HSISHISI
January Newsletter
FRC Kickoff
SWAT Team 1806 plans out their strategy for the 2014 FRC game Aerial
Assist
Kickoff was held on January 4.
All members met at the high school
early Saturday morning for breakfast,
and then the whole team eagerly gath-
ered in the Performing Arts Center to
watch the webcast for the new game.
After anxiously waiting, team
members were introduced to the new
game, Aerial Assist. The game is very
interesting and the group members
were on the edge of their seat through
the whole video, wanting to know as
many details as possible about the new
game.
The team learned that the game
had a strong focus on teamwork. The
objective of the game was to score as
many balls in the goals as possible dur-
2014
Spaghetti Dinner!
The annual
SWAT Spa-
ghetti Dinner
will be held
on February
13th at Smithville High School from
5:30 to 7:30. The dinner, open to the
public, will cost $7 for adults and
$3 for children ten and under. A $3
discount will be offered to families
of three or more with a copy of the
Spaghetti Dinner Flyer, so please
ask a SWAT member for one, or
visit the teams website. Past robots,
as well as this years robot, will be
on display. SWAT gear, light bulbs,
and batteries will be on sale, so
make sure to come out and enjoy
some delicious spaghetti!
In this Issue
ing a 2 minute 30 second match. The
Page 1
more the alliances score their ball in FRC Kickoff
their goals, and the more they work Spaghetti Dinner
together to do it, the more points that
alliance receives. Page 2
After the kickoff video was Spotlight Competition:
over, members went to the tech room to Liberty Robotics 1764
split into groups, looked over the rule
book, and shared ideas about how to Aerial Assist: the 2014
design the robot efficiently. The brain- FRC Game
storming process began immediately. Page 3
Members were already discussing ideas
about drive systems, mechanisms, strat-
SWAT Sophomore:
egies, and ways to score the most Becker Lethcoe
points in one match of the game. Page 4
The team went into the gymna-
January FTC Update
sium to visually represent how the
game would work (Continued on Pg. 3) Sponsors
January Newsletter 2014

Spotlight Competition: Liberty Robotics 1764

Our local team spot light this month is Liberty Robotics, FRC Team 1764. The Liberty Robotics Team believes that
main source of success is their focus on students leading and their business plans structure. Their team is made up of 35
members and it will be the ninth year their competing. Liberty Robotics participates in many community out reaches, such
as Adopt a Highway and they participate in Rebuilding Together Clay County, an event that renovates and repairs local
homes and trees. They mentor FLL teams, volunteer at Gateway to Technology summer camp and collect clothes and
household items to donate to Resolution Reuse. SWAT has competed many times with team 1764 and we know how
extraordinary and well thought-out their design and strategies are.

Aerial Assist: The 2014 FRC Game

On January 6th, the FRC game for
the 2014 season, Aerial Assist, was
announced. The two alliances must
work together using the game piece, an
exercise ball, to score as many points
as possible. The two minute and thirty
second game is played on a field divid-
ed into three sections divided by a truss
that is suspended five feet over the
center of the field.
During autonomous time period of
thirty seconds, each robot is given a
game piece and can shoot into a low or
high goal for an increased score. After
autonomous ends, game pieces are
removed so that for each alliance,
there's one ball.
For the next two minutes, the ob-
jective for the two alliances is to score
the ball into the low and high goals
located at the opposite end of the field
as many times as possible. Alliances
are encouraged to work together and
for each robot of the same alliance that
comes into contact with the game piece
in a different section, the total score of
the cycle will increase.
If a robot is able to throw the game
piece over the suspended truss, ten
points will be added to the alliances
score and additionally if a robot of the
same alliance catches the throw, then
ten more points are added to the alli-
ances score.
For this season, the ability to work
together is crucial to winning the
The Aerial Assist game piece for the
game. For more information about the
2014 FRC season is a exercise ball.
game visit the FIRST website at http://
Each alliance has their own ball, one
www.usfirst.org/ and check out the
red and one blue.
Game Animation on YouTube.
 FRC Kickoff
(continued)

SWAT Sophomore: based on what we knew from the rule manual and the kick-
off video. A few members stood in the field area and act-
Becker Lethcoe ed as robots.
The members worked together to show how the
Whats your favorite experience doing game would work in different scenarios and how many
SWAT? : points would be scored for each action. We knew that inter-
Waffle Wednesday acting with the other robots on our alliance was the only
way to be a strong competitor in the new game. We demon-
What are you most excited about the up- strated how a game would need to be played in order to
coming season? : score the most amount of points possible.
Seeing the kinds of robots people will Now, all FRC members have been hard at work on
build this years FRC robot. The team is hoping to do well in the
competition, learn a lot, and have fun while doing so.
If you could build a robot to do any task,
what would it be? :
Id build a robot to do my physics
homework.

What do you do to get hyped before com-

petitions? :
Listen to the Corey in the House
theme song.

Do you have any nicknames and what are

they? :
Yes, Beaker

If you wrote a book, what would the title

be? :
A Day in the Life of Becker

Who would play you in a movie about

your life? : The team brainstorms ideas (top) and work together to
Robert Downey Jr. lubricate their robot parts (bottom).
 January FTC Update
SWAT Gear
For Sale!
Place Your
Order Today!

Visit our Website!

FTC has been in full-swing lately. Each team has been putting in their best effort and
even with FRC season starting. The freshmen and sophomore teams are very eager to www.smithvillehighrobotics.com/
start their season with their first match. Each meeting is spent polishing up and the
teams are very excited for their first competition. The teams have out their innovative
ideas to work with mechanisms to pick up blocks and even climb! Our teams are over- And Follow us on
whelmingly talented and bright. The tension is high with the first competition nearing.
The first FTC competition for Smithville is on Saturday, February 1, at UMKC and we Twitter! @frc1806
are leaving at 7 am. We expect to do well and all support is encouraged!

Thank You Sponsors!

Darrell Smith Jeff and Anne Townsend Chuck Hitchborn

Russell and Betty Woollums G. Gupta Earl and Diane Soetaert
Paul Clouse Dave Telles Robert and Beth Armstrong
Bill and Bonita Farrell Charles Koslowski III Greg Armstrong
Garrison Dentistry
January Newsletter 2014