Toroid Terror

Last updated
Toroid Terror
Toroid Terror Logo.jpg
Year1997
Season Information
Number of teams151 [1]
Number of regionals3 [2]
Championship location Epcot Center, Disney World [2]
Awards
Chairman's Award winnerTeam 47 - “Chief Delphi” [3]
Woodie Flowers Award winnerElizabeth Calef - Team 88 [4]
Founder's Award winner François Castaing & Chrysler Corporation [4]
ChampionsTeam 71 - "Team Hammond"

Toroid Terror was the 1997 game for the FIRST Robotics Competition. This was the first year that FRC had a regional event outside its origins in New Hampshire; in addition to Manchester, regionals were held in Chicago and New Brunswick, New Jersey, as well as the championship event at a complex set up in the Epcot parking lot. [2] It was also the first year in which the scoring object was not a ball.

FIRST Robotics Competition robotics competition operated by For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology

The FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) is an international high school robotics competition. Each year, teams of high school students, coaches, and mentors work during a six-week period to build game-playing robots that weigh up to 125 pounds (57 kg). Robots complete tasks such as scoring balls into goals, flying discs into goals, inner tubes onto racks, hanging on bars, and balancing robots on balance beams. The game, along with the required set of tasks, changes annually. While teams are given a standard set of parts, they are also allowed a budget and are encouraged to buy or make specialized parts. The FIRST Robotics Competition is one of five robotics competition programs organized by FIRST, the other four being FIRST Lego League Jr., FIRST Lego League, FIRST Lego League Jr. Discovery Edition, and the FIRST Tech Challenge.

Manchester, New Hampshire Largest city in New Hampshire

Manchester is a city in southern New Hampshire, United States. It is the most populous city in northern New England, an area comprising the states of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. As of the 2010 census the city had a population of 109,565, and in 2018 the population was estimated to be 112,525.

Chicago city and county seat of Cook County, Illinois, United States

Chicago, officially the City of Chicago, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and the third most populous city in the United States. With an estimated population of 2,705,994 (2018), it is also the most populous city in the Midwestern United States. Chicago is the county seat of Cook County, the second most populous county in the US, with portions of the northwest city limits extending into DuPage County near O'Hare Airport. Chicago is the principal city of the Chicago metropolitan area, often referred to as Chicagoland. At nearly 10 million people, the metropolitan area is the third most populous in the nation.

Contents

Field

The playing field is a carpeted, hexagon-shaped area with a central goal. [5] Around the perimeter of the field are three stations for human players, who work with remote controlled robots on the field to score points. At the start of each match, each team has 3 colored inner tubes at their player station and six tubes on the field, located in stacks distributed evenly around the goal.

Robots

Each robot can weigh up to 120 lb (54 kg), and must start each match small enough to fit inside a 3' x 3' x 4' space. [6] This had the disadvantage that robots couldn't fit through a standard doorway, and there were rumors of robots being assembled in a room, and when they tried to take it out to ship, it wouldn't fit through a door. The robots are powered by two Skil 12 volt rechargeable batteries and use motors from Skil, Delco, and Delphi Interior and Lighting, speed controllers from Tekin, pumps from McCord Winn Textron, air cylinders and valves from Numatics, Inc., and a programmable control system supplied by FIRST. Drivers use joysticks from CH Products and switches from Honeywell to remotely control the robots via a radio link which uses RNet wireless modems from Motorola.

Volt SI derived unit of voltage

The volt is the derived unit for electric potential, electric potential difference (voltage), and electromotive force. It is named after the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta (1745–1827).

Motorola, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications company founded on September 25, 1928, based in Schaumburg, Illinois. After having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company was divided into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011. Motorola Solutions is generally considered to be the direct successor to Motorola, as the reorganization was structured with Motorola Mobility being spun off. Motorola Mobility was sold to Google in 2012, and acquired by Lenovo in 2014.

Scoring

Toroid Terror scoring structure Toroid Terror scoring structure.jpg
Toroid Terror scoring structure

In two-minute matches, the three robots and human players score points by placing the inner tubes onto pegs on the goal, or around the top of the goal. The tubes are color-coded to identify team ownership. Human players are not allowed onto the field, but they may hand tubes to the robots or throw tubes directly onto the goal. At the end of the match, each tube on the goal is worth one point. Each tube on the top of the goal will double a team's score. In addition, each vertical row of three tubes on a corner of the goal will double a team's score. The winner of the match is the team with the highest score. In the event of a tie, the team with the highest tube in a scoring position wins.

See also

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References

  1. "2006 Annual Report" (PDF). FIRST. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 February 2007. Retrieved 15 September 2011.
  2. 1 2 3 "FIRST Competition Information" (PDF). technokats.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 March 2012. Retrieved 15 September 2011.
  3. "FIRST® Robotics Competition (FRC®) Game Descriptions 1992-2012" (PDF). FIRST. Archived from the original on 3 April 2013. Retrieved 12 June 2011.
  4. 1 2 "Results from the 1997 National Championship" (PDF). technokats.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 March 2012. Retrieved 15 September 2011.
  5. "The Playing Field" (PDF). FIRST-A-HOLICS. Retrieved 1 June 2011.
  6. "The Robot" (PDF). FIRST-A-HOLICS. Retrieved 1 June 2011.

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