Last year was our third year competing in FTC! We went to two qualifiers and a scrimmage, winning the Inspire Award at our first qualifier and qualifying for States. At our second qualifier, we won the Control award, and at the Massachusetts States competition, we received runner up for the Connect award! We learned a lot about FTC, robotics in general, and what we wanted to bring with us to the 2020-2021 season!
The competition theme for the 2019-2020 season was Skystone. To score points, our robot had to identify, collect, and stack blocks, move a foundation, and travel to certain areas of the field.
Watch this video to learn more about Skystone:
We programmed an OpenCV pipeline which we ran in our opmode using EasyOpenCV for FTC. The pipeline functioned as a color sensor, so a lack of yellow objects let the robot know that it found the skystone. We were able to both collect and stack blocks using a grab arm, and created a drag arm to move the foundation.
Here are some photos of our robot from the 2019-20 season!
As always, it was a big learning year for us! We had a very iterative design process and went through numerous trials. We gained a lot of knowledge in using new techniques that we will be sure to implement next season!
We also learned a lot about other aspects of FTC, such as team communication and outreach.
This year we implemented team organization strategies using the team management software Slack. With these new methods of team communication, we learned the value of having a dedicated space to discuss robotics and are learning to communicate between sub teams efficiently and effectively.
Regarding outreach, we were able to set up multiple events before COVID interfered in the spring. We met with younger students at the Josiah Quincy School and taught them about our robot and our team. Additionally, we were able to meet with Boston Dynamics and mentor our school’s FLL team! We also met with another FTC team, the Clockwork Cardinals, and were able to scrimmage with them at our Friday meetings. We realized how helpful it is to work with other FTC teams and to learn from and talk to them. Regarding social media, we have updated our Instagram regularly and are continuing to work on blog posts for our website!