1073
From FIRSTwiki
| Team FORCE | |
|---|---|
| Rookie Year: | 2003 |
| Inactive Years: | {{{inactive}}} |
| Location: | Hollis, NH USA |
| School: | Hollis/Brookline High School |
| Approx. size: | ?? Mentors, 40ish students |
| Team Website: | |
Team 1073, also known as the FORCE Team, is from Hollis/Brookline High School and has competed in the BAE Systems Granite State Regional seven times and counting as of 2010.
Contents |
History
Hollis/Brookline High School's FIRST Robotics Team 1073 is known as Team F.O.R.C.E. or Team FORCE and was established in the fall of 2003. The original team wore bright orange shirts for the first two years in contrast the blue and white worn by the rest of the school. Team FORCE competes at the BAE Systems Granite State Regional and has been a regular participant at the Nashua Unveiling events.
The team is divided into four sub-teams:
- The Design Team designs the robot from the ground up, beginning with problem analysis, conceptualization, extensive CAD development, and finally interaction with the sponsors and Ops Team to put everything together.
- The Ops Team (Operations) is responsible for building a full-size practice game field (or at least elements of it), construction of the parts provided by sponsors, and occasionally fabrication of parts as dictated by Design.
- Note: in 2006, the Design and Ops teams merged responsibilities due to a smaller team size than the previous year, but the designations "Design" and "Ops" are still loosely used.
- The Controls Team does all of the wiring of electronics and programming for the robot, including all sensors and user interfaces.
- The Gaming and Multimedia Team (formerly known as Strategy) determines the strategy the team will take during the game and directs how Design will approach the robot. Strategy also created tee-shirts, engages in public relations, fosters a presence within the school, creates a yearbook, and develops an application for the Chairman's Award. The name "Gaming and Multimedia" failed to take off, however, and the name "Strategy" continues to be used.
Stack Attack
Team FORCE participated in Stack Attack as a rookie team in 2003. FORCE joined nearly fifty other teams at the BAE Systems Granite State Regional at the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester and performed admirably, earning the Rookie of the Year Award. Team FORCE also won the outstanding website award. The robot was called Enforcer and used a screw-driven variable-height platform on which extendable arms would knock over the plastic boxes used in the game. Enforcer's low clearance allowed it to maneuver under barriers on the field. However, its use of a four-wheeled "tank drive" impaired maneuverability to the extent that handmade wooden wheels were used to reduce traction.
FIRST Frenzy: Raising the Bar
Having learned much from the previous year, Team FORCE was ready for their sophomore year and the game FIRST Frenzy: Raising the Bar. The design of the robot was much more ambitious, but opted to avoid going for the bonus points by hanging from a ten-foot steel bar in the center of the field. The robot, christened Scorpius because of its vaguely scorpion-like appearance, used a movable corral to gather the thirteen-inch rubber balls and return them to the human player. In raising the corral bar, which used a clever one-way clutch, the balls would be ejected to the player before it would leave to gather more. By having a strategy so interdependent on the human player, Scorpius was selected to be an alliance partner during the finals and Team FORCE finished 13th overall.
After the 2004 season, the founding mentors of Team Force "retired". Mr. and Mrs. Rosenberg handed over the leadership duties to the "Amigos" of Mr. Dutile, Mr. Hyde, Mr. Peterson, and Mr. Grossman.
Triple Play
For the 2005 game of Triple Play, Team FORCE developed their most ambitious design yet, all the while sporting their new blue and white tie-dye shirts. Under the primary leadership of senior members, the team came up with a design that included more actuators than ever before and pneumatics. A very tall robot was designed, standing close to the maximum 60 inches in its folded position. During gameplay, the robot, named Taurus because it resembled a bull while folded, would unfold using a 24-inch pneumatic cylinder attached to an arm at its "shoulder." A motor at its "elbow" would continue the motion, extending a grabber mechanism at its "wrist," which was also articulated with a pneumatic cylinder. The grabber itself used a third cylinder to open and close PVC-covered claws, used to pick up "tetras" during the game (it was these claws that gave the robot its bull-like appearance while folded). Fully extended, the robot could reach eleven feet in the air! During the competition, it became clear that the grabber mechanism was not working as intended, partially due to the lack of practice after numerous snow days in the weeks before. The grabber was removed and replaced with a simple hook cobbled together of former grabber pieces. This proved to be very helpful and helped allow the team to finish 15th out of 51 teams. Team FORCE received the coveted Safety Award during the competition. During the first day, the team was awarded the "Saftey Star of the Day" (Co-Captain Bill Cudney represented the team) because they when the doors opened early for the crate openers, they were the only team that had saftey glasses. The majority of other teams had packed them in the crates.
