Tyr

		Hiya there! The name is Tyr. Yeah, a little off the beaten path of Thors I suppose. I was a robot built by Team 701 that was constructed for the challenges of the 2006 FIRST game Aim High. In this game, robots must move around a 54-foot by 26-foot field for four rounds, which are 40 seconds each. In the beginning of the match, there is a 15-second autonomous period when robots can attempt to shoot for higher goals using a camera. There is also a 10-second autonomous period per match when robots attempt to shoot or roll balls into special goals. Every round, teams have the chance to switch from offense to defense. The offensive side must score as much as possible while the defense side must prevent the offensive side from scoring. The team on defense had to have a "backbot" that could not move from its section of the field. Points are scored when teams shoot for the high goals (3pts for every ball scored) and low goals (1 pt). The team that scored the most balls will gain an extra 10 points as well as 3 points for every ball that they score. At the end of each round, robots have the chance to move on to ramps of their alliance color by having one robot on the ramp (5 pts), two robots on the ramp (10 pts) or the whole alliance on a ramp (25 pts).

Hiya there! The name is Tyr. Yeah, a little off the beaten path of Thors I suppose. I was a robot built by Team 701 that was constructed for the challenges of the 2006 FIRST game Aim High.

In this game, robots must move around a 54-foot by 26-foot field for four rounds, which are 40 seconds each. In the beginning of the match, there is a 15-second autonomous period when robots can attempt to shoot for higher goals using a camera. There is also a 10-second autonomous period per match when robots attempt to shoot or roll balls into special goals. Every round, teams have the chance to switch from offense to defense. The offensive side must score as much as possible while the defense side must prevent the offensive side from scoring. The team on defense had to have a "backbot" that could not move from its section of the field.

Points are scored when teams shoot for the high goals (3pts for every ball scored) and low goals (1 pt). The team that scored the most balls will gain an extra 10 points as well as 3 points for every ball that they score. At the end of each round, robots have the chance to move on to ramps of their alliance color by having one robot on the ramp (5 pts), two robots on the ramp (10 pts) or the whole alliance on a ramp (25 pts).

I was a large, two gear-shifting robot capable of picking up balls and shooting them or dumping them. I used a tread-roller to roll in balls to a conveyor belt, where they were led to another tread-roller that shot the balls out into the goals. The conveyor could also be reversed to dump the balls into lower goals. You could say I was box-shaped. My shape caused me to have an odd center of gravity, and I was known to "rock n' roll" (meaning that I usually rocked and occasionally tipped over) .

My best feature however was my infrared sensor. This made it much easier for the drive team, as they didn’t have to manually press a button to intake balls. It was all done automatically. I also had a shifting transmission which was pretty cool (if I do say so myself!).

For the first time ever, my team: Cameron Carr, Ian Dickerson, Alex Ellenberger, Zachary Ellenberger, Steven Hansen, Wayne Johansen, Travis Johnson, Josh Laxmana, Caroline Parworth, Ken Pirondini, Josh Richardson, Michael Sanchez, Eric Smith, Anthony Stralla, Salik Syed, James Trevizo, James Waver, Ki-Tae Wolf and I ventured to the Northwestern city of Portland, Oregon. There, we competed at the Pacific Northwest Regional and came in as Semi-Finalists. Back at home at the Davis-Sacramento Regional, we took home second place, coming in as finalists.

Profile Information provided by: Ian Dickerson

As written: Priya Rangan, January 2008