Thaddeus
Featured a cleverly repurposed cake cover as a vacuum to manipulate 4ft trackballs.
The Game
Overdrive was the game for 2008. The field was divided lengthwise by a fence median to create a track with red and blue zones on either side. The fence was crossed by an overpass marking the red and blue finish lines. The overpass also held the game pieces called “Trackballs.” Robots raced around the track in a counter-clockwise direction while manipulating the trackballs to score points in various ways.
The Robot
Thaddeus was designed to pick up a 4ft ball with a vacuum. We won the Motorola Creativity Award at the Boilermaker Regional because our vacuum was actually a cleverly used cake cover. The team also received the Xerox Creativity Award at the St. Louis Regional.