We went through a lot of design changes in the past few days to prepare for the scrimmage that took place yesterday at Aiken High School in Aiken. The scrimmage was definitely a fun and very informative experience. We learned about many technical problems that could arise during the match, and took immediate steps to fix them. We also got used to the rules of the game and as a driver, I had the chance to see how good my skills were in operating the robot. To be honest, they need work, but we still have plenty of time to play around with the bot.
Overall, however, our robot worked quite well. We went over there thinking, "We are going to get dominated by the other teams," but I am fortunate to say that we were wrong. Our strongest point was the autonomous movement. It was not reliable and the robot managed to perform what we wanted it to do for the autonomous period only half the time. However, I think I figured out how I can go about fixing that issue, so I'm glad we had to chance to figure that out before the actual tournament.
I don't think our robot is very flashy in terms of the design, but it is a very high-capability robot in terms of scoring if we can learn how to navigate the field. Focusing on the two high-scoring objects on the field, the bowling ball and the magnet balls, we can score tens of points quickly if we can efficiently harvest these objects.
The people were pleasant as well. The referees were very informative and forgiving and helped us tremendously in understanding the rules. The players were very professional. Despite the stress that built up due to technical problems, they treated one another with respect and amiability.
The event eventually came to an end, and we packed up our robot and began our three-hour drive back home. We learned a lot of things through this scrimmage. I have high hopes for this tournament. Maybe we can push ourselves to go farther than we were able to with Zero Robotics. It'll take a ton of effort, but I think we can do it.
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