The silver robot bumped gently against a wall, reversed, and then ran over a blue racquet ball, where it lodged, rocking slightly. Chris Berghoff sighed.
“If it really shuts down when it hits one of the balls, and there’s going to be 100 of them, I’m pretty sure that’s a problem,” he said to his teammates, who were typing at computers around the room.
“Come along, robot,” Berghoff said, plucking the machine off the ground and carrying it into a workroom. A hacksaw could soon be heard grinding away.
None of the team members appeared very concerned by this. When you’re preparing for a state-level robotics competition like FIRST Tech Challenge, there’s a lot of tinkering involved.