2011 Green Egg Robotics Highlights

It's here! The latest G.E.R. end-of-season video....

It was a season full of highlights for the team capped off with a tournament championship at the 2011 VEX Robotics World Championship.  James put together this highlight reel in a tribute to Fred IV and the VEX Round Up season.  Special thanks to all our sponsors to help make this possible.

Enjoy!  Click here for the newest G.E.R. video.

photo courtesy of Steve Rainwater, Vex Robotics

GER's Mecanum Wheels from VEX Parts

In a labor of love and a display of shear determination, Leland successfully created 4 customized 2.75" Mecanum wheels using a drill press, a band saw and several custom-made jigs.  Originally built for the 2010-2011 Round Up  game, the wheels were put aside early on in the season as the team changed plans to make way for their design for Fred IV, the eventual 2011 VRC World Champion robot.

Leland spent several days in the shop last fall with many highs and lows trying to create Mecanum wheels from VEX components before finally emerging with these 4 customized wheels designed to easily pass under the ladder rungs on the Round Up field.  Though not used for the 2010-2011 season, they may reappear in the future on a competition robot, but for now they can only be seen driving around in a YouTube video found here.

Green Egg Robotics 2011

Leland, James, Josef and Kieran prior to traveling to Vex World Championship in Orlando.

Green Egg Robotics Wins Second World VRC Championship!

FRED IV and his new metal "friends" from the World Championship

On April 16, 2011 Green Egg Robotics became the first high school team to have won 2 VRC World Tournament Championships. They now have won three world championship titles in three years having won the World Robot Skills title in 2010 along with a pair of World tournament titles in 2009 and 2011.  In addition the team won the Science Division Amaze Award this year for their unique design and construction of their robot Fred IV.  The 2011 event was held near Orlando, Florida at the Disney ESPN Wide World of Sports complex.  Over 10,000 participants competed at the college, high school and middle school levels.  416 of the top qualified Vex teams representing 10 countries competed this year at Disney in the high school division.

Before an energized capacity filled stands, the Green Egg captained alliance (WASABI and Simbotics M) from Science division battled the Math Division championship alliance of Voc. Antonio Luchetti-Advanced, The Pioneers and the DiscoBots D.  The series finished in 2 matches in the best of 3 series with the Science Division champions taking the title. Click here to see a video of the final match.


In 2010, Green Egg Robotics finished as World Finalists as the top placing US team and won the World Robot Skills Championship.  In 2009 the team won the VRC World Championship Tournament and were awarded the World Build Award.

This tournament capped a very successful driving, programming and building career for James who will be graduating from High School this year to attend college.  He may be back in a part-time mentor's role next year along with Josef.  Leland and Kieran will continue on with their roles as designers, builders and drivers.  They will be taking on programming as well next year.

New GER Graphic for Fred IV

It's here!  The new Fred IV side graphic.  This will be the finishing touch on Fred IV when we meet up with him in Orlando on Tuesday.  We can't wait to see him all dressed up and ready for business...

GER and Sparticles Team Up For Back To Back New England Championships

On March 19, 2011, the Green Egg Robotics Team took one step closer to Orlando, Florida and the World Championship by way of the 2011 New England VRC Championship.  43 teams representing high schools from throughout New England were in attendance at the event held in Worcester, Massachusetts at QCC.  GER was competing in their first "home" competition of the year having traveled as far North as Bangor, ME and as far South as Maryland in their previous competitions this season.

Fred IV (version 4) had a fine day at home on this day.  Changes made to improve speed and power in the drive system proved effective, as did tweaks for increasing efficiency in gathering goals.  Fred IV went through the Qualifying rounds undefeated although did run in a snag (literally) during a qualifier against team 817, Sparticles during the autonomous period which had them intertwined for nearly half the match.  One spectator in reaction to the incident said, "It reminds me of when 2 teenagers with braces try to kiss."  That match ended with a tie score once robots were able to free themselves.

GER finished qualifiers as the 3rd seed.  The first and second seeds made their selections leaving GER free to pick old friends the Sparticles, Team 817 as their first pick.  Light Speed Robotics, Team 3010A filled out the alliance with their unique mobile goal scoring design that impressed spectators during the qualifiers.  

The GER alliance moved through quarters and semis undefeated despite mechanical problems that troubled team 3010A in the quarters.  The finals series pitted the GER alliance against a team captained by a determined team from South High School, 2606B.  Their alliance included a strong defensive robot which had an eerie resemblance to Fred IV from Vermont's team 4886A, and a low hanger from Holden's team 998.  Match 1 went to the GER alliance but match 2 went to the South High alliance as team 3010A's robot suffered from mechanical issues after the autonomous period.  2606B and 998 proved too much for team 44's robot in the 2 v 1 match.  The final match saw intense defensive work from team 4886 on  Fred IV.  Despite the efforts of 4886,  Fred IV managed to load 4 goals under the ladder.  817 worked their magic on the outer walls and the GER alliance ended up winning the final match 40-18.

NE Champs! Teams 44, 817 and 3010

The win marked the second year in a row that GER has teamed up with 817 to win the New England Championship title.  Also, the win capped the 4th consecutive tournament championship win in as many entered this season.  Team 817 was the recipient of the prestigious Excellence award.

Next up for GER is the 2011 VRC World Championship to be held in Orlando, FL on April 14-16, 2011.

#3 Seeded Alliance Wins 2011 VMAC Tournament!

Neitzche once said, "That which does not kill us makes us stronger."  If that is true then the GER team walked away from the 2011 Vex Mid Atlantic Championship with renewed strength and vigor after competing in a grueling, grinding  2 day competition featuring past and present state champions from several Eastern states.  GER made the journey to Westminster, Maryland on March 4th and 5th, 2011 to square off against 43 competitive teams in a very well run event. 

