The pandemic pushed the team to adapt to constantly changing circumstances that showcased their experience and poise despite challenges with in-person meetings and robot material shortages and delays. With the help of a new friend, John Cohn, the team placed additional emphasis on creating a sustainable legacy by introducing a new model of FTC. The new model includes specific curriculum and mentoring to transition teams from rookie to JV to Varsity. The team implemented the model by mentoring the rookie team from 2020, 16295, they helped form in 2020, which became a JV team. The team also formed another rookie team (18643), that was mentored by team 16295. For these efforts and more, the team won second place for both the Connections and the Innovations Award.
The team’s robot performed brilliantly and scored points in each section of the competition. The robot used projectile motion calculations from AP Physics to position the robot to shoot a donut into the target from 6 feet away. The team also used Tensor Flow and Vuforia to autonomously navigate the robot and shoot donuts into a target.
The crowning achievement went to Luke Fitzgerald, who was named a Dean’s List finalist as a result of his outstanding academic record and accomplishments in FIRST. Normally, Luke would have attended the World Championships for final interviews, but the championships were cancelled due to COVID. This award is the only individual award given to a team member at a FIRST Championship.
Mentoring Work Files (with embedded videos and links)
2021 Vermont FTC Championship Videos and Files
Autonomous Demo https://youtu.be/wyfsl74T_t0
TeleOp Demo https://youtu.be/sm5J6IBta24
End Game Demo https://youtu.be/-QgVwXlbxG4
Run 1 https://youtu.be/CJ1c-vclS5w
Run 2 https://youtu.be/15R8oq64X4Q
Run 3 https://youtu.be/u9dshBo_rp0
Run 4 https://youtu.be/rD0MQihV5KM
Run 5 https://youtu.be/C6Tm2Nvetro
Run 6 https://youtu.be/s4TW6NF0cTw