Wildstang History

Rack 'N' Roll: Rack ‘n’ Roll is played by two three-team alliances on a field with a center structure (Rack) containing 24 “spider legs.” To score, teams use three different types of innertubes called “Keepers,” “Ringers,” and “Spoilers.”

The game is made up of two scoring periods. The first period is “Autonomous” (the robots run without driver control) lasting 15 seconds. In the autonomous period, robots try to place a “Keeper” tube on one of the spider legs of the Rack using a color vision tracking system to find one of the four target lights at the top of the rack. Once placed, a “Keeper” tube may not be removed or “Spoiled.”

During the second period (2 minutes), the robots are driver controlled. In this period the teams will attempt to score more points by using the robots to add “Ringers” onto the spider legs or by “Spoiling” the opposing teams score by placing a black tube over the “Ringer.” Points are earned and scored exponentially by the number of consecutive Ringers and Keepers in a column or row. Alliances may score additional points if, by the end of the match, their robots are in their home zone and have been lifted off the floor by 4” or more by another robot before the final buzzer sounds.

"Taking matters into its own hands," this year's robot had a mind of its own as well! An articulated arm with a shoulder joint, elbow, and claw gave this robot an advantage by being able to score quickly, sometimes over opponents defending the rack. During autonomous mode, the robot used sonar to find a spider leg, often close to the opposing side of the field. In driver control, our famous "crab" drive helped manuever around the rack and other robots. The robot also had a foldable ramp used to elevate robots for the end-game.

Event Award Description

Midwest Regional
UIC Pavilion
Chicago, IL
March 15th, 2007 - March 17th, 2007 #7 Seed

Motorola Quality Award

Regional Champion Wildstang chose two great scorers - 1710 & 904 - as alliance partners. When 1710 got damaged in the finals, 1850 stepped in and played excellent defense against the top seeded alliance.

Western Michigan Regional
Grand Valley State University
Allendale, MI
March 29th, 2007 - March 31st, 2007 General Motors Industrial Design Award

Regional Finalist #6 seed alliance: 1504, 111, 302

Championship Event
Georgia Dome
Atlanta, GA
April 12th, 2007 - April 14th, 2007 Semi-finalists, Newton Division #5 seeded alliance: 68, 111, 2068

Indiana Robotics Invitational
Lawrence North High School
Indianapolis, IN
July 20th, 2007 - July 21st, 2007 #4 Seed

Outstanding Quality Or as the award ironically says "Oustanding Quality"

Invitational Champion Wildstang chose a potent alliance of 1114, 2056, and 494 to compete in the toughest elimination rounds of the season.