2023 Week 0 Newsletter

The Lobstah Bots at the Week 0 competition in Nashua, NH.

Last Saturday, the team traveled to Nashua, NH for our first competition of the season! This was our Week 0 competition which primarily serves as a time to practice and test what we have built in the past six weeks of build season. The team was in Nashua from 7:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. and we had a blast! The robot operated as expected and was able to navigate the field while picking up and placing both cones and cubes. The Lobstah Bots finished on the fourth place alliance (made up of three robots each) at the competition. Our valiant drive team consisted of George '24 as driver, Maxwell '25 as operator (of the robot’s arm), Owen '25 as the human player, and Veronica (mentor) as our drive coach. Everyone brought great enthusiasm to the event and our team’s hard work this season really showed. Over the next of couple weeks, we will continue improving our robot’s mechanics and software so we can perform even better at future competitions.

Our robot balancing on the charge station with our two alliance partners at the end of a playoff match.

Owen '25 handing off a cone to our robot from the human player station during a match while George '24 and Maxwell '25 drive the robot in the background.

As a reminder, The Lobstah Bots are still hosting a fundraising drive this month for new power tools to improve the speed, precision, and safety of machining parts in the lab and help us in years to come.

Thank you to those who have helped us so far – we are now at $1,000 of our $3,000 fundraising drive goal. This means we will be purchasing 5 new power drills, but there is still more to be raised! Donations of all sizes are appreciated!

We made a cumulative list of the parts we will buy with the total money we raise:

$2,000: 1 Rapid Drill Battery Charger 1 Circular Saw 2 Cordless Rivet Guns $3,000: All of the above plus 1 Additional Power Drill 2 Impact Drivers and Batteries 1 Vacuum 1 Jigsaw If we exceed our $3,000 goal for this drive and raise $4,000 (or more!), we plan to purchase an additional rapid drill battery charger, a compact drill battery, a right angle drill, a hackzall, an angle grinder, a flashlight, and a compact router.

Our drive team on the left in shock as our robot nearly tips off of the charge station. Thankfully it didn’t!

As a reminder, our future competition dates this season are as follows:

Week 2: March 10-12 in North Scituate, RI Week 4: March 24-26 in Revere, MA

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