2002 – Zone Zeal

2002 brought us a great team; wonderful mentors and motivated students, but also a stubbornly still robot. As we tried a crab drive for the first time. We encountered one thread-stripping, gear-stripping, unmovable sad robot. However, despite this the team learned a lot. And there are plenty of funny stories to tell about our robot that NEVER moved and finally decided to take off like crazy in the parking lot of one of our competitions, where it dramatically ran into a brand-new Lexus!

This would be the last year the National Championship is held at Walt Disney World. FRC 141 attended the Motorola Regional and the West Michigan Regional. This was the first year our team attempted a crab drive.

FIRST FACTS:

Number of Teams: 642
Events Held:
16 Regionals
1 Championship

Robot Size:

130 pounds
Fit inside a 30” x 36” x 5’ space

Brief Game Description:

Each 2 minute match begins with the 24’ x 48’ field broken up into 5 zones and set up as follows. Four robots start on the playing field and are paired in alliances of 2. There are 2 robots at diagonally opposite corners, 10 soccer balls in each driver station area, 20 soccer balls centered along each side of the field, and 3 movable goals weighing approximately 130 lbs each in the center zone. The strategies are endless, but the basic objectives are simple. Robots race around the playing field trying to gather balls, place them into goals, place the goals in their scoring zone, and return their robot to their starting zone before the 2 minutes have elapsed.