Check up on our Subteams!
Programming
Our programming team currently training new programmers and promoting existing ones to lead positions for next year.
Electrical
Our electrical department is currently working on test boards, These test boards will help us test prototypes more quickly in the future and can be used to program robot subsystems before the robot is complete! The electrical team is also educating next year’s roboticists.
Mechanical
Our mechanical team is currently organizing our shop and disposing of unnecessary components, as well as training the newer members. They are also working on any projects the students would like to try! Some ideas for possible projects are a ball shooter, a turret, and an over-the-bumper intake.
Competition Highlights!
Our team made a massive improvement at this competition compared to the previous. Our first day was spent setting up our robot, as well as our booth in the pits. After setup we spent the remainder of the day fixing issues and playing practice matches. We had a major issue at the end of the first day with the elevator flexing too much, but a hurried repair in the afternoon and the next morning fixed the issue. The 2nd day brought many high scoring games, as well as the start of qualifying matches along with working out any issues with our bot. We got close to winning some matches that we thought were confirmed losses, and got many ranking points, placing us high up in the rankings. We were as high as 17th at one point, but ended the day with a couple tough matches and in 31st place. The third day, we had some very high scoring matches, and ended up in 25th place out of 47 teams (our highest place in 7 years!). On top of that, we had the 13th highest scoring robot on average, and our robot got 1st place for the category of Algae in Processor. We ended up being backups for the remaining alliances in finals, so if a robot broke down in the finals bracket, we would have been substituted in!
What’s Next?
Summer Camp: Our summer camp provides an opportunity for 5-8th graders to learn the basics of robotics. It runs from June 16th, 17th, 18th, and the 20th, 9AM – 12PM. Students can sign up through community education!
Collaboration with Cannon Falls Team: We are planning to have a small group of RoboRaiders and a small group of Bomb-Botz to meet together to work on an over-the-bumper intake. This common robot element hasn’t ever really been mastered by either team, so we’re working together to learn how to make a good one!
Spring Fundraising: We are doing a spring fundraising push! We have some sponsors that typically give money in the spring, and we are reaching out to them. We are also reaching out to new businesses and exploring new fundraising opportunities. Some items we are looking to buy with our fundraising money are a new set of swerve wheel modules, a CAD desktop computer, new robot batteries, new sensors, aluminum stock, and supplies for the middle school FIRST Lego League robotics team!
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