Preparing for the VEX World Championship for the Final Time

It's hard to believe that this coming April will be our 6th and last time competing at the VEX World Championship. It seems like it was not so long ago when our little team was just entering its first tournament and being asked at the registration desk if they were truly "a real team".

On March 1st and 2nd Green Egg Robotics proved once again that it was "for real" and qualified for a spot at Worlds (times 4) by winning the New England Championship, the Excellence Award, the Robot Skills Competition and by finishing 7th in the World in robot skills.  These accomplishments topped off a great regular season for the team during which they have received many awards including: the Inspire Award, the Design Award, the Create Award, the Excellence Award, Judges Awards and the Amaze Award.  Team 44 entered 8 tournaments this year and won all 8.  This surpasses our previous team record of most tournaments won by 3 and was the most won by any team in the world this season.  Also, the team posted an overall record of 100-7-2 which was the most wins recorded by any team this season according to data from robotevents.com.

Leland has been hard at work since the New England Championship making changes to Fred VII which will take on a noticeably different appearance at the World Championships.  Changes to the drive train, the chassis, the shifter and the locking mechanism for hanging are all a part of the major overhaul.  The team t-shirt will take on a new look this year as well as our redesign is underway in preparation for worlds.  Above is a picture of the new front of the t-shirt featuring "Bob", the "fierce" robo-eggman who first appeared on Fred IV in 2011. The back of the shirt will be taking on a very different look this year. Pictures to come as the design is finalized.

Catching Up

It has been a long time since the last post on this blog and there has been a lot to report since then.  2 games ago (Gateway, Sack Attack) and countless iterations of Freds V, VI and VII have passed.  Former team member Zac has graduated and is now studying engineering in college.  Freds V and VI  travelled to Anaheim to compete in the World Championships and both performed admirably winning Create Awards and reaching the Divisional Finals while a part of the first seeded alliances. (trivia-Freds II through VI all share the distinction of having been part of the top seeded alliances at Worlds-an achievement we are very proud of.) 

Fred VII

2012-13 marked the first year for Leland to go it alone as the only student team member.  Graduated team member James provided mentoring support and assistance from afar while at college.  The Sack Attack season saw several totally different variations of Fred VI.  The final version was a robust defensive robot that had a 2 speed transmission and an 8 motor drive that was able to lift 30+ sacks at the end of the match with a rubber band powered lift.  Its first and last tournament of the season was the World Championship in California. 

Fred VII is now in the midst of the 2013-14 season . VII has competed in 4 local tournaments so far and has managed to win all 4 this year.  Leland has won an award at each tournament this year as well (Design, Amaze and 2 Judges awards).  There have been 4 major iterations so far and there are more to come.  Fred VII is a do-it-all robot (as was Fred II and III). Leland is in the process of getting it to "do-it-all" a bit more efficiently.  Fred VII is currently ranked 14th in the World in robot skills with the 7th highest score recorded (77) which was achieved in November of 2013.

2013-14 also brings our newest student member to the team.  Lauren has joined us in her first year of robotics and has been assisting in an on field coaching role for Leland with 2 of our tournaments so far and will be assisting Leland in building when possible. Lauren is a junior at Quabbin Regional High School.

California, Here We Come

Fred V is on the way to Anaheim.  Safe travels everyone and we will see you soon.

-Team 44

Gearing Up!

Students Leland, Zac and Mentors James and Josef traveled up to Pembroke, NH yesterday to test out new improvements on Fred V.  The robot performed admirably in its last action before the 2012 VRC World Championship later this week in Anaheim, California.

Zac, Leland, Mentor/Coach James, Mentor Josef and Fred V

Fred V's Custom Track Mechanism

Fred V Undergoing Finishing Touches

Fred V Redefined in Connecticut Vex Championship Win

11 months, 5 robots and 2 tournaments after winning the 2011 Vex World Championship, Green Egg Robotics has found its identity for the 2012 Gateway season.  On March 25th, the team travelled down to Central Connecticut State University in New Britain for the  4th annual CTEA Connecticut Vex State Championship.  Student members Leland and Zac with support from mentors Josef and James guided Fred V (version 5) to its first VRC Championship of the season. 

Championship Alliance of Teams 902A, 677 and 44

GER was one of only 2 teams to go undefeated in the qualifying round in which 35 teams were competing.   Team 677 of Montclair , NJ., a perennial powerhouse from the mid-Atlantic region was the only other undefeated team and was seeded 1st at the end of the qualifiers.  They chose teams 44 (GER) and 902A from Mansfield Middle School to round out the alliance.  The group of 3 managed to win the finals in 2 matches over the talented alliance comprised of 30C from Montville Township High School, 5319A from Woodstock High School and 4680B from Somers High School. 

Team 44 won the Innovate award  for their robot Fred V and it's "out of the box" design.  Next scheduled: the 2012 VEX World Championship in Anaheim , CA on April 19-21, 2012.

Green Egg Robotics Welcomes Newest Student Member

Team 44, Green Egg Robotics is very happy to announce the addition of the newest student member to the team!  Zac Temple (aka. Diner Kid), a senior from Nashoba Regional High School and founder of Plan B robotics team will be joining GER for the 2012 Gateway season.  Zac brings with him an excitement and passion for engineering and robotics in addition to well-developed skills in design, programming and building.   Zac is a seasoned robotics competitor having succeeded at both the regional and World levels with VRC and at the regional level with FRC.

Welcome aboard Zac!

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.

New Clean Sweep Highlight Video Hits The Internet

The newest Green Egg Robotics highlight video made its debut on Youtube on 8/23/10.  The video, created by James, is a collage of clips from the 2010 VRC World Championship and the New England Championship. 

To view the 2010 highlight video click on this link.

Green Egg In The News (5/09/10)

Can't get enough of the Green Egg Robotics?  Check out the latest story about the team at Boston's online magazine, Blast Magazine.   

If that doesn't fill your need for Green, then tune in to WGBH radio (89.7) on May 10th, 2010 from 1:40-2:00PM when the team will be interviewed by Callie Crossley on the Callie Crossley Show.

Egg-citing News

Green Egg Robotics, The 2010 VRC World Robot Skills Champion and World Finalist

On April 24th 2010 at the Vex Robotics World Championship, Green Egg Robotics, a little 4 student team from Central Massachusetts competed against 396 of the world's best robotics teams from 14 different countries.  They won the Robot Skills Challenge and are now the 2010 VRC World Robot Skills Champions.  In the VRC World Championship Tournament, Green Egg Robotics won 16 straight matches and finished as the 2010 VRC World Championship Tournament Finalists and the top finishing US team in the tournament.