Kickoff for the 2024 FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) Season, “Crescendo,” took place on Saturday, January 6, with a worldwide release of the requirements for a new music-themed game. Twenty-one members of Whitewater High School’s FRC Team Ferradermis traveled to Mukwonago High School for a kickoff event hosted by Team 930, the Mukwonago Bears. They were joined by Team 8701 Graffiti from Greendale, Team 6421 WarriorBots from Muskego, Team 8002 The Knack from Hartland, Team 5148 New Berlin Blitz, and rookie team 9760 from Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Milwaukee.
Kickoff events started with a series of workshops where students could learn about team/task organization, programming, prototyping, FIRST Wisconsin leadership opportunities, CAD, and more. At 11:00 a.m., all participating teams gathered together to watch the worldwide broadcast that would reveal the much-teased game via a game animation. To watch the animation and learn about the game, visit https://youtu.be/9keeDyFxzY4. After a pizza break, teams worked to break down the 150-page rule book individually and then by teaming up with representatives from all of the other participating teams.
The single game piece this year is a 14” diameter orange foam ring, known as a “note” because of its likeness to a musical whole note. The robot must interact with a variety of field elements including the “speaker,” the “amp,” the “stage,” and the “source.” Robots will collect notes from the source and deliver them to the amp and the speaker. The amp has lights controlled by the human player that can signal point scoring in the speaker is amplified for a certain amount of time based on the number of notes in the amp. There are also opportunities for the two alliances playing against each other to use coopertition to reduce the total number of notes needed to earn ranking points. [Coopertition means that teams help and cooperate with each other, even as they compete.] Situations that incorporate coopertition and cooperation are named “melody” and “ensemble” to keep with the music theme. During the end game, the human player will have an opportunity to make a half-court ring-toss that will help increase point values for tasks in the end game.
Ferradermis members returned to the high school for the remainder of the afternoon on Saturday to discuss their approach to start the season and to start setting specific goals for what their robot will do. They will now begin meeting 20-30 hours per week after school and on weekends to design, manufacture, assemble, wire, program, and test their new robot. They will put their bot on the field for the first time in a scrimmage at Sussex-Hamilton High School on Sunday, February 18, and need to be fully ready for competition before the end of February.
Ferradermis is scheduled to compete in three regional events this year, with each event lasting four days and consisting of 50-60 high school teams. They will be at the Northern Lights Regional in Duluth from February 28 – March 3, at the Wisconsin Regional in Milwaukee from March 14-17, and at the Midwest Regional in Chicago over Spring Break from March 27-30. The team is particularly excited for the Chicago event as it will host teams from 6 countries (Panama, the Czech Republic, Turkey, Canada, the US, and Mexico) and 10 states including Hawaii, California, New York, and Florida. Four teams from each regional will advance to Championships in Houston, Texas in mid-April.
The public is invited to learn more about the team at their Open House at Whitewater High School on Saturday, February 3, between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.
Article and Photos Submitted by Laura Masbruch
Whitewater High School Robotics Advisor and Banner Volunteer
lmasbruch@wwusd.org
