Mid-Offseason Update
Even though it’s the offseason, the team has still been hard at work. We’re proud to share that last Monday morning, the Lobstah Bots were invited to the Massachusetts STEM Week Kickoff. The event was hosted on the 17th floor of BU's new Computing and Data Sciences building (also known as the jenga building), and it featured speeches from Boston University Provost Kenneth Lutchen, Secretary of Education Dr. Patrick Tutwiler, and Lt. Governor Kim Driscoll.
We demonstrated our robot at one of the STEM exhibits and met with New England FIRST robotics director Michael Fantom and a reporter from WBZ radio. We were grateful for the unique opportunity to attend the event and continue to find more ways to contribute to our Boston community!
The Lobstah Bots on the 17th floor of BU’s Computing and Data Science building after the Massachusetts STEM Week Kickoff event. (Eli '24, Carolyn (Mentor), George '24, Kendree '25, Maxwell '25, Luke '25)
Eli '24 and George '24 being interviewed by WBZ radio about our robot at the Massachusetts STEM Week Kickoff.
Also this past weekend, the team attended our second offseason competition of the year, N.E.R.D. (New England Robotics Derby)! We traveled to Tewksbury, MA, last Saturday to compete against 31 teams. With many of our juniors taking the PSAT that day, our seniors and freshmen worked together to set up our pit and compete through the morning, and lots of new students got a chance to be on the drive team and experience the thrill of competition! We ended up placing 16th in qualifiers and gave our best effort in the playoffs.
A cycle of our drive team at N.E.R.D. with Owen '25 (Driver), Maxwell '25 (Operator), and Kendree '25 (Drive Coach) working together during a match to place a cone.
Our Lobstah Bots gathering on the staircase at N.E.R.D. during the break before playoff matches. (Dora '27, Kendree '25, Ajay '25, Nate '27, Owen '25, Sharon '27, Coco S. '27, Luke '25, Maxwell '25)
Back home, we’ve been working on kicking off our offseason project! We’ve decided that we will be building a new robot partially based on the FRC game from 2017. As a part of the project, we will be making a swerve-style drivetrain that allows us to move the robot in any direction from any position. In the past we have used 6 wheel tank drive (3 wheels per side), so we’re excited to try out swerve which uses one wheel per corner that can swivel in any direction (sort of like wheels on a shopping cart). This project is a great chance for new students to learn fundamental skills and explore different subteams before our main season starts this coming January.
Oliver (Mentor,'16), Audrey '27, Terry '24, Eli '24, and George '24 getting ready to compete in one of our first matches of the day at N.E.R.D.
Thank you for all your contributions! If you want to get involved or have any questions, you can email us at lobstahbots@gmail.com and we would be happy to respond!
Sincerely,
The Lobstah Bots
