2008: ISTI the fourth

     There were fifty-one students involved on the team. It took all 51 students to get our robot up and running before the first competition as the team encountered many issues.

      The first issue dealt with our manipulator. The first version was all electrical and was very slow to pick up the 40 inch diameter ball. The second version worked, but it created other problems that had to be re-engineered.

      The second issue dealt with our drive system. Even though the team had used the same drive system as last year, we were told on Thursday at 2pm during inspection that the motors were not in compliant with the rules. We had six hours to redesign our whole drive system and the team DID IT!

      The third issue dealt with our weight. The new drive system put us overweight by 15 lbs. We put ISTE IV on a diet and lost enough to meet the weight limit. We passed inspection just as our first match was beginning on Friday.

      The team competed without any practice, code that was rewritten quickly, and some few electrical problems. We were not able to compete at a high level, but the team did really well considering that the robot was rebuilt in a day.