Robotics is a program meant to change young people’s lives. FIRST Robotics has allowed me to go in and build a robot program it and wire it to do some task within a set amount of time. In life when you are commissioned to do something you are often told to do it by a set time.

FIRST stands for, For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, this means  they stand for teaching the next generation valuable skills that they will use in life. My years in robotics has taught me many things, not only how to build and wire and program. It taught me to work on a team in a way nothing else could. It taught me the exact way life is, you aren’t necessarily going to like the team you are on but you still have to work with them, and we work well together.

When faced with a challenge we all get together and we work on what we need to do to make the project succeed.

I work on wiring and work on teaching my part of the team the wiring for the robot. Even though we are a team, not everyone on my team has the skill I do, and it often seems I’m building half the robot on my own. I try to do less of the work that is not necessarily for me and try to focus on my own part of the project. This expands many of my skills, as well as refines any skills I already have. When it came to the competition we usually came down to the deadline for our robot. We were still proud of what we managed.

The games themselves were a blur to me but the time in between each game I remember clearly. Rushing back to the pit to do tiny modifications and fixes while I programmed a bit. I remember nearly getting into a fight with a friend of mine due to some petty thing that happened in game. Even though there were times we didn’t agree, there were times we did, and when we did we accomplished something great.

There were games I did have memorized, as they were points of my successful programming test that never before worked. I was programming the robot still, we were rushing to get in queue. We were late. The last modification we needed to add and the need to switch the batteries hindered the ability for me to upload code.
I checked the computer’s battery and it was low, it’s not unusual mid day of the competition. We powered up the robot and started down the aisle to the area to get in queue. I had the robot tethered into the computer and I had eclipse up with the code and the robot Driver station on top of that to monitor when it came up as soon as I saw green I hit upload, we were pulled up to the next queue area. The game that was to call the start of our game was nearly over. I look at the computer and it says build success.

I shout loudly at Jeremy to get my voice heard over the roar of the audience. “Power it off I’m done!”

He reaches to the power after pulling the tether from the modem and turns it off. Lights die on the robot and the fans stop, the Buzzer signals the end of the previous game and we are gestured forward to get on field. Mr.Krohn and I go to the field with the robot and Jeremy Hurries to our position behind the line and sets up the computer.
The robot is lifted from the cart and the cart is wheeled off. We hustle to set up the robot behind the Low Bar and I nudge the robot by millimeters to align it just right, I power the robot back on and wait for Jeremy to confirm the robot camera is working. We hustle back to the driver station and wait behind the line, the announcer calls off the names and the numbers of the teams.

I ignore the others but when I hear, “And over here team 44-O-8. The robo-Panthers!” The crowd cheers and Jeremy and I start making a ruckus to rile the crowd even more.

The referee checks the field one last time and gives a thumbs up to signal the game to start. The clock sets to 15 seconds, I gesture everyone to stay behind the line.

The Buzzer sounds and then a bell tolls the start of the game. The timer ticks down and the robots spring to life. Our robot goes forward, 15 seconds slowly tick by. My team sits in silence in anticipation. The robot goes under the low bar, and it  goes across the defense. We all cheer, and high five each other. The 15 seconds tick away down to zero as time resumed from its standing still. The buzzer toned the time to start the controlled part of the game and I rushed to the controls. Time resumed and sped up, before I knew it the timer had tolled the end of the game and we had to go back to the pits. We had lost that game.

Even though we didn’t win the competitions we still felt like we won on the inside. I can just say though that the experience I’ve had with FIRST Robotics has made me who I am today.