2013: Ultimate Ascent
Ultimate Ascent was the name for the 2013 FRC competition. Here is a brief overview of of the challenge:
Teams playing Ultimate Ascent use their robots to collect and score discs in a variety of goals. Teams earn additional points by climbing their alliances pyramid by the end of the match.
Ultimate Ascent is played by two competing alliances on a flat, 27 x 54 foot field. Each Alliance consists of three robots, and they compete to score as many discs into their goals as they can during a two minute and fifteen second match. The higher the goal in which the disc is scored, the more points the Alliance receives.
The match begins with a fifteen second Autonomous Period in which robots operate independently of driver inputs. Discs scored during this period are worth additional points. For the remainder of the match, drivers control robots and try to maximize their alliance score by scoring as many goals as possible.
The match ends with robots attempting to climb up pyramids located near the middle of the field. Each robot earns points based on how high it climbs.
-2013 Game Manual
You can see the kickoff video here.
The password to decrypt the game manual is sAucersFlyRobotsClimb!
Phoenix Regional
Plasma Robotics, competed at the Phoenix Regional on March 21-23, 2013. Plasma finished the qualification rounds ranked 11th with a record of 7-6-0.
This was Plasma’s first regional of the 2013 competition season and the team spent much of the practice day on Thursday finishing and fixing the climbing component on the robot. Unfortunately this did not leave Plasma enough time to fully test the targeting and shooting mechanism in the software.
Plasma was given the Innovation in Control Award sponsored by Rockwell Automation for its targeting assist code that was designed to help drivers properly line up on the target before shooting discs.
Las Vegas Regional
Plasma competed in the Las Vegas Regional on April 4-6, 2013. Fortunately this was not another back-to-back set of regionals like 2012 was so Plasma had the chance to refine and fix some of the issues that affected the climbing and disc feeding mechanisms.
Plasma was ranked 3rd at the start of alliance selection with a record of 13-4-0. Plasma progressed to the finals where they lost out to a very strong top ranked alliance. Although Plasma did not win the regional, the team did earn a wild card slot to the World Championships in St. Louis since one of the winning teams had already won another regional.
Plasma also received the Engineering Inspiration Award for all of the hard work done all year promoting both FIRST and STEM.
FIRST World Championship
Plasma earned the right to participate at the FIRST World Championships in St. Louis, Missouri on April 24-27, 2013. Plasma played on Galileo and finished the elimination matches ranked 35 out of 100 with a record of 5-3-0. The mechanical problems with the climber were fully resolved but the targeting software was still not able to target and shoot in autonomous mode.
This was the third time in the teams 6 year history that the team has gone to World Championships. Plasma learned a lot and is looking forward to doing and learning even more in 2014.
© 2014