primarily with GoBilda Parts and covered in blue lexan. Orange and Blue are primary colors for Orange Middle School. Due to school administration delays, our meeting were postponed until late October.  This dectated the sdesign of our robot. We made a simple robot that used mecanum drive and simple lift that would grab and place cones. The simple design allowed us to have lots of drive practice which proved to be the secret to success.  In the off season we switched our home made lift to a GoBilda Viper slide which we really like.

Our rookie season had seven students all from Orange Middle School, hence our name O.⚡M.S. (the lightning bolt looks like the letter 'h' and incorporates the school's team name, 'the chargers'. It spells  an electrical measurement 'Ohms'  (resistance). We had 4 mentors and 2 junior mentors in our rookie season.

We attended 1 preseason scrimmage, 2 qualifying matches, and 1 post season competition in North Carolina finishing the season ranked 40th out of 105 teams.