In its first match, Crescent Valley High Schools robot had pieces falling off one wheel because it hadnt been properly screwed together.

Later, the robotics team from South and West Albany high schools had trouble going straight in its first scrimmage because the students forgot to reset a gyroscope after moving it onto the field.

But students on both teams said they were actually glad to find the problems so they could fix them before the competition season for FIRST Robotics starts officially.

Learning moments like this took place frequently Saturday at a robotics pre-season scrimmage at Corvallis High School, which was attended by 25 teams from across the Pacific Northwest. Organizers say the event, held annually in Corvallis, gave students a chance to get practice playing this years game for the first time and shake out problems with their robots, which they have been hastily building over the last nearly six weeks.

Matthew Sundberg, captain of the Crescent Valley team, said he was glad for the scrimmage because it gave the team a chance to find problems like the improperly assembled wheel.

But he said the team also realized how important it will be to put cameras on the robot that send video feed to the teams drivers, because the field is large and had enough obstacles the drivers couldnt always see where the robot was.

We learned a lot about how helpful vision will be, said Sundberg, a senior

Eric Sisson, a senior on the combined team from the Albany high schools, said the takeaway from their first match was to make sure the robots gyroscope is reset after it is moved.

The first (match) is always rough, he said.

Sisson is the lead scout for his team and added that the event is also valuable because he gets to see other robots in action, which may affect which robots they try to form alliances with in the upcoming competitions. The game allows robots to score points by collecting wiffle balls and throwing them into a hopper, collecting gears from the ground and placing them on a peg or by climbing a rope.

Sisson said the robots compete on teams of three, so its valuable to see which robots might have complementary abilities for their robot, which specializes in picking up gears and placing them on pegs and climbing the rope.

Oh my gosh, Ive learned so much, he said. Every year I think, Why didnt we do that?

Daniel Arthurs, a member of Philomath High Schools team, said at last years scrimmage the team didnt have its robot functional until the scrimmage was mostly over, but this year they were mostly ready at the start, so the team was happy it would get more practice time this year.

Were feeling a lot better about where we are at, he said. The Philomath robot is also specialized to collect gears and climb, Arthurs said.

Arthurs, a sophomore, said he likes robotics competitions because of how much hes learned through participating in them.

It gives you a lot of career choices, he said.

Original post:

Robotics scrimmage - Corvallis Gazette Times