Black Widow

The Game

FIRST® STEAMWORKS℠ featured massive airships with multiple rotors that spun based on the number of gears the airship received. The more gears delivered, the more rotors spun, the more points teams received. Additionally, teams could score points by shooting bright yellow, wiffle-like balls into either an 8-foot-high boiler or a 1.5-foot-high lower efficiency goal — the former awarding 1/3 of a point per ball scored and the latter giving 1/9 of a point per goal. In the last 20 seconds, teams had to climb a rope and hit a touch-pad to receive 50 points.

The Robot

Black Widow featured a 4-wheel swerve drive, pneumatic gear manipulator, and a flywheel shooting system. During autonomous, the rotary feeding mechanism stylishly fed the shooter balls which were rapidly launched via the flywheel system into the high goal. When the driver took over, our swerve drive gave them the freedom to spin around obstacles effortlessly and reach the human player station with ease. Once a gear was loaded in the robot, it was a quick trip back to the airship where the manipulator made short work of accurately dispensing the gear onto a peg. Our powerful climber allowed us to finish strong by grasping the rope and whizzing to the top in an average of 2.5 seconds.

The team received the Quality Award at the Tippecanoe District and was Semifinalists at the Perry Meridian District. At the Indiana State Championship, the team was Finalists.