WPI Regional Highlights

FIRST Team 2067, Apple Pi, made a return appearance at the WPI Regional in Massachusetts with our beloved robot “Zippy” on March 7-9. In spite of a three hour weather related delay on our way to the pits Thursday, we had a productive day and made use of WPI’s beautiful new recreational facility for practicing our shooting and climbing. On Friday we braved the foot-and-a-half snowfall and managed to safely transport both our robot and ourselves for the first day of qualification matches. Apple Pi’s pit crew worked through difficulties with the frisbee launcher and climbing system and by days end we were ranked fifteenth out of forty-two teams. Unfortunately, during the last match of the day, “Zippy” collided with the pyramid and suffered significant damage which proved to hinder our performance on Saturday. That night, we carefully analyzed data with our scouting partner, FIRST Team 558, the Robo Squad, in the hopes of being part of the alliance member selection process the next day before final matches began. Our scouting data proved to be beneficial on Saturday, when FIRST Team 663, the Robonauts, chose us to be part of the eighth alliance. Together, Team 2067 and Team 663 selected Team 157, the Aztechs, to be the final alliance member.

Although we did not make it past the quarterfinals, we enjoyed being part of the exhilarating final matches and watching the remaining teams battle it out until the end. With one regional down, we eagerly await the Connecticut Regional, which we will attend from March 28 to March 30.

You can view Apple Pi’s first day matches in the Media/Video section of our website.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. by Megan Burke