MegaHurtz Finishes 4th at St. Joe Districts

The 2015 Robotics season ended on an extreme high for the students and mentors of MegaHurtz Robotics. After finishing 34th out of 40 in the Kentwood District Competition two weeks ago because of numerous software and field communication issues, the team pulled together and made it all the way to the semi-finals where they finished 4th overall.

Kentwood was a disaster. It seemed that nothing went right for this team and what made things worse is that their problems were unexplainable. FIRST engineers, Field Techs and Control Systems Leads huddled together both on the field and off to help determine why things would just not talk to each other and everyone came back confused, frustrated, and without any answers. Immediately after getting back the team set to work "starting over." The robot for the most part was sound, but they needed a better and more reliable way to pickup and move totes. The computer systems had to be completely wiped and reformatted, and the robot code needed to be rebuilt from the group up. They were not taking any chances when they got to St. Joe.

Starting things off right, MegaHurtz was the third team to arrive at the St. Joe Districts ensuring they could get setup and on the practice field as early as possible. If there were any bugs, they wanted to know immediately so they could be squashed quickly. All the hard work paid off. It was clear the robot was performing much better and all the communication issues from the last event were gone.

Adopting the same principal that made them successful last year: "You can't be good at everything so figure out what you are good at and then be the best." The team focused making stacks of four totes as fast as possible. Averaging 3 stacks a match, MegaHurtz quickly proved to be one of the most efficient stack builders and movers on the field. There were several teams with robots that could taller stacks or that could place the bins, but when it came time for alliance selection the number seven captain needed a robot that could do exactly what the MegaHurtz bot had mastered. The team was invited to the 7th ranked Alliance. Team Virus, MegaHurtz and The Gearheads held their own all the way to the semi-finals where they finished fourth overall making this the most successful season ever.