During the closing ceremony, Bear Metal received the Industrial Design Award sponsored by General Motors. This award “celebrates form and function in an efficiently designed machine that effectively achieves the game challenge”. This award came our way because of Odyssey’s articulating wheelbase which allows it to traverse the bumps without any wheels losing contact with the surface, and because of Odyssey’s strong ball handling and kicking which allows it to score frequently in both autonomous mode and teleoperated mode.

We also won the Coopertition Award for earning the most Coopertition Bonus points over all the matches.

It has been less than three months since the kickoff. In that time, we conceived, designed and built Odyssey, and we competed in two regionals, both times reaching the semi-finals. This is a difficult achievement and one we’re proud of.

With that, we are signing off from Seattle. We’ll leave the pictures on the front page for a few days, and you can always visit past posts in our blog.

On the bright side, our spirits were lifted during the closing ceremony when we were presented with the Industrial Design Award and the Coopertition (combined cooperation during competition) Award. Considering the number of teams participating in the competition and the quality and reputation of those teams, we were honored to be selected to receive these two awards.

This was my first year on the Tahoma robotics team, and the amount of time we spent designing, building, testing, and revamping the robot exceeded my wildest expectations. I’m sorry to say the energy I expended during the build season and regional competitions depleted my reserves, and despite my desire for a regional (and national) championship, I’m ready to be done for now, but don’t count me out. I expect to be back next season, and I fully believe the team will be playing for the national championship in St. Louis.

Jim Prelesnik, Fabrication Mentor

Odyssey’s second match of the day ended in a 4-4 tie. At this moment, Bear Metal is number two in the standings.

Who’s in first at the moment? It’s team 3221 of Kent Meridian High School! This is their rookie year. Way to go, team 3221!

Third match, Odyssey’s alliance takes it again, score 4-2, with Odyssey scoring one of those points. Still number two in the standings! That’s our last match of the qualification rounds. Looks like we will be in the elimination rounds after lunch.

Alliance selection is complete. Bear Metal selected team 2471, Mean Machine, of Camas High School and Washougal High School, and they accepted. Together, Bear Metal and Mean Machine selected team 1258, Saints Robotics, of Seattle Lutheran High School, and they accepted. It’s lunch time now; elimination rounds begin at 1:30. Odyssey has matches scheduled for 1:50, 2:30, and 3:10

First match of the quarter final, our alliance loses 4-3.

Second match, Odyssey scores two points during autonomous mode (Again!). The match ends with a score of 6-2 for our alliance.

Third match, the opposing alliance got a fast start and we were down 3-0. But our alliance quickly picked up steam and finished ahead 8-5. With penalties, the final score was 8-4. So it’s on to the semi-finals!

First match of the semi-finals; our alliance ended ahead, but lost on penalties 2-1. Odyssey having trouble kicking.

Second match of the semi-finals; Odyssey got off to a good start, scoring during autonomous period, then playing defense. It was a high scoring match finishing tied 7-7. A penalty ended our hopes. Final score was 7-6.

You can follow the remaining matches at the Match Results Page.

The closing ceremony follows the final match, and we will be back after the closing ceremony for our sign off from Seattle.

Jim Prelesnik, Fabrication Mentor

Odyssey has taken to the field.

The competition can be rough on robots.

Fortunately, we seem to have worked out all the bugs before the pits closed for the night, and expect to be competitive in the morning when the seeding matches begin. Many of the other teams appeared to be having similar problems, as the practice field went unused during much of the day. When other robots did take the field, few ran in autonomous mode, some were inactive during their entire match, and others had marginal success maneuvering and scoring.

Jim Prelesnik, Fabrication Mentor

Here’s a photo of Odyssey from Portland. Sorry, but right now Odyssey is upside down and not in a photogenic condition.

Here’s most of our drive team. A.J. was somewhere else so we missed him.

This is what our pit looked like most of Thursday.

Our alliance put up a valiant fight. Considering the hardships of Friday, Bear Metal quickly got back on its feet on Saturday and put up a great struggle to the very end.

Though our team didn’t receive any awards at Portland, we’ve proved our robot, Odyssey, and are looking forward to Seattle.

Stephen G.