Congratulations are in order … again! 

Our very own Team 587, The Hedgehogs, robotics team advanced to compete at the FIRST World Championships in Houston, Texas in just two weeks! They will battle it out in this year’s “Rapid React” games to vie for the title of “FIRSTⓇ World Champions” among competitors from across the globe.

Team 587, the Hedgehogs, took the state win at Campbell University recently. There, the team’s climber won the Creativity Use award for the entire competition, and Safety Captain Sophia Cauwels took the overall event’s award for safety. 

Stuart Doyle, Outreach Captain and Business Captain, reported that the climber was not only lightweight and compact, but the two points of contact (instead of one) on the bars, gave the Hedgehogs a nice advantage. These features demonstrate innovation in design from Team 587, which factored into the creativity award. According to the FIRST website, The Creativity Award sponsored by Rockwell Automation “celebrates creativity that enhances strategy of play and was intentionally designed and not discovered.”

Doyle said in all the qualifying, semifinal and final alliance rounds, the Hedgehogs ranked consistently at the top.

Garret Hill, one of the Hedgehogs’ team mentors, reported that at FIRSTNCⓇ:

They used Offensive Power Rating (OPR) to determine on average how many points your robot is contributing to a match. The OPR for the Hedgehogs at the state competition was 40.49, which was the 4th-best at the event. 

The Hedgehogs ended up with the overall 1st place at the event on a different scoring system, called “Ranking Points,” which were gained by winning matches and completing bonus objectives. 

In eight of the 12 qualification matches, the Hedgehogs earned all 4 Ranking Points available in each match–by winning and completing the two bonus objectives. These accomplishments allowed the Hedgehogs to rank as number one.

(The two bonus objectives involved scoring a total of 20 balls–Cargo–and reaching 16 total endgame–Hangar–points.)

For the avid robotics followers:

In Autonomous Scoring: The Hedgehogs ranked around the middle of the pack among all competing teams.

In Teleoperated Scoring: The teleoperated score ranked 5 out of 32.

In Endgame Scoring: The robot from Team 587 was climbing to the highest of four monkey-bar-style rungs that were positioned at an incline most of the time. The Hedgehogs’ endgame score ranked 2 out of 32 and is definitely the strongest feature of the Team 587 robot.

In preparation for worlds, Doyle said, “We have a very solid robot. Right now, we are making minor repairs from a small fall we had at state, and working to address and fine tune some of the programming (issues) from the autonomous portion of the competition.”

With all that said, the team and its OCS and community mentors and advisers are gearing up to go to the Lone Star State to compete on the world stage. GOOD LUCK, HEDGEHOGS! We wish you the best! We are so proud of each of you and grateful for all the support from staff, families, and the community.

For more information about Team 587, the Hedgehogs, visit: https://www.team587.org/