It’s the day! The long anticipated day, since the end of Houston in 2018! For the past few weeks, we’ve been speculating what it will be. We theorized climbing mechanisms, shooting, and best of all, water game solutions. These past few days of sleeplessness, the past weeks of theorizing, the past months of meetings, the past years of competition, all has led us to this day. Our meeting began at 9:00, even though it was released at 6:00 Alaska time. Some of us couldn’t hold out at watched before the meetings, others saved the reveal for viewing with the teams. The video went on, and all went silent.
We were amazed by the high tech look of this game. The spaceships, platforms, and the immense amount of velcro. Excuse me… hook and loop tape. Immediately, we had a few thoughts. First of all, it will be a tough decision between lifting and shooting. Had the balls been a few inches smaller or larger, the choice would be obvious. Second, this climbing is something we’ve never considered. That will be interesting to figure out.
After watching the video more than once, we did some strategizing. Immediately we had a few ideas gaining traction. Some wanted a ramp bot, some thought of a folding HAB lifting mechanism, and most wanted two mechanisms for Hatch and Cargo.
We had some lunch, regrouped, and had some discussion of our interests. By the end of the day, nothing was determined, but we narrowed our scope some. We checked the Gantt chart we made during the off season, and so far we were on schedule. Our thoughts so far were heading towards a custom drive base, some folding mechanism to lift the robot, an active intake for cargo, velcro or center grabbing mechanism for hatches, and an emphasis on defense.
