Duel Down Under for Bush Bots

Recently Wee Waa Bush Bots (Team 6050) travelled to Sydney to compete in the annual Duel Down Under. Held at Macquarie University, this is an off-season friendly event for teams that participate in the Australian FIRST Robotics Competition.

After reaching the semi finals at the Southern Cross Regionals, the team was eager to further test their robot's ability in the Deep Space Challenge. This year’s challenge was the team's toughest yet and they felt they had not been able to display their robot's full capabilities during the regional competition.

Of the 11 qualifying matches, the team had 5 wins and 6 losses. After a number of losses early in the competition, a match with team 6510 (Pymble Pride) gave the team a win and an extra ranking point, boosting their rank to 15th. This changed slightly over the remaining matches and they rose to 13th by the end of the qualification matches.

The top 8 teams got to choose 3 teams to form alliances in the finals. The Bush Bots were fortunate enough to be the first pick of the 8th alliance, Team 5593 (Devil Robotics) from Tasmania. Komplete Kaos and Delta Phoenix also joined the alliance for the finals. Despite being the only robot during this competition to successfully scale the Devil Robotics rampbot, unfortunately the alliance was defeated 2-0 in the quarter finals.

This competition is also an opportunity for new team members to get an idea of what occurs during a competition and build season, while allowing others the chance to try different roles within the Bush Bots. The team also continued their ongoing relationships with a number of other teams, again proving the ability of the drivers and the continuing reputation of a team that builds such a solid and reliable robot. A trivia and pizza night on Saturday provided an opportunity to socialise with other teams outside competition, as did the Google Ladies Morning Tea.

The success of the team is due to many factors, not the least of these being the help of many people during these competitions. Many thanks to the parents who accompanied the students on this trip. Their assistance was invaluable, especially in keeping the team fed and organised. Input from parents and other community members has also helped with the development of the robot over the 2019 season. A big thank you to mentors; Steve Druce, Jo Horne, Jim Tolson, Sharon and David Grellman, Michael Haire and Peter Horne.