It's been an whirlwind six months of building, coding and blogging, but with our tasks complete and videos submitted (two weeks early), the Stev3 party is winding down.
I've asked our three roboteers to send through some final thoughts on the whole shebang...
Eoin
The lockdown has undoubtedly had a negative effect on meeting up, but luckily(?) for us, it was much harder for schools than for us. This is because we were able to meet up online when the schools couldn't. We were extra glad when all of us got together in person, as we were finally able to get our hands on the robot. Me and my cousin Cormac went to Holywood, and along with Charlie, we actually were able to get things done!
The first meet up we focused on the Tidy Up The Toys challenge and in general getting the robot to be as consistent as possible. This is when we learned about important things for the setup, such as the trolley wheels should be set up so they don't have to spin when the robot starts moving, and for any sort of reliability we must start in exactly the same place every time.
During our downtime at these meet ups, most of our time was spent eating very large pizzas, subway cookies, brownies, or grapes. This was a good way to rest from repetitive tests and also get acid reflux. Fortunately for me, I was able to burn at least a percent of these kilo-calories with trips to Boulder World Belfast, a climbing gym in - you guessed it - Belfast.
I found Pi Wars was much more educational this year, as it allowed us to experiment more with alternative methods that didn't need to be as consistent. This allowed us to get a little 𝓌𝒶𝒸𝓀𝓎 with it and experiment with our programming and attachments some more.
While these repetitive test were grueling at points, it was fun to see a task being executed as efficiently as possible when it were finished, and satisfying knowing you wouldn't have to touch that damn Tidy up the Toys challenge again.
If possible I would love to do this again next year, and thought it was an overwhelmingly positive experience.
Charlie
When Pi Wars first announced that it was going to be an 'at home' competition I was kind of hesitant. For me, a large part of the Pi Wars experience is the competition itself eg. going to Cambridge with the team and taking part in the competition along with the other clubs and schools. This year though, turned out to be - while a completely different experience - still just as fun.
The zoom meetings weren't as good as meeting in person (they never are), but our team all had a great time when we got the chance to meet up and working on the robot, especially since there was the added bonus of Subway cookies and the park down the road.
I've really enjoyed this years Pi Wars, but I can't wait to get back to 'normal' robot competitions next year!
Cormac
I had a great Pi Wars experience. It definitely was a different competition this year due to the pandemic but it was still very good.
We did meetings over the web to brainstorm ideas which was very fun although many of the ideas were a bit too silly to put in. The online meetings were definitely a good thing because we didn’t have to go on a journey and still got some of the benefits. It was unfortunate that we all couldn’t make parts for the r
obot and then test them at home as some of us (me just me) didn’t have a BrickPi.
We had our very own video expert on the team who did the video editing, which there was a lot of. The videos turned out great with stunning visual effects which were made with free online templates.
Sure the robot is great and that’s why I went to the competition, but I stayed for the cookies from Subway (I live in a land of no Subway or cookies) they are very cheap and yummy #NOTSPONSEREDBUTIWOULDNTMIND and we got pizza (a double dairy deluxe delight from fatycheeni’s authentic Italian home restaurant). We went to the park after lunch and showed the 7 year olds who is in fact boss.
I learned how to code a bit and what should be done when making a robot and that anything that can go wrong will go wrong especially with robots.10/10 would do again.
Kevin
Well it would appear that we could have skipped the robot competition altogether and I could have just bought them all Subway vouchers. Maybe next year.
See you on judgement day!
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