This page contains information about competitions and some of the jobs performed by our team members.
Description of Competition
Competitions are free and open to the public.
The Matches
Each match is two (2) minutes and thirty (30) seconds long. The Autonomous Period (AUTO) is the first fifteen (15) seconds of the match in which robots operate without any drive team control or input. The Teleoperated Period (TELEOP) is the remaining two (2) minutes and fifteen (15) seconds of a match in which robots may be directly controlled by drivers and/or human players.
The Drive Team
The drive team does the driving of the robot at competitions. Drive team members are selected from a group of students who voluntarily try out to be a drive team member. Drive team members are selected based on performance, temperament and other factors.
The drive team attends the mandatory drive meeting at the beginning of each competition.
The drive team is responsible for transporting the robot to and from the pit.
Drive team members must stand behind a glass barrier on the field during matches.
A member of the drive team stands in the spy box to advise the drivers of things they can’t see from their vantage point.
The drive team in action at a competition.
Clark and Cade shake hands with alliance members before the start of a match. It’s important that our team always maintains a friendly relationship with other teams, as they may be our allies during the semi-finals and finals.
Members of the drive team carry the robot on and off the field for each match.
Cade, Clark and Duncan meet with an alliance team member to discuss strategy for an upcoming match.
The Pit
A lot goes on in the pit area during competitions:
We meet with alliance members to plan our strategy for upcoming matches.
Repairs are made to the robot by our team members that helped in the build process in the pit area between matches.
Judges visit to interview the team about the robot. These interviews are crucial to the team potentially winning awards.
The programming of the robot is updated between matches.
Batteries are changed for the next match.
As part of our team spirit, our team hands out buttons to other teams that we have laser cut out of wood.
Visitors to the pit are given a tour of the robot as time permits. We especially like inspiring the next generation of FIRST.
Two kids that wanted to learn more about robotics and get a tour of our robot. So, of course we gave them a VIP tour. As they were leaving they said to their mom, “Robots are awesome! Can we see if they have a robotics team for us to join in Fenton?” A team member took them over to the Fenton FRC pit to learn more. The results = Fenton does have a robotics team that they plan to join next year. We love when we can inspire the next generation of FIRST.
Kathryn practices Gracious Professionalism by showing our strategy board to another team’s coach. He wanted to get an up close look at the board he had heard so much about. Kathryn was instrumental in the creation of the board, so she explained how the board was created so he could create one for his team.
Sierra makes repairs to our robot in the pit between matches.
Duncan shows off the strategy board with the strategy our alliance came up with for a match.
Sierra and Chris talk with a visitor to the pit about the programming of our robot.
Cade oversees the charging of the batteries between matches.
Chris and Sierra are excited about a change to the programming of the robot.
We share our laser cut wooden buttons to spread our excitement about our team.
Scouting
We use the qualification matches to scout other teams to watch their strategies, robot capabilities and temperament of the drive team and their coaches. This is especially helpful when choosing alliances, should our team advance to the playoff matches.
Kitty, Austin, Kathryn and Nathan are all scouting different robots on the field to record their capabilities, strategies and the temperaments of the team drivers and drive coaches.
All of the scouting information that is collected during matches is put into our computer to ease analysis.
Duncan shares our data from scouting with our semi-final alliance partner so the best team can be chosen to strengthen the alliance with the addition of the final team.
Team Spirit
We show team spirit by cheering in the stands not only for our team, but for other teams that perform well or display gracious professionalism.
Several dances take place during the time between matches. These include line dances such as: Cha-Cha Slide, Chicken Dance and Cotton-Eyed Joe.
We love celebrating.
Dancing helps show team spirit.
We decorate our pit to help show our team spirit.
We share our laser cut wooden buttons to spread our excitement about our team.
Our team members think it’s funny to turn our team number 3656 into EGGS.
