Last weekend, FIRST released the details of this year’s FIRST Robotics Challenge: Stronghold. To celebrate the new build season, Team 116 held a Kickoff party at Herndon High School on Saturday, January 9. Mrs Riddick did a wonderful job by organizing a breakfast feast as we anxiously awaited the reveal of the 2016 game. Team 116 Epsilon Delta would also like to thank all of our guests that attended the celebration. Kickoff 2016 was a great success and it would not have been the same without you.
After the live-stream, everybody was extremely excited for the new game and instantly started downloading the game manual on their mobile devices or laptops while debating strategies and making predictions for the upcoming season.
On Sunday, Team 116 gathered once again to partake in Stubots, an interactive strategy session that we hold every year to get a feel for the game and test our knowledge of the rules. We created a scale model of the field using cardboard, trash cans, tennis balls, and other miscellaneous materials that we had access to. Using this makeshift model, we were able to place students in the game and be the robots. This allows for real-time strategy discussions through simulated competitions and sets the stage for the design process.
Last night, we held a brainstorming session to start gathering ideas for this year’s robot. The team identified the problems that Stronghold presents, determined the functions that the robot must complete in order to solve those problems, and then decided which solution best fits the game. We also had a rules test that spanned the entire game manual to make sure that members know the importance of fully understanding the game before building.
Throughout the week, groups will be refining and completing high-level designs of their robot ideas to be presented to the team on Saturday during Preliminary Design Review (PDR).