Aim High
Nearly half of the team graduated in the spring of 2005, leaving the future of the FIRST team in question. However, there was an influx of talented and interested freshmen to revive the team. Combined with veteran leaders, Team FORCE rose to the challenge of Aim High and came up with a robot that performed admirably during the competition.
Team projects
Project Helping Hands
US FIRST Girls
- [www.usfirstgirls.org]
Robots
- 2003 - The Enforcer
- 2004 - Scorpius
- 2005 - Taurus
- 2006 - Don't Panic!
- 2007- OTIS
- 2008- Leviathan
- 2009- Loco Foco
- 2010- Sagittarius
Accomplishments
- 2003 BAE SYSTEMS Granite State Regional: Web Design Award
- 2003 BAE SYSTEMS Granite State Regional: Rookie of the Year Award
- 2003 BAE SYSTEMS Granite State Regional: Finalists
- 2004 BAE SYSTEMS Granite State Regional: Finalists
- 2005 BAE SYSTEMS Granite State Regional: Safety Award
- 2006 River Rage Champions
- 2007 BAE SYSTEMS Granite State Regional: Finalists
- 2007 BAE SYSTEMS Granite State Regional: KPC&B Entrepreneurship Award
- 2009 BAE Granite State Regional: Delphi "Driving Tomorrow's Technology" Award
- 2009 Northeast Utilities FIRST Connecticut Regional: Delphi "Driving Tomorrow's Technology" Award
- 2010 BAE Granite State Regional Champions
- 2010 BAE Granite State Regional Second Seed
- 2010 BAE Granite State Regional: Woodie Flowers Award- Jeff Reuter
- 2010 BAE Granite State Regional: Coopertition™ Award
- 2010 BAE Granite State Regional: Motorola Quality Award
- 2010 Northeast Utilities FIRST Connecticut Regional: Quarterfinalists
- 2010 FIRST Championship, Newton Division: Semifinalists
- 2010 Mayhem in Merrimack Champions
Sponsors
- Our Sponsors List
- Hollis/Brookline High School
- Diamond Casting and Machine Co.
- Technology Garden
- Hollis/Brookline Rotary Club
- The Baxter Foundation
Members List
Captains/CEOs
- 2002-2003: Lindsay Simon
- 2003-2004: Adam Hickerson
- 2004-2005: Bill and Kevin Dutile
- 2005-2006: Amanda Hickerson and Elizabeth Heath
- 2006-2007:
- 2007-2008: Glenn Levesque
- 2008-2009: Steven "Ferdi" Ferdinand and Ty Young
- 2009-2010: Becky Kable and Kat Struckmann
Sub-Team Captains
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Design
Controls
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Ops
Strategy
|
Students
Class of 2003 Class of 2004
- Alex Bryant
- Lindsay Simon - Rochester Institute of Technology
- Zac Cone-Roddy
- Adam Hickerson
- Adrian Sud - Computer Science and English, University of Massachusetts Amherst
- Peter Jones - digital arts and sciences, Clarkson University
- Kevin Mook - computer science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- Jamie Vaughn - applied physics and philosophy, Saint Anselm College
Class of 2005
- Tim April - computer engineering, University of New Hampshire
- Bill - aviation/air traffic management (air traffic control), Daniel Webster College
- Kevin Dutile - mechanical engineering, University of New Hampshire
- Ross Faska - physics and philosophy, University of Colorado - Colorado Springs
- Ryan Fitton - electronic game and interactive development: art and animation , Champlain College
- Tim Harvey - general engineering: industrial design, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- Mike Hyde - electrical engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
- Shane - entomology, University of Delaware
- Jana Loux-Turner - biology, Clark University
- Greg Meess - mechanical engineering, Cornell University
- Chris "Petey" Peterson - legal studies, University of Massachusetts - Amherst
- Elise Robertson - medical science, University of Vermont
- Will Vormelker - political science/economics, Guilford College
- Rob Watt -
Class of 2006
- Elizabeth Heath - Electromechanical Engineering, Wentworth Institute of Technology
- Heather Perkins - Graphic Design, Lyndon State College
- Amanda Hickerson -
- Michael Kiely -
Class of 2007
- Christopher Litchfield -
- Suzi Grossman -
- Alex Peterson -
Class of 2008
- Class of 2009
- Tyler Young - Bionuclearelectrogeomechanical engineering, Wikipedia: VT
- Ferdi - cosmotology Wikipedia: Catscale University
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Mentors
Design
- Ken
- Scott
- Roger
- Mr. Dutile
Controls
- Ben April
- Mr. Hyde
- Mr. Grossman
- Mr. Brown
Ops
- Mr. April
- Mr. Kiely
Strategy / Multimedia / Business
- Janice Bourget
- Mr. Peterson
- Dr. Meess
- Elizabeth Heath
Mentors That Do It All
- Sue Hay
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Categories: 1073 | Rookie 2003 | Teams
