FRC Team 980 fought hard in its second competition, the Los Angeles Regional, held in the Long Beach Sports Arena on March 21 -23.

We finished in 18th position out of 65 teams, with a record of 5 wins and 3 losses. Our catapult was successful in scoring Frisbees in autonomous mode and during tele-operated play. We were an alternate robot for the elimination rounds, and remained “on-deck” through the semi-finals and finals of the competition.

Emma, our team captain, won a Dean’s List Finalist Award! Team 980 won the Xerox Creativity award for our novel catapult approach to scoring and defending. Our lead mentor, David Brinza, earned the Woodie Flowers Finalist Award for the Los Angeles Regional.

Team 980 wrapped up a successful 2013 FRC Ultimate Ascent season and is now working towards next year!

We took our “mobility platform” to the pre-ship scrimmage at Harvey-Mudd College on Sunday, Feb 17. Three students had the opportunity to drive the robot on a competition field with other teams. Here’s a picture of our functioning drive base with our red bumpers:

Team 980 is in the home stretch of build season with just two days until we stop work on our robot!

Team 980 greeted the 2013 FRC Season with a Kickoff Event at our new build site.

The new game is called Ultimate Ascent! Here’s the game animation:

This year’s game has some really tough challenges! Teams can score by having the robots toss frisbees into goals on the far end of the field. Teams can also score by having the robot climb a “monkey-bar” pyramid, with three levels of difficulty.

Team 980 will analyze the game, develop our strategy and brainstorm during the first week.

Go, ThunderBots!

Team 980 hosted the Southern California Regional Robotics Forum (SCRRF) 2012 Fall Classic robotics competition at John Burroughs HS (Burbank) on Saturday, October 27.

This year’s event featured 26 robots competing in a one-day FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) Rebound Rumble tournament.
Each robotics team played 6 qualification matches before alliance selections determined the field of six elimination alliances. The #1 and #2 teams received a first-round bye while the #3 through #6 alliances had a single-match play-n to the semi-finals. An elite group of judges interviewed and evaluated teams for five awards and a “Peer Favorite Robot” was selected by the teams themselves. Results of the event are shown below:

SCRRF is a segment of LA Robotics, producer of the event. Team 980 has hosted the Fall Classic since 2008, with John Burroughs Main Gymnasium serving as the venue for the past three years. The competition was played on an official Rebound Rumble playing field by arrangement with FIRST, the Western Region Robotics Forum and LA Robotics.