2008 Game: FIRST OVERDRIVE
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 zone. The fence is crossed by an overpass marking the red and blue finish line, and hold the game pieces: 40 in (1,1016 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.
rOBOT
Our first robot, The Chicken Coop, named after the excessive amount of chicken wire on it, was built to play the game Overdrive. In Overdrive, we had to design a robot to hit large balls off of monkey bars and roll them around a race track. We created this robot with a pneumatically powered arm that would hit the ball off the bars and then move it around track. Overall for our rookie year we placed 37 out of 49.