Great Northern robotics regional: day two a steep uphill climb! (VIDEO)

B-B-E Resistance Robotics team's troubles that were on the horizon to conclude the practice day of the Great Northern robotics regional in Grand Forks were front and center nearly the entire day on Friday.

Through the first five matches, B-B-E's robot failed to complete an entire match without technical difficulties. By the sixth try, though, the robot ran flawlessly and pulled off a tremendous performance to conclude Friday at Grand Fork's Alerus Center. In the sixth match, the robot successfully performed its pre-programmed directive in the autonomous period and also successfully fired five game pieces during the tele-op period. To conclude the sixth match, B-B-E's robot pulled off a successful "hang" by its extendable boom lifts. This final hang earned the one ranking point, which ultimately pulled them out of last place in the tournament's 56-team field. During an afternoon match, the robot functioned without issue until halfway into the tele-op (driver control) period, at which point an ethernet cable became unplugged; this cut communications from the driver and stopped the robot cold.

So what happened...?
The problems initially started when as many as 13 of 16 controller motors on the robot malfunctioned. This sent the outlook into a tailspin as the team had to either repair or replace the faulty motors. Another issue arose when a key wire was crossed that sent 12 volts of power into a 5 volt system on the robot. For one of B-B-E's early qualification matches, only three of the four drive wheels were functioning.

Video from today's action in Grand Forks is uploading.

Here's Coach Reed Adrian providing a few comments just as the team was departing the Alerus Center to go find supper:


In basketball news today...
West sub-section champion Walker-Hackensack-Akeley punched their ticket to the Class 1A state tournament by defeating East sub-section champion Braham 67-63 in tonight's Section 5A championship at St. Cloud State University.

Southwest Minnesota Christian avenged one of their two regular season losses by throttling Minneota 58-38 tonight in the Section 3A championship at SMSU's R/A Facility in Marshall. The Eagles lost on their home floor to Minneota 57-53 on February 6. On paper it was billed to be a close match-up, with Southwest Christian sitting at No. 15 in the latest QRF rankings and Minneota at No. 12. The Eagles take a 28-2 record into state next week. Minneota finishes another incredible season with a 27-4 record.

In the Section 3AA finals, New London-Spicer buried South sub-section champion Windom 80-40. Ouch.

To the west in Section 6A, Underwood earned a mild 71-61 upset win against Hancock to punch through to the state tournament for the second straight year.

Over in Section 6AA, a powerhouse Albany team stopped Holdingford's season with a 76-50 win at SCSU tonight.

In Section 7A, Mountain Iron-Buhl appears destined to win a second straight state title after they buried the No. 8-ranked Cromwell-Wright Cardinals 77-35 in their section title game tonight at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. Earlier in the season on December 9 down in Goodhue, MI-B defeated Cromwell-Wright 76-63.