This year we have been hard at work designing our robot to be ready for Regional Competition in the next few weeks. We have built multiple prototypes and are currently working on the final touches of our robot.
Given the challenge to build a robot that shot basketballs, we used the 6 weeks of build season to build an awesome robot. With this robot we were able to make it to the semi-finals of the regional competition.
During this season we were able to build our team to a total of 20 students. The goal for the robot during 2011’s competition was to use a mechanical claw to pick up inflated inner-tubes. These tubes we would hang on a series of hangers, each giving more points than the last.
Given the task to design a robot that kicked soccer balls into their according goals, the SMNW Cougar Robotics team got to work quickly on designing a robot to accomplish the goal. With no previous drive system to work with, we had to build an entirely new system to get us over the obstacles.
This year was a year of great change. Having one of the founding mentors pass away, we did our best to keep the team alive with the growing number of students on the team. This year’s competition was played on a slippery field where robots were designed to score goals located at midfield.
Being the second year that we had a robotics team, we had a lot of changes to make compared to the prior year’s robot. Being that we didn’t make it into the semi-finals before, we were bent on succeeding in 2008’s competition. In the end, we turned our 2nd year team into a champion.
SMNW Cougar Robotics very first meeting was attending the FIRST Robotics broadcast kickoff for the 2007 season at Shawnee Mission North High School. The Kaufmann Foundation very graciously provided us and a number of Kansas City area high schools a grant to help start teams.