Current Ferradermis members, their mentors, and a few of their alumni traveled to Mukwonago High School on Saturday, January 4, for the 2020 FIRST Robotics season kickoff joining host Team #930, the Mukwonago BEARs; Team #5976, the CyberSaders from Catholic Memorial; Team #6421, the WarriorBOTS from Muskego; and Rookie Team #8002, The Knack from Lake Country School.
The game for the season, Infinite Recharge, was unveiled worldwide with a series of videos between 10 and 11 a.m. The main game piece this year is a 7-inch playground ball known as a Power Cell. Teams score points by shooting the Power Cells into their various Power Ports, rotating and holding the position of a colored wheel known as the Control Panel, and hanging from and potentially leveling the Shield Generator structure by hanging multiple robots from the same bar.
A Cardboard Mock-up of a Field Element Helped Guide Discussion 
Five Teams Attended Kickoff at Mukwonago High School
After the unveil, teams spent the rest of the day digesting the rules of the game and planning their strategy for game play. Ferradermis’ ultimate season goal they kept in mind while planning is winning a regional event and qualifying for the World Championships for the third straight year.
The team now has approximately 7 weeks to design, build, wire, and program their robot before their first competition at the Northern Lights Regional in Duluth from March 4 – 7. Different this year is the absence of a “bag and tag” day; teams no longer have to seal their robot and cease work at a designated time.
To view the game animation video (explanation of the game) for Infinite Recharge, visit https://youtu.be/gmiYWTmFRVE
