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The OctoPiRates, Tallahassee’s local robotics team headquartered at SAIL High School, arrived at the FIRST South Florida Regional competition Thursday morning Feb. 26 to join 50 other robotics teams from all over the world including Turkey and China. “While there’s almost always something to be done to maximize performance on the robot, this year’s bot was pretty much where we wanted it when we arrived… a novel experience for us,” said mentor Charles Robshaw. “It's so empowering for students first to turn their ideas and paper sketches into computer designs. Next, the manufacturing involves developing new skills such as working with 3D printing, mills, lathes, and welders, to create the robot’s parts. Finally, the bots are programmed and tested with autonomous routines. It’s the most amazing STEAM project I have ever done," said mentor JaSun Burdick.
After the intense 45 day build season, the team was excited to take the field and see what the robot named “Pickett.Up” could do. “The crowd roared as we put up one of the first full point stacks, 70 pounds of plastic 10 feet in the air on top of the scoring platform. Our driver had to accelerate three times to stop it from falling. It was so exciting.” said senior Mary Curci. Then the team discovered that a neighboring pit-team’s robot was 16 pounds overweight. The OctoPiRates exhibited Gracious Professionalism, a guiding principle at FIRST competitions, by helping them redesign some of their mechanisms and providing several drills and drill bits to "swiss cheese" their frame so they were still eligible to compete.
Friday began with qualification rounds. “We climbed the ranks slowly, and towards the middle of the day we were sitting in first place! We were on top of the world,” said senior and club co-captain Alexis Worrell. As qualifications came to a close on Saturday afternoon, the club had fallen to 10th place, but had established themselves as one of the fastest stacking bots in the competition. The team was then picked by the third seeded alliance captains, Norwell Robotics from Massachusetts. The Mighty Monkey Wrenches, a team from New Jersey, were also picked to finish out the alliance of three that would compete together throughout the eight-team playoffs.
The alliance squeaked through quarterfinals by 1.5 points, then got its rhythm and blasted through semi-final matches. “We had a really good fit with our alliance teammates. We put together stacks of four totes and Norwell topped us off with more totes and a bin, while the Monkeys worked in the corner by themselves putting up their own stack,” said junior and lead driver, Chris Witmer. The final competition were a best 2 out of 3 match format,he other alliance won the first match by 5 points. The OctoPiRates came back, taking the second match by 31 points. It was down to the last round. “The other side started with a huge 24 point autonomous lead and we knew we had a lot to do to come back. We had our first stack in 23 seconds -- our best time yet. We had our second stack of four about to score, but a pool noodle game piece on the field got stuck under the bot. It took 20 seconds for us to dislodge it and be able to put down the four totes we had,” said junior Ram Manickam.
Would it make the difference? The crowd sat in silence while scores were tabulated. It was going to be close, really close. In the end the OctoPiRates just missed 1st place, 104 to 100 points. The team felt like champions, though, with their best finish ever.
But it doesn’t stop there. The team has registered for a second competition at the Bayou regional in Louisiana on March 20th, where they plan to shock everyone again with their stacking speed. But they have an obstacle in front of them, similar to the pool noodle on the court in the last Florida Regional event: money. Registration for the Bayou regional is $4,000, plus travel expenses are $2,000.
"We are so close we can taste victory! Success in the Bayou competition will allow us to compete in the FIRST Championship event in St. Louis with the winners from regional events all over the world." Please consider supporting the team and makin a donation to help with their expenses at http://www.gofundme.com/OctoPiRates3502 .
You can follow all the live action streaming at The Blue Alliance oon our Google+ community. If you would like to help mentor or have other ways to support the team please contact [email redacted].
Thank you for considering being a part of this amazing team and helping us take our dream one step closer. With your help, we can take Tallahassee’s OctoPiRates to the world stage of robotics competitions!
After the intense 45 day build season, the team was excited to take the field and see what the robot named “Pickett.Up” could do. “The crowd roared as we put up one of the first full point stacks, 70 pounds of plastic 10 feet in the air on top of the scoring platform. Our driver had to accelerate three times to stop it from falling. It was so exciting.” said senior Mary Curci. Then the team discovered that a neighboring pit-team’s robot was 16 pounds overweight. The OctoPiRates exhibited Gracious Professionalism, a guiding principle at FIRST competitions, by helping them redesign some of their mechanisms and providing several drills and drill bits to "swiss cheese" their frame so they were still eligible to compete.
Friday began with qualification rounds. “We climbed the ranks slowly, and towards the middle of the day we were sitting in first place! We were on top of the world,” said senior and club co-captain Alexis Worrell. As qualifications came to a close on Saturday afternoon, the club had fallen to 10th place, but had established themselves as one of the fastest stacking bots in the competition. The team was then picked by the third seeded alliance captains, Norwell Robotics from Massachusetts. The Mighty Monkey Wrenches, a team from New Jersey, were also picked to finish out the alliance of three that would compete together throughout the eight-team playoffs.
The alliance squeaked through quarterfinals by 1.5 points, then got its rhythm and blasted through semi-final matches. “We had a really good fit with our alliance teammates. We put together stacks of four totes and Norwell topped us off with more totes and a bin, while the Monkeys worked in the corner by themselves putting up their own stack,” said junior and lead driver, Chris Witmer. The final competition were a best 2 out of 3 match format,he other alliance won the first match by 5 points. The OctoPiRates came back, taking the second match by 31 points. It was down to the last round. “The other side started with a huge 24 point autonomous lead and we knew we had a lot to do to come back. We had our first stack in 23 seconds -- our best time yet. We had our second stack of four about to score, but a pool noodle game piece on the field got stuck under the bot. It took 20 seconds for us to dislodge it and be able to put down the four totes we had,” said junior Ram Manickam.
Would it make the difference? The crowd sat in silence while scores were tabulated. It was going to be close, really close. In the end the OctoPiRates just missed 1st place, 104 to 100 points. The team felt like champions, though, with their best finish ever.
But it doesn’t stop there. The team has registered for a second competition at the Bayou regional in Louisiana on March 20th, where they plan to shock everyone again with their stacking speed. But they have an obstacle in front of them, similar to the pool noodle on the court in the last Florida Regional event: money. Registration for the Bayou regional is $4,000, plus travel expenses are $2,000.
"We are so close we can taste victory! Success in the Bayou competition will allow us to compete in the FIRST Championship event in St. Louis with the winners from regional events all over the world." Please consider supporting the team and makin a donation to help with their expenses at http://www.gofundme.com/OctoPiRates3502 .
You can follow all the live action streaming at The Blue Alliance oon our Google+ community. If you would like to help mentor or have other ways to support the team please contact [email redacted].
Thank you for considering being a part of this amazing team and helping us take our dream one step closer. With your help, we can take Tallahassee’s OctoPiRates to the world stage of robotics competitions!
Organizer
Jasun Burdick
Organizer
Tallahassee, FL
