Lakota Robotics | Game Announcements

2008 Game: FIRST Overdrive

Robot Name: Sharky’s Machine

Game Play

FIRST Overdrive is played on a 54 ft (16 m) by 27 ft (8 m) carpeted field, divided lengthwise by a fence median to create a track, and separate the field into Red and Blue zones. The fence is crossed by an overpass marking the red and blue ﬁnish lines, and hold the game pieces: 40 in (1,016 mm) diameter inflated balls called “Trackballs”. Two three-team alliances race around the track in a counter clockwise direction while manipulating the trackballs to score points.

The game is made up of two scoring periods. The ﬁrst 15 seconds of play is the Hybrid period in which robots are autonomous, and may also respond to certain digital signals sent by team members designated as “Robocoaches”, who are stationed at the corners of the track.

The next two minutes of play is the Teleoperated period. At this time, robots are fully radio controlled by the team operators standing at either end of the ﬁeld.

Scoring

During the Hybrid period, robots traversing the field in a counter-clockwise direction score:

8 points for each of their Trackballs knocked off of the overpass
8 points for each of their Trackballs passed over the overpass
4 points whenever their robot crosses a lane marker
4 points whenever their robot crosses their opponent’s finish line
4 points whenever their robot crosses their finish line
2 points whenever their trackball crosses their ﬁnish line

The Hybrid Period

Hybrid period is a new addition to an FRC game. Rather than the pre-game autonomous modes of previous years where robots were prohibited from receiving input from humans, robots may receive signals via an infrared (IR) remote control or visible light from a designated Robocoach during the Hybrid period. The number of different IR signals the IR board included in the kit of parts is physically able to receive is 4. The number of distinct commands that are allowed to be sent is also 4, thus ruling out multi-signal combinations.