Seasonal Synopses

Saber Robotics 16th Season in 2023! 

In 2022, at our first competition this year, the Lake Superior Regional in Duluth, MN, we were honored to win the Engineering Inspiration Award which qualifies us for the Robotics World Championship in Houston, TX, for the first time since our last appearance in 2010! At our second competition of the year, the Wisconsin Regional, we were ecstatic to be part of the winning alliance. While this would have qualified us for Worlds during a normal year, due to Covid-19 protocols FIRST is reducing the number of teams that qualify for Worlds, making our Engineering Inspiration Award all the more valuable. A significant part of our mission is to inspire students to be interested and pursue careers in STEM, and competing at the Robotics World Championship was a great opportunity that will inspire our team moving forward for years to come. We were very lucky and grateful to be able to compete as a championship-level team and excited to put our best foot forward and go beyond these accomplishments with help from companies like you.

In 2021, we participated in the Infinite Recharge at Home Challenges (a virtual completion). We filmed ourselves and completed stand-alone challenges such as shooter accuracy, drive train efficiency, autonomous, time trials, and more! Another thing is our judge’s interviews which ended up winning Quality Award. Overall, we were grateful to have a robotics competition season during the pandemic. 

In 2020, we hosted a FLL regional tournament at Franklin High School for the first time. There were 14 teams as well as over 60 volunteers. In this tournament, elementary and middle school students worked with hands-on STEM experiences that built their confidence, grew knowledge and habits of learning, and were encouraged to try, fail, and try again. This year we started off with a great preseason where we learned more about each other and the challenge presented in front of us. During our build season our team spent many hours working on the robot with everyone having a role in our team’s success. While this could be considered one of the toughest parts of the season we had a great build season where we built our robot just in time for it to be displayed at competition. Once we got to March, both of our competitions were canceled due to the global pandemic. While we were disappointed, we were able to virtually cheer on one of our team leaders, Naomi Voglewede, as she was awarded the Dean’s List Finalist award for leadership and dedication to FIRST! 

In 2019, we competed in the Milwaukee and Lake Superior Regional. We improved tremendously from the year before. In the Lake Superior Regional, we ended with a record of 4-4-1 and in the Milwaukee Regional we ended with a record of 5-7-0. That year, we won the Autonomous award in Lake Superior and the Team Spirit award in the Milwaukee regional!

In 2018, we participated in the Milwaukee and La Crosse Regionals. We ended both regionals with a record of 3-7-0. While we didn’t win, we still grew as a team and enjoyed our time. This year we had two kickoffs. While this sounds like fun, we learned to never do this again. This was due to us realizing that our robot would not perform well in the challenge so we changed our plans completely. While this year was a real struggle to get to the end, our team never gave up and have taught our rookies how important designing the robot to complete the challenge is.

In 2017, we particpated in the Wisconsin regional where we won the Team Spirit Award but unfortunately we placed behind the pack. We also went to the Seven Rivers Regional where we performed better but didn’t win anything. We also had our first RoboRun which was a 2.506 mile run.

In 2016, we participated in the Wisconsin regional where we placed 14th place with a record of 7-3-0 and won the Entrepreneurship award. We went through a dangerous learning experience where we had a completely new electrical team because the others had graduated.

In the season of 2015, we participated in the Midwest Regional where we placed in the middle of the pack although we were recognized for our team’s safety, and Wisconsin Regional where we got into the quarter-finals. That year we won the Motorola Quality Award for our FMEA(failure mode and effects analysis), design book, and easy repair/replacement modules.

In 2014, we participated in the Midwest Regional along with the Northern Lights Regional. We earned the Entrepreneur and Safety at the Midwest Regional along with reaching the semi-finals. In the Northern Lights Regional we won the Rockwell Innovation in Control award and made it to the quarter-finals. During the off-season our team has taken on the huge responsibility of creating and managing many FLL teams throughout the area.

During our 2013 season, we went to Duluth for the Lake Superior Regional. After many additional hours of work in programming and installing the pneumatics for the shooting mechanism, our robot finally passed inspection shortly before competition. While our robot was offensively challenged, it was able to provide moderate defensive ability for our alliances. The return of the Saber Mascot boosted our spirits which brought us a hair away from winning the Regional Spirit Award. In Mid-March, we attended the Milwaukee Regional. Our swerve drive continued to give us troubles, specifically with limit switches and encoder failures. The team spirits were exceptionally well and won us the Spirit Award. The off-season was spent evaluating our team’s structure and communication. Additional hours were spent working on the robot to get swerve drive working for next year.

In 2012 we went for the first time to the Lake Superior Regional in Duluth, MN as well as the traditional Wisconsin Regional. At Duluth, we were the 13th ranked alliance, but were not selected for the quarterfinals. We won FIRST Team 2826, Wave Robotic’s, Spirit Award for our tremendous cheering efforts and Saber Spirit Section. At the Wisconsin Regional we were a part of the third seeded alliance but were eliminated in the quarterfinals after a fierce battle. We did not go home award-less though as we won the Website Award and the Industrial Safety Award. Also, we were honored by a local news station to be featured in a morning broadcast due to our efficient robot.

In 2011 we took part in the Wisconsin Regional and returned to the Minnesota North Star Regional. At the Wisconsin Regional, we made it into the quarter finals as a sub, but were elminated quickly. However, we were successful in winning the Gracious Professionalism and Industrial Safety awards. At the Minnesota North Star Regional, we made it into the quarter finals before losing. We did win the Entrepeneurship award though. Also, our co-leader won the Dean’s List Award.

During 2010 we were unable to return to Minnesota due to scheduling so we attended the Buckeye Regional instead. At the Wisconsin Regional, we were disappointed by our robot’s performance but very excited to win an award for our website and to have our lead mentor win Woodie Flowers. We spent the time between regionals making plans and parts. Our persistence paid off as we were crowned Champions at the Buckeye Regional. This allowed us to attend the Championships in Atlanta where we had a great time.

In 2009 we participated in two competitions, the Wisconsin and Minnesota North Star Regionals, and did very well. At the Wisconsin Regional, we came in second place and at the Minnesota North Star Regional we won both the Safety and Spirit awards.

As a rookie team, we took part in the 2008 Wisconsin Regional. This three-day event was a chance for us to display the results of our hard work and dedication during the build season. At the end of the competition our team ranked about midway in a pack of over sixty teams from all around the country.

For information on our latest years please refer to our newsletters.