Ultimate Ascent

The Game

Ultimate Ascent was the 2013 FIRST robotics competition. We were given 2 months to build a robot to compete in this competition. The goal of the competition is to gain as much points as possible. You gain points by shooting discs into the goals on the oppisite end of the field or on top of the pyramid. The teams can score additional points in the beginning autonoums period, or at the end when the robot has to hang on the pyramid. The robot can only hold up to 4 discs and can pick up discs from the ground or be loaded manually. You can learn about the game in full detail by watching this [vidoe] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wa5MGEZNrf0&list=PLZT9pIgNOV6Ya-bFLZiwVFX8biV6qgUQu&index=10).

My role

The year 2013 was my senior year and I was a part of both the mechanical team and head of the design team. I was able to design and make parts for the shooter of our robot. Our robots design was to be a high shooter. We had an elevator that can be lowered to be loaded and can extend to the top of the pyramid or the highest goal. We also had a scooper mechanism that allowed us to pick up discs from the floor. I stayed back mostly every day of school until 6 at night and really enjoyed making this robot with my teammates. Then during the competition I was chosen to be the main driver! We went all the way into the semifinals.

My learning experience

That year was really fun for me. I enjoyed the company of everyone around me. We were just a big group of friends. If you have team members that you can trust to get the job done then the experience of making a robot it really fun. I learned about the importance of team work because without multiple hands it would have been impossible to build and design such a big projct. With a great team, we can put our minds together and look at how to solve problems from many different perspectives. Also, being able to speak your ideas in a comfortable environment helps those ideas come out into the open! Teamwork and trust go hand in hand on any project.