Team Octopi finishes first — headed to state championship
By ED FRANKS
First Tech Challenge (FTC) Team Octopi continued to roll past the competition Saturday, Jan. 11.
“At the end of the day, Team Octopi finished in first place in the Southwest Florida Robotics League,” Leah Tedlie said. “We were also selected to win the ‘Motivate Award’ and the ‘Inspire Award.'”
The Inspire Award is the highest award a team can receive at the competition.
“The Inspire Award is given to the team that most embodied the spirit and ethos of First Robotics. Essentially it is given to a team that deserves recognition above and beyond how their robot performs on the playing field,” Tedlie said.
The top scorers from this competition and five other competitions will go to the Florida FTC Championship Tournament in Daytona Feb. 1.
FTC teams learn to design, build and program robots; apply real-world math and science concepts; develop problem solving, organizational and team building skills; compete and cooperate in alliances and tournaments; and earn a place in the World Championship and qualify for over $12 million in college scholarships.
“What we do is design, build and program our robot to perform the tasks of the “game,” Megan Tedlie said. “What I mean by the ‘game’ is the set of tasks the robot is required to do.”
Each year FTC creates a new challenge for teams, which is revealed at a “kickoff” in September.
“This year we heard about what the game would be around Sept. 7,” Tedlie said. “The game defines what challenges each robot is expected to accomplish.”
Points are earned for each action performed by the robots.
Two teams at a time place their robots inside a square arena. The game starts with a 30-second time period where the two robots are expected to drive onto a bridge located in the center of the arena and park on the bridge.
Then the same two teams are challenged during a “driver-controlled period” to retrieve blocks and place them in one of two block zones and/or place them in a pendulum.
The final 30 seconds of the “driver controlled” period is called the “End Game.” In addition to placing the blocks in the scoring areas, robots earn points in the End Game by raising their alliance flag up a flagpole, raising itself off the ground using the bridge pull-up bar and ending the match with a balanced pendulum.
“The final standings will be out later this week,” Tedlie said. “The team is very excited.
This wouldn’t be possible without the Beacon of H.O.P.E.,” Tedlie said. “This year we became a Beacon of H.O.P.E. / United Way Community Program. They’ve given us all the support we could possibly hope for. Everyone has been so helpful and the team is very grateful for this opportunity.”