2011: Logomotion – Alien

The Game



LOGOMOTION was a game in which alliances of three robots each competed by placing inner tubes of various shapes onto racks at the ends of the field. The match started with a fifteen second autonomous period where the drivers scored uber-tubes for extra points.  Following the autonomous period, the alliance tried to score as many points as possible by hanging logo pieces on the grid during the remaining two minutes, hopefully creating the FIRST® logo. The match ended with deploying mini-bots onto four respective poles for a race to the top. Winners of this race earned bonus points.

The Robot: Alien2011

Our robot, Alien, was named based off of the movie, Alien, due to our mini-bot launching out of our robot in the same manner as the alien in the movie. The mini-bot had to be able to climb a pole in 10 seconds, with significant design limitations. Originally, our plan was to use a string to throw the mini-bot up the pole, but a FIRST® rule update prohibited it. Because of this, we went completely back to the drawing board with it, and eventually came up with the idea to use surgical tubing to keep the bot on the pole, and use two motors to propel the mini-bot up.

Our robot had to be able to pick up inflatable objects, as well as put them on racks high up. What this meant was we had to have a retractable arm, and a grabbing mechanic. This grabbing mechanic caused a lot more work with angles, and more wiring for various CDTs. We decided that year to build an arm to reach the very top rung, which allowed for more points to be scored, but also led to more work. However, that work appeared to pay off because as you can see in the picture above, we did make the bot able to reach the top rung.

The Results: See here

Team Awards

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Event Award
2011 Wisconsin Regional Engineering Inspiration Award
2011 Minnesota North Star Regional Johnson & Johnson Gracious Professionalism Award

Member Awards