Team logo |
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| Full name | FIRST Robotics Team 294 |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | 294 |
| Founded | 1999 |
| Organization | Mira Costa High School Redondo Union High School |
| Events attended | Los Angeles San Diego |
| Championships | 2 |
| Events results |
2011 San Diego Finalists |
| First game | Logomotion |
| Current robot name | Norberta |
| Website | [1] |
Beach Cities Robotics is a FIRST robotics [1] team from the South Bay area in Southern California. Team members from both Mira Costa High School and Redondo Union High School make up this highly successful team.
Beach Cities Robotics (Team 294) won the 2010 FIRST Breakaway competition in Atlanta, Georgia, along with alliance partners, Team 67 (HOT Team), and Team 177 (Bobcat Robotics).[2] Beach Cities Robotics also won a World Championship FIRST competition in 2001, and the FIRST Tech Challenge (Quad Quandary) World Championship in 2008.
Beach Cities Robotics often participates in outreach activities in the South Bay, doing demos for middle schools and science events in the community, as well as attending local school district and city council meetings. The team participates in the annual Northrop Grumman open house.
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FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is an organization that encourages learning in engineering and technology by sponsoring robotics competitions, based on grade level. FRC is the highest level competition, for high schoolers.
Beach Cities Robotics has been a participant in the FIRST program since late 1996 when Hope Chapel Academy, Hawthorne High School, Mira Costa High School, and Redondo Union High School to form one of the first two Southern California teams, Team 61-”Circuit Breakers”. Several individuals (Dr. Beverly Rohrer, K.G. Englehardt, Rob Steele, and Pat Hosken) were instrumental in bringing that original team together with lots of support from ADTECH, the consortium behind the team’s formation. In 1998, Hope Chapel split off to form their own team, Team 330-”Beach Bots”. Hawthorne, Redondo, and Mira Costa stayed together and were sponsored by TRW and ADTECH, calling themselves the “Vultures”. In 1999, Hawthorne split off to become Team 207-”Metal Crafters” and Redondo and Mira Costa became 294-”Beach Cities Robotics”. In Spring, 2002, BCR became a year round program.
Logo Motion is the 2011 FIRST Robotics Competition game. Playing pieces are inner tubes shaped like the components of the FIRST logo. The primary objective of the game is to place them on racks to gain points. In the endgame, robots deploy smaller robots ("minibots") to climb a tower. Minibots must be made from the FIRST Tech Challenge kit of parts. The game celebrates the 20th season of the FRC and is also meant to commemorate the artist Jack Kamen, who designed the original FIRST logo.
Breakaway was the 2010 FRC game, created by FIRST. Under the Breakaway rules, teams are allowed 6 weeks to design, build, and program robots to compete in the game. Breakaway is a game played and scored similarly to soccer. Teams of 3 robots (an alliance) attempt to score regulation soccer balls into their alliance's goals. Each alliance has two goals in which to score, for a total of 4 goals. The field is separated into 3 zones by foot-high bumps. Moving between zones is achieved either by driving over the bumps or going through 20-inch tunnels located in the middle of each bump. On top of each tunnel is a tower, which supports the overhead ball return system. Robots may hang on the tower during the last 20 seconds of play in order to receive a 2 point bonus, so long as no part of the robot is touching or below the base of the tower. To prevent teams from blocking both of their opponents' goals, only one robot is allowed to enter the opposing alliance's offensive zone at a time. Gameplay consists of a 15-second autonomous period, in which robots must only follow preprogrammed commands, followed by a 2-minute teleoperated period, in which a driver and codriver may fully control their robot.
Competitions consist of two stages: qualifications, and eliminations. In the qualification matches, teams are randomly paired with and against other teams to collect "seeding points", which are based on the performance of each alliance and the difficulty of the opposing alliance. Between the end of qualification matches and the start of elimination matches, the 8 teams with the most seeding points may choose two other teams to join their alliance. This alliance will play together throughout the eliminations. Teammates are picked in a serpentine fashion, with the 1st seeded team choosing first, the 8th seeded team picking twice as the middle pick, and the 1st seeded team choosing their second pick last. Eliminations are played 2 out of 3 in a standard bracket system.
FRC and FTC
2011 FRC San Diego Finalists
2010 FRC World Champions
2010 FRC Newton Field Coopertition Award
2010 FRC San Diego Regional Champions
2010 FRC Los Angeles Regional Finalists
2009 FRC Los Angeles Regional Finalists
2008 FRC Los Angeles Regional Finalists
2008 FRC San Diego Regional Champions
2007 FRC San Diego Regional Champions
2004 FRC Southern California Regional Chairman's Award
2003 FRC Southern California Regional Finalists
2008 FTC World Champions
2001 FRC National Champions
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