FIRST Overdrive Game Animation
FIRST Overdrive, this year’s game challenge, is based on the simple concept of robots racing around a 27’ x 54’ carpeted circular track. For every lap around the track each member of a three-team alliance completes, points will be added to that team’s score. Complicating matters are the four, 40-inch diameter, almost eight-pound inflatable “Trackballs” that start the match elevated 78 inches above the field on girders (the Overpass). These Trackballs can be knocked off their starting position on the Overpass, pushed around the field, and then lifted or hurdled back over the Overpass for eight points or rolled underneath for two points. Alliances that have their Trackballs firmly on the Overpass at the end of the game. The Trackballs’ inclusion in Overdrive certainly makes things a lot more interesting for teams and their robots.
Further complicating matters this year is the introduction of a new control scheme, called supervised autonomy. Replacing the true autonomous mode of previous years’ competitions, this fifteen-second “hybrid” period allows teams to either use a purely autonomous approach or mix in several preprogrammed routines that allow remote control of the robot during the phase. This hybrid period is followed by a two-minute, tele-controlled period, during which human players drive the robot using joysticks or other controllers.