2019 New England District Championship
From April 10 to 13, 2019, Morpheus competed at the New England District Championship. We tried mounting a climber, but due to a few issues, we did not get it working in time for the event. During qualifications, we worked with our partners to try to get as many full rockets as we could. We placed about 6 hatches and a few cargo in most matches. We had a very tough qualification schedule, and ended with more losses than wins. Unfortunately, although we performed decently, we were not selected to play in eliminations. Morpheus would like to congratulate our friends on Team 125 (NUtrons), 2168 (Aluminum Falcons), and 558 (Elm City Robo Squad) for winning the District Championship! Although we did not make it as far as we wanted, we still had a good time and learned a lot. We can't wait for the 2020 season, and hope to qualify for both the New England District Championship and the FIRST Championship in Detroit, Michigan, next year.
This competition was our last official event of the season, and we will now start preparing for offseason events and the 2020 season.
2019 Central Mass District
From March 29 to 31, 2019, we competed at the inaugural Central Mass District Event. After our first event, we made our elevator more reliable, and started working on a potential climber design inspired by Team 179 (Children of the Swamp). In qualification matches, we performed excellently. We placed about 6 hatch panels and 3 cargo in most matches. Additionally, our autonomous mode was finally working. The auto drove us to the back of either rocket and then handed control over to the driver so the hatch can be accurately placed on the back of the rocket. During alliance selection, we were thrilled to be selected by our friends on Team 190 (Gompei and the HERD) to join Alliance 4. Together, we selected the amazing rookie Team 7438 (Brain Busters) to join our alliance. With our alliance, we planned to have 190 work on the cargo ship and climb to level 3, 5813 work on a rocket, and 7438 play defense and climb to level 2. After two extremely close quarterfinal matches, we advanced to the semifinals to face Alliance 1, which was led by Team 78 (Air Strike). After a rough loss in the first match, our alliance scored a major upset victory in the second match! If we won the next match, we would be going to the finals! After a hard-fought match, Alliance 1 proved victorious. Although we had been eliminated, we were proud of our alliance's performance. We had a great time working with 190 and 7438 and hope to work with them again soon. Later, during the award ceremony, we were thrilled to be awarded the Autonomous Award for our innovative autonomous mode! Morpheus would like to congratulate the winning alliance and Team 5422 (Stormgears) for winning the Chairman's Award.
We are excited to see that we have enough District Points to qualify for the New England District Championship in two weeks! See you there!
Team 5813 Assists Team 1517 with Programming
On March 12, 2019, several members and mentors of Morpheus travelled to Team 1517's (The Lumberjacks) workshop to help get their robot up and running. This is a follow up to when we helped with code earlier this year on February 9th. We helped them get their pneumatic system, ramp deployment, and arm PID working. We were happy to help Team 1517 get everything working before their first competition this weekend!
2019 SE Mass District
From March 8 to 10, 2019, Morpheus competed at the 2019 SE Mass District Event. Unfortunately, we got off to a rough start in our qualification matches, but were able to pull it together towards the end of the qualifications. At that point, we were placing about 5 hatches and cargo each match. Luckily, our good performance was noticed during alliance selection, and we were selected by Team 69 (HYPER) and Team 88 (TJ^2) to join Alliance 3. Our alliance had a great strategy where 69 and 5813 would place hatches, 88 would place cargo, and 69 would climb to level 3 of the HAB. The successful execution of this strategy took our alliance all the way to the finals, where we faced Alliance 1 led by our friends on Team 78 (Air Strike) and Team 2168 (Aluminum Falcons). After two hard-fought matches, we emerged as event finalists! We had a great time working with 69 and 88 and hope to work with them again soon. Team 5813 would like to congratulate the winning alliance as well as Team 125 (NUtrons) on winning the District Chairman's Award! We learned a lot at this event and cannot wait to compete at the Central Mass event in three weeks!
2019 Week 0
On February 16, 2019, Morpheus travelled to Merrimack, New Hampshire, to test our robot at the annual Week 0 event. In qualifications, we tested our cargo manipulation and our hatch panel 'beak.' During alliance selection, we were selected by our friends on Team 3467 (Windham Windup) to join Alliance 7. Together, we selected Team 3986 (Express-0) to join our alliance. In eliminations, we had a strategy of filling the cargo ship with cargo and the first level of each rocket. Although we were eliminated in the quarterfinals, we did take Alliance 2 to three matches, and learned a lot about playing this year's game! We hope to work with both 3467 and 3986 again soon. Thank you to our alliance partners and to Team 166 (Chop Shop) for hosting the event! We can't wait to compete in the rest of the Destination: Deep Space season!
2018 Code Release
A template containing code that is applicable over multiple years: drivebase code, scriptable command-based builder, and generic autonomous code.
A compressed archive of the source code can be downloaded here.
5813 Hosts Sponsor Dr. Luba Richter, DMD, PA
On November 30, 2018, Morpheus hosted representatives from one of our valued sponsors, Dr. Luba Richter, DMD, PA, at our workshop. We gave a tour of our workshop, a look at our robots, an overview of our design process, and a look at our awards. We hope to host Dr. Luba Richter, DMD, PA at our workshop again soon!
2018 Battle of the Bay
On November 10, 2018, Morpheus made our fourth annual appearance at Battle of the Bay. After setting up our pit, we got some time on the field to calibrate our climbing hook for the rung in use at Battle of the Bay. In some of the qualification rounds, we let various team members control the robot. At the end of the qualification matches, we were ranked third with 16 ranking points. During alliance selection, we were thrilled to be selected to play on Alliance 1 with our good friends on Team 319 (Big Bad Bob). In the second round, Team 4925 (The Resistance) was added to our alliance. We faced a tough opponent in the quarterfinals, and despite several coordination and technical issues, our alliance advanced to the semifinals to face Alliance 4. In the first match of the semifinals, 319's intake fell off, and we barely lost. We rebounded in the second match and won by a big margin. In the tiebreaker, we were hopeful in advancing, but several errors were made which caused our alliance to lose by a slim margin. Although we had just been eliminated, we were proud of our performance and cheered on our friends on both alliances in the finals. Morpheus would like to congratulate our friends on Team 4564 (Orange Chaos), Team 131 (CHAOS), and Team 213 (Dirty Birds) for winning Battle of the Bay 5! We had a great time working again with 319 and with 4925 and hope to play with them again in 2019. Also, we would like to thank 319 for hosting such a wonderful competition.
The conclusion of this event ends our 2018 season. Overall, Morpheus had 93 wins, 34 losses, and 1 tie in the FIRST Power Up season. This is our best win/loss ratio ever! We are excited for the 2019 season and will see everyone at the Destination: Deep Space Kickoff in January.
Morpheus Featured in "Robotics for Everyone" Podcast
Today's episode of the Robotics for Everyone podcast featured an interview with current and former team leaders about FIRST, our team, and the costs and timeline of a standard FRC season. We had a great time talking to Mr. Falcon and hope to work with him to encourage STEM in the future.
The podcast can be found online here.
Morpheus Helps Team 1517 Refine Their 2018 Design
On November 2 and 3, 2018, Morpheus hosted Team 1517 (Lumberjacks) in our workshop to help them refine their intake and climber designs. We worked to make sure their intake consistently acquired Power Cubes and their climber had enough torque to lift their robot. We had a great time helping 1517 with their 2018 mechanisms.