Edina Robotics FIRST® Team 1816 The Green Machine

Preparing for a FIRST Competition

2

• Arrive on Wednesday evening• Allowed to deliver robot and pit

Schedule

3

• Always wear your Safety Glasses in the Pit. Safety FIRST!

• The pit is a 10x10 foot area alloted to teams to work on their robot, store their tools and batteries.

• Organization of items within the pit area to work on the robot between matches is important

• Shelves and other organizational utilities can be very useful

What Is A Pit?

4

• Points to remember

– Identify self and sponsors– Organized as an efficient workspace– Stand out– Promo and display materials– Materials for judges– Easy build/tear down and transport

The Pit

5

• Get Enough Sleep

• Caffeine in any form is not a substitute for sleep!

• Eat Properly.

• Our Pit needs to be clean and tid! Everythinghas a place. Put things away when you are done using them.

• Teams are allowed only 5 people In the pit at any given time. Not ok to hang around the pit or workshop if you have nothing to do.

Acting Safely At Competition

6

• Wear Blue Shirts• Appear early on Friday, are in the pits throughout the day and

into Saturday• They are Judging our Team for many different kinds of awards,

from Safety to Innovative Robot Design to how well we conduct STEM Outreach

Major awards: Engineering Inspiration Chairman’s

• All team members! We are experts about our team and our robot

Judges

7

Why do we scout other teams?

• To know your opponents or alliance partners strengths and weaknesses

• For eliminations/playoffs – we need to know who would be best partners for our robot,

Pit Scouting

• Gather information by speaking to other teams in their pit on Thursday

Data Collection & Recording

These members watch the playing field and record statistics and robot capabilities of other teams

Scouting

8

Things to consider:

• Performance vs. Strategy

• Qualitative vs. Quantitative

• General vs. Particular

• Pit vs. Match vs. Both

• Number of people available to scout

Scouting

9

• OK to seek and use other teams’ data

• Lots of info posted on Chief Delphi and on both the Red Alliance and the Blue Alliance

• Prior years results do not affect this year’so Avoid reputation scouting

• Data is your friend!

More About Scouting

10

● Replace battery on robot after every match● Check battery charge levels● Check major robot mechanisms after every match● Reboot laptop every so often● Talk to Judges ● Talk to the Visiting Public● Talk to other teams who are pit scouting

Pit Crew

11

• Cheering

• Apparel – we have a daily team uniform

• Flags – We give our flag to the MC

• Banners

• Mascot

• Talking with other teams

Team t-shirts!

• Wear them for every event

Team Spirit!

12

SWAG

• Giveaways help brand and market our team. Also known as SWAG! Can be

• Buttons/pins/Bracelets/necklaces• Pens/pencils/erasers/flash drives/stickers• Calendars/mini Tape Measures• Keychains (Our Winking Keytag)• Bandanas (Roborags!)• Stratasys 3D Printed Auger Keychains• What’s your favorite giveaway?

13

• Use the Buddy system• Curfew – Mrs. Purdy checks!• Cell phones

– Team contacts

– Never give out team member’s phone number to a non-team member

• Private information is private!• Sleep• Eat• Be respectful

Competition Safety