McKenzie Kil-A-Bytes
2003-2006 Seasons
Team History Main Page
2006 Season
2005 Season
2004 Season
2003 Season
2006 Season
Now in its 4th season and following a relatively successful year, the McKenzie Robotics Team geared up for a fun year of playing "Aim High." Some of the major mechanical innovations we introduced included the low-weight, high-strength aluminum tube roll-cage, a suspended functional system, a two-speed transmission, and single-rail tracks; in addition, the programming team introduced a unique multiple-setting autonomous mode nicknamed R.A.L.F.F. (Robot Autonomous Language For FIRST) to allow for versatility during the autonomous stage. We also reintroduced sheet-metal parts, thanks to our sponsor Aircom Manufacturing, and our own fabricated FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) parts.
The innovations paid off, as our robot finished the Buckeye Regional seeded 3rd and the Boilermaker Regional seeded 2nd. We also won several awards, including the Imagery Award and the Motorola Quality Award at the Boilermaker Regional. We followed this up with a strong but unsuccessful run at the Championship event, but the disappointments at the end of the year gave us more reason to excel the next season.
2005 Season
The Kil-A-Bytes' 3rd season brought the game "Triple Play." We focused on creating a quick, efficient robot to outpace our opposing robots. With this in mind, we created a sleek sheet-metal robot that sported a two-part arm that could quickly raise the tetras. We also set out to introduce an omni-directional omni-wheel drive using our own designed gearboxes. While we were usuccessful in this venture, the gearbox design allowed us to move at high speeds. Overall, our robot was sexy.
Our robot had a very successful year, as we finished seeded second at the Boilermaker Regional and eventually won the regional along with a strong showing at the St. Louis Regional. During this year, we won several awards, including the Imagery Award at the Boilermaker Regional and the Radio Shack Innovation in Control Award at the St. Louis Regional. We had a strong showing at the Championship event, and entered prepared for our clean-up season.
2004 Season
Our 2nd season introduced our team to the game "Hanging High." We were posed with one of our first major challenges of collecting and organizing balls via a hopper, which would reoccur in a later season. This year was unique in that in combined both robotic ingenuity and athleticism. We built our first gearbox that would incorporate the use of two drive motors per track.
We had a fantubulous season, as we won our first regional at the West Michigan Regional after a last minute realization of available funds and a 4-minivan-caravan up to the regional. After all this excitement, we made our way for the first time to the Championship Event in Atlanta. All in all, we were ready to create a name for our team and return as a competitor every year.
2003 Season
McKenzie Robotics started its rookie year with high expectations for "Stack Attack." Most pieces were created in our shop, with our most valuable tool being the "sawsall." We used a unique drive train that used skis instead of rollers that dispersed weight evenly and timing belts grooved in the middle to avoid the tracks from being detracked. We also created a duplicate of our robot so that we could practice driving and programming after our ship date, which was also a great demonstration robot.
Our rookie season was a great start for our organization, as we won Rookie All-Star Award at the St. Louis Regional. Unfortunately, Jack=in-the-Box caused ten of our team members to suffer from food poisoning. We finished the year with great stories and great feelings for the next year.
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