Fred IV, previously undefeated in its 2 previous outings had moments of brilliance throughout the qualifying rounds.  However, the goal carrying robot also had moments of mechanical failures that had the GER team working frantically in the pits almost the entire tournament problem solving and re-designing newly exposed weaknesses in Fred IV.  At the end of qualifying rounds Fred IV was renewed, re-designed and ready for eliminations despite a qualifying round record of 9-6.

Team 44's robot was chosen in the 1st round of alliance picking by the 3rd seed, Super Sonic Sparks, team 24A.  42A, Mostly Harmless was chosen as the 2nd alliance pick.  The alliance worked well together with robots complimenting each other's strengths and limitations. The Sparks alliance breezed through quarterfinals but ran into heavy resistance in the semis when matched up against the 2nd seed alliance captained by team 677.  In a rare occurrence, the 2nd seeded alliance DQ'ed in both semi final matches due to technicalities giving the #3 seeded alliance a berth in the finals against the #1 seed.

The top seed was captained by another Sparks team, 24C which had a speedy robot with a very effective autonomous program.  The alliance was rounded out by 2 teams from ACME robotics, 12A and 12K.  12A recently went on to captain the Vex Robotics  Tournament champion in the 2011 VRC National Championship.   

2011 VMAC Winning Alliance with Judges

The first match of the finals featured teams 24A and 44 vs. 24C and 12A.  The pace of the match was very fast as all 3 of the robots aside from Fred IV were built for speed.  Goal ownership rapidly changed on the outside walls of the field throughout the match as 3 robots zipped around scoring/de-scoring tubes from the posts.  Fred IV gathered 4 movable goals from the floor and locked them in under the ladder for points.  In the end the #3 seed won the first match.  24A and 42A teamed together to take the 2nd match giving their alliance the 2011 VMAC Tournament Championship. 

Green Egg Robotics was awarded the Innovate Award during the competition by the judges.  24C won the Excellence Award.
Next up for the GER team is the New England VRC Tournament scheduled for 3/19/11 at Quinsigamond Community College in Worcester, Massachusetts.  Fred IV has undergone many significant upgrades since the VMAC championship to improve performance and efficiency.

The Maine Event 2011

On Saturday, February 5, 2011, the Green Egg Robotics Team (a.k.a. GER) made a last-minute schedule change due to the weather and headed up to Bangor, Maine to compete in the Maine State Vex Robotics Championship.   17 teams competed in the Bangor Civic Center auditorium on a beautiful day up in North country.  Five of the originally scheduled 22 teams canceled due to weather related concerns about travel.  Once again, the UMaine run event was impressive in its organization and commitment to developing the Vex robotics program in the state of Maine.

Infinite Improbability, Cape Robotics and GER

This was the second event of the Roundup season for GER. The team packed up Fred IV at 2:30 AM and arrived at the Bangor Civic Center at 7:30 AM ready for competition.  The 2 elevated fields were running matches all day long.  In the end Fred IV went undefeated on the day with an 11-0-0 record keeping the undefeated season record intact.  The winning alliance was made up of GER (Team 44), Infinite Improbability Robotics (Team 1764A) from Yarmouth, Maine, and a middle school team, Cape Robotics (56B) from Cape Elizabeth, Maine.

Infinite Improbability won the Excellence award and the Create Award.  Cape Robotics (56B) won the Programming Skills and Greely High School (377) won the Robot Skills Award.  GER won its very first Amaze award.

Fred IV will be returning to competition on March 4 and 5, 2011 at the mid-Atlantic Vex Championship in Westminster, Maryland.   This will be the largest tournament that the team has competed in this year with top-notch teams representing Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey scheduled to compete. The GER robot will be sporting more than 10 new upgrades from the robot that competed in Maine.

New Game, New Challenges, New Trophy

On Saturday, January 15, 2011, the Green Egg Robotics team participated in its first tournament of the 2010 – 2011 Vex Robotics season. This was the first tournament in which Leland was not able to attend. The team of James, Kieran and mentors, Josef and Bill traveled to compete in the Leominster Invitational tournament hosted by friends at Leominster Youth Robotics.  21 teams representing four states were in attendance.

G.E.R. went undefeated on the day with a record of 11 wins, no losses, and one tie. It was not a day of smooth sailing for the team despite the impressive record. Fred IV, this year's newest team member, opened the day in the very first match of the tournament with mechanical problems. Fortunately for the team, the robot was able to score on two goals before the team abandoned further attempts to score, and played defense for the remainder of the match.  After a minor fix, Fred IV was back and fully operational for the rest of the day.

Green Egg Robotics managed to finish the qualifying round undefeated as the number two seed, second to an efficient scoring robot from Scituate high school. During the alliance picking, the Scituate team chose to pick a robot from their own high school as their first pick. G.E.R picked old friend and former alliance partner from last year's Massachusetts State Championship alliance, Plan B. To round out the alliance, Green Egg Robotics chose a Mansfield Middle School (CT) robot which had a very strong showing in the preliminary rounds.

This alliance proved to be too strong for opposing alliances during the elimination rounds. The Green Egg alliance of three managed to go 6-0-1 in the elimination rounds. Fred IV's loose connection from the battery to the brain nearly resulted in the loss during the semifinals. However, thanks to strong play by the Mansfield team, it ended in a tie, despite the lone robot needing to fight off two opposing robots.

This tournament win qualifies the team for the Vex World Championship for the third time in as many years. This year's world championship will be held in a new venue at Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Plan B placed first in the robot skills competition while Millbury high school robotics team took home the Excellence Award.