Launched early in the autumn of the 2005 FIRST Robotics season, the Raiders are still a considerably young and forthcoming team in the ever increasing and vastly developing community known as the FIRST Robotics Competition, but the FIRST Robotics Competition is merely one event out of the several conventions that our team participates in upon a regular yearly basis. In this section of the site you can find team information, photos and videos, and more all pertaining to our past, present, and future robotic developments.

2008 Competition - Overdrive

Overdrive is a game played on a field initially set up in a 27' wide by 54' long rectangle, known as the "TRACK", and is exactly 1’ larger width wise and the same length as the previous 2007 field. Two alliances, one "red" team and one "blue" team, composed of a total of three teams each will compete in every single game match. The generic object of the game is to obtain a higher score than your opponent alliance by making counter-clockwise laps with your robot around the course while moving large trackballs over and/or under the overpass that bisects the field evenly.

Each match lasts a total of two minutes and fifth-teen seconds. A hybrid period starts the match off, which only lasts fifth-teen seconds. Following the hybrid period, there are two minutes of radio-teleoperated game play, which will run until the arena timer displays zero seconds. There may be a short pause in-between the hybrid period and the beginning of the radio-teleoperated periods as the player's stations are activated. The robots will continue to play the game until the radio-teleoperated period is over.

Robot Name: To be Announced

Autonomous Mode: To be Announced

Drivetrain: To be Announced

Main Mechanism: To be Announced

Traction/Wheel Type: To be Announced

General Strategy: To be Announced

2007 Competition - Rack 'n' Roll

Rack 'n' Roll is a game played on a field as illustrated in the offical PDF file which can be found here. Two alliances, one red and one blue, composed of three teams each, compete in each match. The object of the game is to attain a higher score than your opponent alliance by placing intertubes on the central goal structure (the rack), and/or by having robots in their home zone and not in contact with the playing field at the end of the match. The point values for each of those actions are explained here in the offical PDF file.

2006 Competition - Aim High

Aim High is a game played on a field initially set up in a 26' wide by 54' long rectangle that is exactly 1' less width wise and the same length as the previous 2005 field. Two alliances, one "red" team and one "blue" team, composed of a total of three teams each compete in separate game matches. The generic object of the game is to obtain a higher score than your opponent alliance by scoring poof sized dodge balls into the center and/or corner goals, and/or by having all three robots on your alliance in their own platform and/or ramp at the end of each game match.

Each match lasts a total of two minutes and ten seconds. An autonomous period starts the match off, which only lasts ten seconds. Following the autonomous period, there are two minutes of radio-operated game play, which are broken up into three consecutive forty-second periods. There may be a short pause in-between the autonomous period and the beginning of the radio-operated periods as the player's stations are activated. The second period and third period are played as offense/defense, during these periods only one alliance can score. During the final period, both alliances may score as both alliances are allowed to roam freely and play both defensive and offensive positions.

Robot Name: Ulta-bot

Autonomous Mode: A generic system developed in C, the basic idea is that the robot will drive out onto the game field and align itself and its shooter mechanism with the center target goal to score.

Drivetrain: Once again this year we are using a dual drive based system, possessing the capabilities of maneuvering around on the game floor, shooting balls into the center goal, and picking up balls with a rotating conveyor belt.

Main Mechanism: The shooter mechanism is designed to fire small puffballs into a center goal placed at the ends of each side on the game field through user commands on a radio-operated control unit.

Traction/Wheel Type: Again this year the robot is driven on a basic four-wheel drive system using generic grade 6" sized wheels.

General Strategy: Our team generally played a defensive game, our main mechanism for scoring proved to inefficient in most cases.

2005 Competition - Triple Play

Triple Play is a game played on a field initially set up in a 27' wide by 54' long rectangle that is exactly 3' wider and 6' longer then the previous 2004 field. Two alliances, one "red" team and one "blue" team, composed of a total of three teams each compete in separate game matches. The generic object of the game is to obtain a higher score than your opponent alliance by placing tetras on or into goals, getting three goals in a row capped with tetras tic-tac-toe style, and/or by having all three robots on your alliance in their own alliance zone at the end of each game match.

Each match lasts a total of two minutes and fifteen seconds. At the start of every match, all human players, drivers, and coaches must remain behind the Team Zone Starting Line, located three feet away from their Driver's Station. An autonomous period begins the match and lasts a total of fifteen seconds. Following the autonomous period, the Driver Station controls will then become activated and any drivers may remotely control and operate their robots for the remaining final two minutes of the match. Note that there may be a very brief pause between the autonomous period and the actual start of radio-operated play, as the Driver Station controls are activated and the referees determine the vision tetra placement and award bonus tetras to teams.

Robot Name: Robot-atron

Autonomous Mode: A generic system developed in C, the basic idea is that the robot will drive out onto the game field and wait for the human player to load a tetra game piece in its arm mechanism.

Drivetrain: A dual drive based system with the capabilities of maneuvering its arm mechanism up to a full two hundred and seventy degrees from its base.

Main Mechanism: The arm mechanism is designed to lift up and place smaller tetras up onto larger tetras through user commands on a radio-operated control unit.

Traction/Wheel Type: The robot is driven on a basic four-wheel drive system using generic grade 6" sized wheels.

General Strategy: During testing sessions our team found that our main objective to place as many goals upon the larger sized tetras would not work, our arm mechanism was not as efficient for placing tetras as we planned it would be. During the competition we devised a basic defensive strategy and blocked out other team robots from placing their tetras upon the goals closest to our own.