2006 "Aim High" Mini FRC

In 2006, Team 40 used the new Vex robots to simulate the FIRST’s FRC game “AIM HIGH”. The team broke into 6 smaller teams to build 1/3 rd scale FRC robots to play “AIM HIGH”. There were no restrictions as to what you could use for materials or motors, only that the robots conform to 10” X 13” X 20” size convention. By playing the game early in the build season, the team could get a feel for how the “AIM HIGH” game was likely to be played. Right away the mini-FRC game revealed that it was difficult to shoot the ball, but these robots scored a lot of points. Robots that scored low on the low goal were fairly easy and quick to build, and could hoard balls. The big surprise was that the field was filled with balls as the human players constantly returned balls to the playing field. This lead the team to build a highly maneuverable robot that shot balls into the high goal and that could gather balls from the floor for a re-load.

In 2006, we demonstrated the mini-FRC at the UTC Regional in Hartford CT, and at the Championships in Atlanta, GA. Trinity also demonstrated the game at the Indiana Robot Invitational in July.