Ready, Set, Scrimmage!

Written by PiE Team on Apr 10, 2013

All teams are expected to have fully functional robots by Scrimmage, which will be held this Sunday, April 14 from 9 am to 5 pm. The will have a chance to see what other teams are building, as well as compare their designs to those of other teams. PiE Mentorship Coordinator Andrew Vanderburg emphasizes the importance of testing the execution of a finished robot: “As a veteran of robotics competitions, I think that the most important factor isn’t how well your robot works or how well it’s built, but how well you can drive it when the time comes.”

During Scrimmage, teams will have their first and last chance to interact with the actual game field, as well as practice driving their robot in a competitive environment before Final Competition. It serves as practice and experimentation for some teams, and a reality check for others. Until Scrimmage, all the testing happened in the PiE Robotics Simulator, and many teams realize after Scrimmage that some things don’t work the way that they thought it would. After Scrimmage, they will have two weeks before Final Competition to make any edits or additions to their designs as needed. It will be our first time seeing all of the teams’ designs in their full forms; after hearing about their implementation ideas after design reviews, we are excited to see what each team has accomplished.