On Saturday February, 18th, the Robotics team got their first shot at testing their robot at the Week Zero event. This event marks the first large scale trial of the robots, and to understand the event more, click the link at the bottom. This this occurred just two weeks before the team will head off to Duluth to compete in the First Robotics Competition (FRC). The team will leave from Cannon Falls on Thursday, March 2nd and will return from the Competition on Sunday, March 5th. This will mark the second year that the will be team in the competition . “It was good to collaborate with the other teams,” stated Parker Hartl, one of the team members, “It allowed us to work out all of the kinks in our robot, and gave us a chance to see where we needed to improve.”

The theme this year is Steamworks with a number of ways for the teams to score points, either by collecting gears, shooting balls into a “boiler” for fuel, and finally by having the robot climb a rope. The team has decided to focus its attention on collecting gears and climbing, with the shooting mechanism still in production. This years robot is very versatile, with wheels that can make it turn 360 degrees with relative ease. This years’ robot also has a gear catching mechanism, a camera to help with driving, and hopefully soon a ball shooter.

CF Robot video.