This is our first participation in the First Tech Challenge (FTC) which is organized for only the second time by Robotique FIRST France in Lyon. The rules are briefly outlined here:
We have been preparing for this competition since December.
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Our organization into two teams: one for the robot design and the other for its programming was not up to our expectations. The first took a lot of time, leaving too little for the latter. Before arriving in Lyon, we are still very behind!
Our team now has an official FTC competition number: #25133
It is composed of:
- Aurélien
- Elina
- Hadrien
- Pierrick
- Quentin
- Timothé
coached by Mohamed, Matthieu, François, and Franck.
We are supported by a team of wonderful parents, some of whom accompany us on our trip to Lyon.
We arrive a bit before the opening and take the opportunity to visit the INSA fablab.
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The first day is mostly devoted to a few administrative formalities, including the usual robot inspection.
However, we realize that a crucial point of the game rules had escaped us: we are not allowed to carry more than two pixels at a time! Bad luck because our strategy was precisely based on catching as many as possible at once! We urgently need to review it.
After a good meal all together, we go to bed, exhausted, as the competition starts at 8 AM the next day.
And we are ready! All dressed up like in Singapore, we look great :smile:
Our first match shows us our first weaknesses:
Thanks to the allied team we win this match but we absolutely need to improve our robot.
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We don’t get discouraged, but our second match has a bad surprise for us.
After messing up during the autonomous period, the battery disconnects and there’s no way to control the robot. Back to the stand, and securing the battery connector. We also try to fine-tune the drone launcher.
Then we define an original strategy with our future allies: They have a robot capable of correctly placing the pixels, we offer to bring them to them.
The strategy is respected and works, but our robot is hard to handle, and our opponents hinder us twice, preventing us from hanging at the end. The launcher worked super well and granted us the maximum points: 30! It’s progressing.
It’s mealtime which we devour because there’s still work to do, especially on the programming and fine-tuning of the launcher.
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And then we go back with the same strategy but we have fixed the piloting problem:
Finally a great success, our robot hangs on at the end of the match. It has been capable of doing it from the beginning but other technical issues have always prevented it. What pride!
Of course, our ranking isn’t great and our next allies are even worse ranked than us! However, our opponents are not formidable either and our robot is starting to have serious assets. We decide to try to place the pixels on the backdrop ourselves rather than serving our allies. On the other hand, we have given up the autonomous period. Last match:
And it’s finally good! Although the pixels were placed next to the plate, the piloting is royal. Our robot is able to go get new ones, drop them in the backstage, then it turns around, sends the drone into zone 2 (20 points) and holds everyone in suspense at the time of hanging, managing it only at the very last second. What a match. :100: points won by our alliance, almost thanks to us this time. We finish this competition on a positive note although the final ranking is only 37th out of 54 teams.
