2021 Infinite Recharge at Home Challenge - Scandium Group

written by Daler K. on 2021-04-08

From March 27, 2021, to April 6, 2021, Morpheus has been practicing and filming our entries to the Scandium Group of the Infinite Recharge at Home challenges. The at home skills challenges are broken into five different challenges: Galactic Search, Autonav, Hyperdrive, Interstellar Accuracy, and Power Port. This season, we built Microburst, which is a brand-new robot that was specifically designed for these at-home challenges.

In the Galactic Search challenge, robots autonomously navigate the field and pick up three Power Cells before crossing an end zone line. The Galactic Search challenge features two red paths and two blue paths. Teams flip a coin to determine if they will be doing the red paths or the blue paths, but the robot is not told which path has been set up. Our team flipped a coin and got "red." Microburst was able to detect which path was set up and choose the correct autonomous path to pick up all three Power Cells. In the Galactic Search challenge, we got a time of 6.7 seconds on the Red A path and a time of 6.1 seconds on the Red B path which gives a combined time of 12.8 seconds.

In the Autonav challenge, robots have to autonomously navigate through three different complex paths. These paths are known as the Barrel Racing, Slalom, and Bounce paths. Microburst was able to get a time of 13.2 seconds on the Barrel Racing path, a time of 12.0 seconds on the Slalom path, and a time of 12.3 seconds on the Bounce path. This gives an overall time of 37.5 seconds for the Autonav challenge.

In the Hyperdrive challenge, teams remote control their robot in four obstacle course paths. Three of them are the same as the Autonav challenge, and there is a fourth path called the Lightspeed Circuit path that features two laps around an intricate route. We were able to achieve a time of 10.3 seconds on the Barrel Racing path, a time of 7.7 seconds on the Slalom path, a time of 10.6 seconds on the Bounce Path, and a time of 20.3 seconds on the Lightspeed Circuit path. Our overall time for the Hyperdrive Challenge was 48.9 seconds.

In the Interstellar Accuracy challenge, teams have to shoot 15 Power Cells into the Power Port from four different zones on the field in under 5 minutes. The maximum score in the challenge is 45 points. In this challenge, we were able to score 44 points! We hit the Inner Port with 14 of the 15 Power Cells! The one Power Cell that hit the Outer Port was fired from the Red Zone.

In the Power Port challenge, teams have one minute to try to maximize their score by scoring Power Cells in the Power Port. Only three Power Cells can be used in this challenge, so it is important to get the Power Cells back to the Re-Introduction Zone as fast as possible. For this challenge, we used an autonomous mode that drove out of the Re-Introduction Zone and into the Scoring Zone, aim at the goal, shot three Power Cells into the Power Port, and drove back into the Re-Introduction Zone. When the two human players had refilled the hopper, the driver would press a button to repeat the cycle. We chose to use an autonomous mode for the Power Port challenge in order to make each cycle as repeatable and consistent as possible. This method paid off when we were able to score 78 points in the Power Port challenge in only one minute!

The Scandium Group was very deep, with many top performing teams in the mix. Some of the prestigious teams in the Scandium Group include three-time-world-champion and Hall of Fame Team 67, 2009 world champions and 2019 Einstein Team 971, perennial PNW powerhouse Team 2471, and consistent Texas contender Team 231. When the group assignments were announced back in March, we were excited to be competing in the same group as so many teams we admire!

April 8, 2021 was the final day to submit scores for the at-home challenges, and we watched the scores tick in hour by hour. By the time the scores all settled out, we had placed third in the entire Scandium Group! We had the highest score in the Power Port challenge, tied for first in the Interstellar Accuracy challenge, placed third in the Hyperdrive challenge, and placed fourth in both the Autonav challenge and the Galactic Search challenge. Team 5813 is proud of our great performance in such a highly competitive group! Morpheus would like to congratulate Team 4400 on winning the Scandium Group and Team 971 for being finalists! We had a great time competing in the Scandium Group and hope to get the chance to compete with some of these teams in-person in the future!

A reveal video for Microburst as well as videos of our skills challenges attempts will be posted soon. The team will now turn our attention to upgrading our 2020 robot, Tornado, for the 2021 offseason.