FIRST ROBOTICS 2003

The Ithaca High School, BorgWarner, and Cornell University FIRST Robotics team participates in a yearly robotics competition. A six week build period is given to teams to build a robot to be able to compete in a game. This year, that game is called Stack Attack. It involves stacking and manipulating bins to scoring zones to earn points. There is an added game period this year; autonomous. During the 15 second autonomous period, robots must be able to operate independent of their drivers. Teams can accomplish this through use of sensors or timing.

A one page intro to this year's game and FIRST.

The local team this year has decided to gain big points through stacking. Stacking leads to the biggest points as the highest stack multiplies all other bins in a scoring zone for match points. To stack, the team has also made unique pneumatic devices which can orient upside down bins into a position for the robot to orient. The robot also has the ability to fold down its stacking/orienting arms and go under a 14" bar on each side of the field. Some robots will use King of the Hill strategies this year and block off the ramp in the center of the field; however, there are low passages to either side.

The robot, yet unnamed, is programmed through a controller system using the PBASIC language (the only one authorized by FIRST) which is made by the 'Parallax' company. This year, the autonomous period code has been programmed to allow the robot to run up the center ramp to knock down bins from either the left or right side using pure timing. However, another program has been added utilizing an optical sensor to track down opponent stacks during autonomous period and to knock them over.

Video (not linked):

Autonomous - Going up the Ramp
Autonomous - Tracking
Stacking
Orienting