FIRST Robotics Competition Team 701
Vanden Robotics
2008-2013: The New Decade
2012-2013:
This year we competed superbly and won both the Sacramento and Denver regionals. We also went to Madera for that regional. At Sacramento, we also won the Engineering and Inspiration Award and won a $5,000 sponsorship from NASA. We made 2 robots: Protobot, the prototype, and Beowulf, the competition robot. We went to FIRST World Championships and had a marvelous time, even though we didn't win any awards. We finished 24th in our division at world championships. We started making a SWATbot for the Fairfield Police and Protobot, which has 6 drive motors.
2011-2012:
We built Odin, a stacker bot, our robot for Rebound Rumble. We were one of two teams in the world to successfully build a stackerbot. We traveled to Spokane, Washington for the Spokane regional and Sacramento. We won the Industrial Safety and Industrial Design awards, as well as the Quality Award. We didn't go to world championships this year.
2010-2011:
This year we tackled Logomotion with our bot "ReIncarnation of Puff the Magic Dragon." We won the Entrepreneurship Award. Although we never won a regional, we still went to St. Louis for the World Championships. Once there, we held our own in Archimedes, although we didn't get picked. We still had a good time.
2009-2010:
So it is finally our tenth year! We chugged along through this build season with high optimisim and a greater plan for success. Our team is evenly divided into rookies and veterans, but that does not prevent us from working with each other. We distinctly place ourselves in six major committees: Mechanical, Electrical, Animation, DS Programming, LabView Programming, and Inventor. We are planning on participating in the Washington D.C. regional and San Jose regional competitions.
2008-2009:
When we came back to school in 2008, our team was ready with a plan for improvement. Our Leadership Committee was formed, along with regular committees. We trained newcomers with workshops in CNC, Inventor, Electrical Basics, and Shop Basics. By the time Lunacy was introduced 6 weeks later, our team was ready. Although we spent most of our time prototyping, we took to building our robot in stride. We were sure to make sure each measurement and each system worked to its best. We participated in the Boston regional competition, taking home the Entrepreneurship and Website Awards. We also participated in the Sacramento competition and won the Judges' Award. We were ranked as semi-finalists for both regionals.
2007-2008:
In the 2007-08 school year, our robotics class recieved many gifts. We were sponsored by ROP, who gave us classroom laptops and other supplies. We repainted and refurnished our workshop. We had many new members join from freshmen to seniors. We started two FIRST LEGO League teams in Foxboro Elementary School and the Vacaville Boys and Girls Club. Our robot's name was Jotunn and was ready for competiton as we headed out to San Diego, Sacramento, and the FIRST Championships in Atlanta. We were semi-finalists in San Diego, quarterfinalists at Sacramento, and ranked well at the Archimedes Division in Atlanta. We were semi-finalists at the 2008 Cal Games and won the Best Hybrid Award.
