On January 6th, 2007 39 local teams gathered in the Upper Darby High School Auditorium patiently awaiting the satellite feed from Manchester, New Hampshire. The first Saturday of January marks the kickoff of the 2007 FIRST Robotics Competition season. From that date, teams have exactly 6 weeks to design, build, program and ship their robot. Teams brought their spirit and eagerness on such a beautiful day for the event. Then as 10:00 a.m. rolled around, the feed began and everyone fell into a hushed silence.

     The new 2007 FRC game is entitled Rack N' Roll. The game is based on scoring inflatable inner tubes, called ringers, onto an octagonal, center structure aptly named the rack. On each of the 8 faces of this structure are 3 rows of spider legs, onto which the ringers are placed. Each match begins with a 15 second autonomous period where the robots are running on preprogrammed code. During this time, keepers may be scored. Keepers are worth the same as ringers, however they can not be descored once placed. The remaining 2 minutes of the match are run on operator control. Robots can pick up ringers from either the opposing side of the field or hand fed to them through chutes from the operator’s side.
These ringers can be scored to create a series of vertical or horizontal rows for a scoring bonus. Scoring this year is exponential, so one ringer is worth 2, two is worth 4, three is worth 8, and so on. Specialty rings called spoilers, all black, can be placed over the ringers on the rack to negate their effects. This can be an effective strategy to disrupt rows and cause major point swings.

     The final 15 seconds of the teleoperated period is known as the End Game. During this period, robots are encouraged to dash to their home zones. This is where robots can literally lift their partners off the ground to gain bonus points. If a robot can lift their partner 4”, it gains a 15 point bonus per robot. However, if a robot can lift their robot a 12” off the ground, there is a massive 30 point bonus per robot. That could be a possible 60 point bonus for one alliance!

     For more information about this year’s game or about FIRST, please visit the link below. You
will be able to watch an animation for a detailed explanation about the 2007 game. Best of luck to all
teams this season!

http://www.usfirst.org/community/frc/default.aspx?id=966

Article by Joe Gro
Posted on 2007-01-06