Practice at WADEC with 4-H Built Half Court

New sponsor Washington Driver Education Center donated space this year for teammates to practice driving their 2018 competition robot "Locust". 4-H volunteers K.Hansen & M.Bigelow built field elements from lumber donated by Pro-Build (360-426-2611 at 114 E Cedar St, Shelton WA 98584). The center mast guides the elevator that lifts the yellow "Power Cubes", this year's game piece. The signal light is solid when the robot has power. The signal blinks when the robot is connected (enabled) to the driver station. It is dangerous to approach a robot with a blinking signal light because it may suddenly accelerate towards you.

This photo was taken on Feb.10th, the first day of practice. Drivers (in background) took turns driving "Locust" around the field. Angie, Dylan S, Jaeden, James C, Kirstin, Seth, Tristin, Xavier, and Zoe all drove the robot. Lluvia and her awesome team of J.J., Shelly & Te'Yana built the red bumpers from scratch per the specifications in the 2018 game manual. (It took 20 people to build the bumpers our 2014 rookie season.) Just left of "Locust" is the 14" tall switch.  It is located roughly at the 25 yard line. When the switch tilts in its alliance's favor, the alliance scores 1 point per second. On Saturday Feb. 17th, Cameron, Dylan S, Hope, J.J., Joy, Seth, Tristin, & Zoe all practiced driving the robot. They scored five points at a time by guiding Power Cubes into the vault and parking on the platform at the end of the match. Seth and Xavier replaced the battery every three practice matches. Arms and climber are yet to be installed. Practices will continue at WADEC on the afternoons of Monday 2/19 and Tuesday 2/20. Tuesday, February 20th is Stop Build Day for all 3800 FRC robot teams in the world.  Teammates will bag "Locust" late Tuesday in an event called 'Bag N Tag'. Carolynn and Zoe are working on three polycarbonate covers for Locust's three sides (left, right & back) which will hold the team logo and this year's sponsors.