Congratulations everyone! We have officially started build season, how exciting! The entire team has spent the past few meetings rereading old game manuals to help prepare for this year’s game. On January 8th 2022, the FIRST organization revealed this year’s game/challenge, so this week is all about kickoff. We spent the morning watching the kickoff live stream presented by FIRST, which explains the rules of this year’s game, Rapid React. The game Rapid React is themed around how to improve the transportation of products and transportation systems.
Later in the day, we read through the new manual to lead us into the kickoff of this challenge. Evaluating the game manual is a really great way to help the new members get an idea of how the games and competitions run.
The main objective of this year’s game is to score as many points for your alliance as possible. Each alliance of three robotics teams start on opposite sides of their tarmac, with 15 seconds of autonomous game play. During this time, robots may score as many points as possible by scoring their preloaded cargo balls and collecting additional cargo. For the last 2 minutes and 15 seconds of the match, robots can continue to score cargo in the two hubs in the middle of the field with high school drivers controlling the robot. When the match is about to end, the two alliances can attempt to climb as high as they can on their hanger at the end of the match. Check out this short video to learn more about competition!
Understanding and evaluating this year’s challenge sparked brainstorming from the entire team, who are eager to begin this project. Before we officially broke into our sub-groups, we spent time as an entire team, which provides an opportunity for team bonding. Team bonding is essential for productivity and success for the team. The entire team spent a great deal of time discussing this project and learning more about each other, as well as the game.
Written by: Melissa Domen & Ryann Keefe