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 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.
16th Annual Governor’s Advanced Manufacturing and High Technology Summit
On November 2, 2018, Morpheus attended the 16th Annual Governor’s Advanced Manufacturing and High Technology Summit in Concord, New Hampshire. We brought Insomnado, our 2018 robot, to demo to the attendees. We talked about FIRST and our team with many people involved with manufacturing in New Hampshire. Team 5813 had a wonderful time at the Governor's Summit and hope to return in the future!
2018 River Rage
On October 27, 2018, Morpheus travelled to Manchester, New Hampshire to compete at River Rage 22. At this event, we ran rookie drivers in the qualifications and our competition drivers in eliminations. After loading in and running systems tests, we prepared for our first match. Unfortunately, the FMS was not working properly for the first few matches, so many teams were having a hard time. Luckily, these issues were fixed and the competition continued as usual. At the conclusion of the qualification rounds, we were ranked 13th. At River Rage, the first pick in alliance selection is random, and Alliance 1 gets the first selection in the second round of picks. We were thrilled to be picked by our good friends on Team 131 (CHAOS) and Team 319 (Big Bad Bob) to compete on Alliance 2. After ensuring that our robot fit properly on 319's forks, we devised a strategy where we would work with 319 to control the scale, while 131 would control our switch and vault while helping on the scale as needed. In our first quarterfinal match, our alliance meshed perfectly and was only about 30 points away from a perfect score in FIRST Power Up! After winning the next quarterfinal match, we breezed through the semifinals to face Alliance 1, which consisted of Team 6328 (Mechanical Advantage), Team 1922 (Oz-Ram), and Team 1519 (Mechanical Mayhem). After two hard-fought matches, our alliance emerged victorious! We had won River Rage for the second time in three years! We would like to thank Team 131 (CHAOS), Team 238 (Crusaders), and Team 501 (Power Knights) for hosting another fantastic River Rage. It was great working with both 131 and 319, and we hope to work with them again soon! Our last competition of the season is 319's Battle of the Bay in a few weeks. See you there!
2018 RoboExpo
On September 22, 2018, Morpheus members travelled to the Pheasant Lane Mall in Nashua, New Hampshire, to participate in 1058's annual RoboExpo. Throughout the day, we participated in several exhibition matches to show the public the excitement of the FIRST Robotics Competition. We talked with several mall-goers about FIRST and explained what our team does. Thank you to Team 1058 (PVC Pirates) for hosting another fun RoboExpo. We can't wait to return next year!
FIRST Place FLL Summer Camp Demonstration
Today, Morpheus attended an FLL summer camp at FIRST Place in Manchester, NH, to talk to campers about FIRST, FRC, and our team. We also demonstrated our 2016 robot, Goatnado, and the campers had a fun time catching the boulder. Additionally, we explained what FRC is and what our team does every season. After the demo, we were excited to investigate the 2014 practice bot of World Champion Team 254 (The Cheesy Poofs). It was neat to see all the innovative design techniques that were employed by one of the most inspirational teams in FIRST. We had a great time presenting at the FIRST Place 2018 FLL summer camp! Thank you for inviting us, FIRST!
2018 Season Recap
Today, Morpheus is proud to present our 2018 Season Recap video! The video is available both on the Media page or on YouTube.
In 2018, we became finalists at Week 0, won the Innovation in Control award at SE Mass, were Finalists at UNH, and were alliance captains in the Curie Division at the Detroit Championship! We placed in the top 3 percent of teams in the world!
We have won several awards so far in the offseason and have a few more competitions left with with our 2018 robot, Insomnado, before the Destination: Deep Space kickoff in January 2019.
Concord Rotary Club Visit
Today, August 7, 2018, members of Team 5813 attended a meeting of the Concord Rotary Club with our 2016 robot, Goatnado. We had a fantastic time talking to the members about FIRST, FRC, and our team. It was exciting to see what a Rotary Club meeting is like! We would like to thank one of our sponsors, Dr. Luba Richter, for helping to coordinate our presentation!
2018 Summer Heat
On July 14, 2018, Morpheus members travelled to South Portland, Maine, to compete in the 2018 Summer Heat offseason event, which is hosted by Team 58 (Riot Crew). After loading in, we were excited to see that the pits were right next to the field, which meant that we wasted almost no time walking to the field and we could watch every match. Unfortunately, we had a code issue which caused us to miss our first match, but we bounded back and ended the qualification rounds in fourth place. During Alliance Selection, we were picked by our friends Team 131 (CHAOS) to join Alliance 2. Together, we selected team 6153 (Blue Crew) to round out our alliance. In eliminations, we ran our scale auto and CHAOS ran their switch auto. Our alliance breezed through the quarterfinals and semifinals to face Alliance 1 in the finals. In the first match, we were behind after auto, but battled back and controlled the scale for over half the match. Unfortunately, we ended up losing Finals 1 by only 33 points. In Finals 2, Alliance 1 played very aggressive defense, which caused our alliance to struggle to keep up on the scale. Ultimately, we became event finalists and got an extremely neat trophy for our accomplishments! We had a great time working with Team 131 and Team 6153 and hope to work with them again soon! Thank you to Team 58 for hosting such a fun event!