2009 Lunacy
The Challenge
Lunacy is a game played on a field known as the crater. The crater has a silicon mat placed on it to simulate the low traction on the moon. Two alliances, one red and one blue, composed of three FIRST Robotics Competition teams each, compete in each match. The object of the game is to attain a higher score than your opponent by placing the game pieces in the trailers hitched to the opposing alliance's robots.
The number of game pieces in the opposing alliance trailers determines the alliance scores. There are three types of balls that can be used to score points during the match. They are moon rocks, empty cells, and super cells. Each scored moon rock is worth two points. Each scored empty cell is worth two points. Each scored super cell is worth 15 points. Scores are determined based on the state of the game pieces at the end of the match.
The Robot
For the 2009 game, we originally planned on a high precision targeting system but learned through prototyping that efficiency was more important that precision. Therefore, we focused on designing a robot that fires large quantities of game pieces. Currently, we can hold 12 game pieces and we have a shooting accuracy of about 85%. To hold the game pieces, our team designed a two-channeled cartridge.
Silicon Valley Regional
Ready to test our brand new design, we geared up for our first competition. We made it up into the semi–finals, with teams 8 and 1280, but were defeated in our third match, 64 to 70. We left Silicon Valley with the hopes that the next regional would be different.
Sacramento Regional
Our first attempt at this game did not measure up to our hopes, but we knew that we had learned a lot from our first loss and were ready to make a comeback. However, it was not to be, and in the semi–finals, match two, with our teammates 766 and 2063, we were defeated again, bringing our season to a close. Winning would have been nice, but we still had a great time and learned a lot about the pros and cons of our design. There is always next year.
