The Fourth Law of Robotics: Butter

New to FIRST?

Hello, Robolions team members, mentors, friends, and community members! Welcome to "The Fourth Law of Robotics," home to University City High School's FIRST (For the Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Team. We hope to use this blog to inform you about what we're up to.

We compete in the FRC (First Robotics Competition), an annual competition where we have six weeks to build a robot from scratch. This year's game is Recycle Rush. We'll post updates here to let you all know what we're up to with building (and competing with) our robot!

We also are now competing in FTC (First Tech Challenge), the next level down from FRC. The game was called Ring It Up!

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

A Moment of Silence, Please

It has come to my attention that the robot known affectionately to us all as Butter has been disassembled, after a period of about ten meetings' discussion. This news greatly saddens me. :( I must request a moment of silence, in memory of our buttery friend.

...

In other news, today we received our Fall Rookie Challenge for 2011. Our task is to design and build a robot that can move a soccer ball 20 feet into a 36-inch-wide goal. So far, we have decided on a robot that grabs and pushes the ball into the goal with its pincers. Expanding on that, we've chosen to decorate it with a spider theme and name it Aragog. But we're only just in the brainstorming stages, so it will be a while before Aragog is scuttling around anywhere.

Everybody's excited to see new faces and learn new names, such as Rashad and Kang. Looking forward to a great Fall Rookie Challenge and a great year! :)

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Butter Shows Off

Today at our second build session of the school year, we had the chance to take our new robot Butter for a spin and impress a few other denizens of University City High School! Two girls from the school yearbook committee happened upon our hallway, and with Charlie behind the wheel, Butter got a chance to shine - running up and down the hall, nipping at passersby's ankles, and finally ascending a long ramp... sideways!

It's from this sideways motion that Butter takes its name, though only very loosely. And by very loosely I mean REALLY loosely... When it came time to name the robot, the always-hungry boys on the team noticed its crab-like walk and thought nothing more than, "Butter goes well with crabs." This name could most likely have been averted had Captain Grace been there to inject some sanity into the proceedings, but alas she was not.

No matter how bizarre the robot's name, the yearbook girls seemed quite impressed, unless they were just frightened into submission. Several other people were attracted by the incredibly loud ruckus Butter's wheels made, and seemed similarly awed. Regrettably, despite bringing home several awards, the robotics team goes mostly unnoticed by a sports-obsessed student population. Sigh.