AutoFlex Success
by Michael Wittman

I am a coach and team leader for Team 1714, More Robotics. We are a rookie team this season competing in the 2006 FIRST Robotics Competition called Aim High. Aim High challenges two alliances, one red and one blue, composed of three teams each, to attain a higher score than their opponent. They do this by creating a robot that can project a seven-inch diameter foam ball through a 30-inch diameter round target (the high goal) that is 8.5 ft above the ground, or project that same foam ball through a low goal that measures 10” x 24”.

Like most rookie teams, we made all the classic rookie mistakes that first-year teams make. We arrived at our first regional competition with mechanical issues yet to be solved, a slightly overweight robot, and we aimed a little too high for what we could accomplish with our programming. Well, at least, this is what we thought. In addition to all of that, we decided not to have an autonomous program because we just didn’t have the time to work it out.