HL BEST Pictures

'Twas the night before Game Day . . .

Just a nice view of the game fields from the stands.

"Let's hear it for Tim!" [applause]

Of all the speakers the night before competition, Tim was the only one who was't given the mic. And yet he was the only one receiving applause! If only we all could be so famous. . .

Gameboss

This was Tim's first year being gameboss at regional competition. Those of us who saw him in action are pretty convinced he liked it!

Fielding Questions

FT BEST had a great way of letting teams present questions to the referees that was both efficient and diplomatic. You had to have your pink pass and stand in a certain spot to ask your question. Tim was always the one to field the question first.

Pit Control

This wide open space turned out to be important as the day went on. There is a lot of in/out traffic for two game fields and 3:00min match play.

Pit Area

Inside the pit area there was always a lot of activity. Teams, can you find your table?

Staging Area

Steve worked with a fellow Kansas BEST hub volunteer to make sure teams went to the staging area before the previous round expired. This way there was little to no delay in moving teams on and off the fields.

Electrical Station

These guys were great! As competition wore on, they helped teams troubleshoot and get robots back into the action.

Lawton's Robot

Green. Very green. It was advised not to stare at the tires for very long.

Perry MS

This was Perry MS's table in the pit area. They were being visited by a fellow HL BEST participant from Fairview.

Shattuck HS

Way at the end of the pit area was Shattuck HS.

Lawton HS

This team worked feverishly the majority of the day hunting down an electrical problem. Even before FT BEST, Steve worked with them to try and isolate the problem. The final answer didn't come until a visit was made to the electrical station at FT BEST competition.

Lawton's Electrical Woes

And here are the coaches from Lawton at the electrical station. As it turns out, the brushings in one of the large motors was causing brief and intermittant shorts. Not enough to blow the fuse, but enough to render the servos unreliable. This is bad; especially if your servos power the mechanism that holds laundry. Prior to the coach's visit with the electrical station, 3 OEM extension cables, both speed controllers, and both small motors were eliminated as the problem team members' electrical tests.

Fairview on the Field

Shattuck on the Field

Perry on the Field

Lawton on the Field

Lawton Cheer!

This was taken just as points by the team on the field were being scored. Can you tell?

Lawton Music

Working on the robot in the pit, driving the robot on the field, and playing bass in his "free time;" I'll bet he felt like putty after the competition ended!

Congestion in the Gazebo

Where the point are is where you'll find robots!

Winner of the igus Top Gun Award

When things worked as planned, this robot placed all 12 pieces of wet laudry in the gazebo. Then it pulled down all the dry laundry from the gazebo it could get its clothespin on.

OKC Homeschool

This team was with HL BEST last year and this year they had quite the complicated looking robot! So what's that thing up at the top???

A Corkscrew!

This device deployed aluminum clothespins. They were pushed forward by an innovative use of thredded rod!

Motor Angle

Take a closer look at this robot. Notice that the motor operating the scissor lift is mounted at an angle to the robot base.

Motors all over the place!

What's interesting though is that this team needed one of the larger motors to raise their arm. The solve the problem of possibly having too little torque for driving, they unioned two smaller motors to function in coordination with the other larger motor.