Beach Bots

In the game "Aim High", small "poof" balls were used as the game pieces. Team 330 chose to go with a "high shooter" design and frequently would score points in the high goal, as well as scoring at the end of the match by ending on the alliance platform. The Beach 'Bots were finalists at the Southern California Regional and were also awarded the Xerox Creativity Award at both the Arizona Regional and Southern California Regional.

In “Triple Play,” small tetrahedrons were stacked upon nine large tetrahedron goals to gain points. Points were scored by the number of tetrahedrons stacked on the goals and by the tetrahedrons played in a pattern like tic-tac-toe. We became Semi-Finalists and won the Judge's Award at the Sacramento Regional.

In “FIRST Frenzy-Raising the Bar” points were scored by small balls placed in goals, covering the goals with a large ball, or by robots (like the Beach Bots) hanging off a ten foot bar. Our robot could crawl across the bar, blocking opposing robots from hanging and getting extra points. At the Arizona regional Beach Bot won 1st place and the Chairman’s Award.

The game “Stack Attack” started by human players stacking 4 boxes in the beginning of the game. Then robots would collide into a stack of boxes on top of a ramp and try to push them into scoring zones and stack them. In the end the robots would get onto the ramp and try to block other robots from joining them.

In “Zone Zeal” balls were to be placed in movable goals that were transported by the robots into scoring zones. In 2002 we won the Kleiner Perkins Caufiel & Byers Entrepreneurs Award at the Silicon Valley Regional. At the the Southern California Regional we won the Johnson & Johnson Sportsmanship Award and we also won the regional for the second year in a row.

“Diabolical Dynamics.” This game consisted of 2 V-shaped baskets in which balls were placed and there was a bar in-between them that robots could hang off of. We won our first regional in this year at the Southern California Regional. We also won the Xerox Creativity Award at the Silicon Valley Regional.

In 2000, the game was “Co-Operation FIRST.” Four robots worked together to place balls on a goal and 1 robot would pull the goals and itself onto a teeter-totter. With this game we were very excited to walk away from the NASA Ames Regional as Finalists!

Beach Bot played in “Double Trouble.” This was the first year that alliances were used. The point was to place floppies on a puck which was in the middle of the field. The team attended the Hawthorne High Sectional and took 1st place!! We also won the Xerox Creativity Award at the NASA Ames Regional. Our first awards!

All 5 high schools branched out into separate teams and we became the “Beach 'Bots.” “Ladder Logic” was the name of the game. In the middle of the field was a hexagonal cylinder with 3 ramps off its sides. Balls were to be placed on those ramps. At nationals the team placed 86th out of 166 teams!

Our first year!