Whitewater High School’s FIRST Robotics Team Ferradermis has been busy prototyping, designing, manufacturing, building, wiring, programming, and testing their 2022 robot since FIRST unveiled the new game for the Rapid React season on January 8. The team is currently between competitions, having traveled to Duluth, Minnesota for the Lake Superior Regional from March 2 – 5. They will be competing in Milwaukee at the Wisconsin Regional during Spring Break and again in La Crosse at the Seven Rivers Regional from March 30 – April 2.
This year’s game is sponsored by Boeing and themed around the elements of an airport. The game involves shooting oversized tennis balls (cargo) into an upper and lower hub in the center of the field and climbing a set of monkey bars in the hangar during the last 30 seconds of each match. As always, games are played with six robots on the field at a time, 3 on the blue alliance and 3 on the red alliance. To learn more about how the robots play the game, watch the game animation at https://youtu.be/LgniEjI9cCM
Prior to competing, members of Ferradermis enjoyed hosting the community for an Open House on Saturday, February 12. Team members greeted visitors and showed them the game animation before demonstrating the CAD model for the newest robot. Members of the mechanical, electrical, and programming teams then demonstrated how they accomplish their goals, and the tour wrapped up with a visit to the tables hosted by the Whitewater BrickLayers FIRST LEGO League teams from Washington, Lakeview, and Lincoln Elementary Schools.
On Saturday, February 20, members of the team traveled to Sussex Hamilton High School to participate in a pre-regional scrimmage with 25 teams from southern and central Wisconsin. This annual event gives teams the opportunity to test their robot on a full official field for the first time. Teams also have the opportunity to see what other teams have created and discuss ideas. Sussex also includes sessions where students can discuss scouting and strategy at events, see each others’ Chairman’s awards presentations, and practice for Dean’s List interviews.
Duluth welcomed 112 high school FIRST Robotics Teams to the DECC on March 2, split between the Lake Superior Regional and the Northern Lights Regional. This was the first in-person regional event to be held since the first week of March of 2020, when Ferradermis competed at Northern Lights, and everyone was thrilled to be back in action! The 58 teams competing on the Lake Superior side of the curtain this year represented Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, and North Dakota. Because many COVID protocols were still in place, team members had completed two judging interviews prior to traveling north. At other regionals, the judges will mill about in the pits and interact with teams in a much less formal way.
The robot played 9 qualification matches in Duluth, with a record of 5 – 4. The team ended up ranked 38 out of 58, and did not make the playoffs. However, the team was thrilled to win the Gracious Professionalism Award for the Lake Superior Regional. Gracious professionalism is a main tenet of FIRST which expects teams to compete as hard as they can on the field but to also do everything they can to help other teams reach their own potential. Go, Ferradermis!
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