Before we left the Hatboro-Horsham District Competition, a decision was reached by both students and mentors on our team. We would not put our struggles behind us; instead, we would use them to our advantage in order to improve. It was all hands in as our robot was prepared for another competition. There were several dramatic changes to the robot that were made during those two weeks. The chain suspended in the center of the robot was replaced with two chains, one on each side, to better stabilize the elevator mechanism. On the very top of the robot, two poles with plastic loops balance the totes and container as the robot builds a high stack. A sheet of lexan was placed behind the intake; when the drive team backs up the robot to the human player station, totes can be fed through the robot into the intake. All of these changes better improved the efficiency and stable stacking.
The new-and-improved Miss Daisy XIV rolled into the Springside-Chestnut Hill District Competition, ready to play, on March 12th. From our first match it was clear that the robot was performing much better than it had been before. During autonomous, we and our various alliances attained several robot sets. Throughout the competition, our robot was able stack four or five totes with a container on top.
Before alliance selection on Saturday, Team 341 was ranked eighth out of thirty-four teams. We were picked by the second ranked team, Team 204, Eastern Robotic Vikings. Our second pick was Team 486, the Positronic Panthers. Our alliance performed well through the playoffs, and our high average enabled us to move onwards to the semi-finals. While we were defeated there, every student and mentor on the team was proud of our achievements and improvements.
Another source of pride came about during awards: it was announced that junior student Moira Joy (MJ), one of our Dean’s List nominees, would be competing at the regional level for the award at the Mid-Atlantic Region Championship in April. Though she was not present for the announcement, she was happy to receive excited voicemails and text messages from her teammates.
Thanks to our drive team, mentors, and all the spirit!
