Hank's Tanks

February 27th, 2016

We made it to semifinals at States, but lost to some of the best teams in the state. However, we won the Think Award which allowed us to move on to Super Regionals. We will be heading to Scranton, Pennsylvania on Friday the 18th! We are extremely excited and continue to work hard in the shop to work on the robot!

February 9th, 2016

One of the teams that was originally going to States this year dropped out. So this year, all three RoboNatick teams will be attending States which are hosted by Natick. Good luck to all teams!

February 1st, 2016

While also holding out hope that we might possibly be going to States, we still have other projects in the shop we can do. One thing that we have been working on is the R.O.V. Also the website is being continually updated.

January 24th, 2016

While all teams did extremely well, only 6032 is moving on to States. 5436 will most likely be moving on to States. And there is a very slight possiblity that 3737 will be moving on as well.

January 16th, 2016

Third league meet of the season at Needham High! We currently place second out of the leagues competing at the League Championships!

December 19th, 2015

Second league meet at St. Sebastian's! The robot can climb to the high zone without help and in a small ammount of time! We tried to pull the robot up to the high bar, but the motors were to weak, however this could just be the result of a dying battery. Adjustments that were made: higher wall so that the measuring tape does not fall backwards, a longer arm for the servo that adjusts the angle, and the servo has more than 4 settings.

October 30th, 2015

Today our robot successfully climbed up the mountain to the position we want it to. It had a little trouble with hitting the buckets, and going crooked, but with practice, this can be improved.

The 2015-2016 competition for FTC robotics, Res-Q, has the same standard base of rules, with a 12’ by 12’ field and red and blue alliances composed of two teams each. In Res-Q, there are Climber figurines and 80 Debris randomly located thoroughout the field. Each team may start with two climbers pre-loaded on the robot. Robots can gain points by "resetting" Rescue Beacons, and parking in the Rescue Beacon Repair Zone or Floor Goal during the Autonomous Period. During Driver-Controlled Period, Debris may be collected and placed into the Mountain Goals or in the Floor Goals and may scale the Mountains to release Climbers that slide down the Zip Line to safety. During the End Game, the robot can earn bonus points by hanging from the Pull-up Bar and claiming the All Clear signal for their alliance.

The 2014-2015 competition, Cascade Effect, consisted of gathering the wiffle balls that spill out of the main console when the kickstand is released. Once the Debris is gathered by the robots, the teams can score the balls in the various sized cylinders, with more points being awarded for the higher cylinders. There are three movable goals were on the field and the highest one was on the center console (also significantly smaller than the others). During the Autonomous Period, teams can score preloaded balls and push goals around. During the End Game, many teams chose to score in the highest goal or to push the movable goals onto the starting ramps for extra points. Top teams can consistently filled the 90cm or the 120cm (tallest goal) goals to maximize their points.

The competition for 2013-2014 is Block Party. The main scoring method is gathering the blocks from the bottom of the field and placing them into team coloured scales, with additional bonuses for balancing the scales. Once in the End Game teams can score extra points by raising a flag or hanging on the bar in the center of the field. Teams often gathered blocks rapidly and top teams made sure to make use of the endgame point options as well as the balance of their scale. Balancing the scale provides a 50% point boost on the blocks scored and the End Game goals provide large sums of base points.

Ring It Up is the 2012-2013 robotics competition for FTC. The challenge consists of the classic 12’ by 12’ field, and two alliances of two robots each. The main scoring method is hanging a variety of rings on the center floor goal. More points are awarded for higher scored rings and for creating a line of consecutively scored rings. Autonomous Period has two preloaded rings and 30 seconds, teleop consisted of 2 minutes, the final 30 seconds are the End Game. During the End Game there is a special scoring method where teams can lift their alliance partners for extra points, with more points for more height. There are several other factors that affected scoring at the end of a round, such as the percent point increase for weighted rings placed on the neutral corner goals, with 20% for each ring.

The 2011-2012 competition for FTC robotics, Bowled Over has the same standard base of the rules, with a 12’ by 12’ field and the red and blue alliances of two teams each. In Bowled Over, there are stacks of crates in the center. There a large variety of ways to score points such as; stacking crates, pushing balls into the parking zones or lifting them into upturned crates, plus a variety of autonomous scoring. One staple of the game formed as groups got into higher ranks. Many teams began lifting crates at the end of each match, with many robots having very large scissor lifts to capitalize on the massive point swings.

The story of our name, Hank’s Tanks, goes back several years before Hanks Tanks was an FTC Team. Henry Haugland, a close friend, mentor, and sponsor to the Natick Robotics Teams became an inspiration to us. So when we enrolled FTC, we decided to name our team after him in appreciation for his years of support.

In recent years we have had a successful history. In the 2013-2014 season our team advanced to the FTC east super-regionals championship in Pennsylvania. In the 2014-2015 season we advanced to the state championship at Natick High School. At states we made it all the way to the semi-finals but did not advance any further that year.

This season 2015-2016 has been our best season yet! We placed 1st at the first league meet at St.Sebastian's school in Needham and recently we took 3rd place at the 2nd league meet also at St.Sebastian's. We hope to continue strongly and wish everyone has a fun and successful season this year.