Unique Pits at World Championships

Walking around the Edward Jones Dome is an exciting experience. You can feel the enthusiasm of the kids getting their robots prepped and ready for competition. After spending long hours at the build shop for six weeks and qualifying for World Championships, the event everyone has been waiting for is finally at a peak. Here in the pit area teams work furiously to repair and prepare their robots for their next match. When you walk around the pit area, you notice that no two pits are the same. Here are some very unique ones that you should go check out.

The Cheesy Poofs, Team #254, from Moffett Field, California, has a really cool looking pit.  The first thing that catches your eye is the array of blue L.E.D. track lights that wrap around the structure of their pit.  The color of these lights can be changed, but The Cheesy Poofs chose blue to match their team colors.  Their pit floor is puzzle-piece matting material.  Antoher thing you will notice is that this pit is really well lit; 7 bright lights provide a great workspace for the team while working on the robot.

Talk about unique, this entire pit and components of their robot are made of wood!  Interlakes Saints Robotics, Team #1899 from Bellevue, Washington, cut the wood with a laser-cutter.  This Championship is the first time that the team has used their new wooden pit.  They combined the ideas of geometric and creative designs and came up with 9 large triangles, all having angles of 30°, 60° & 90° angles creating an awesome looking pit. “People thought we weren’t a quality team because we had a wooden robot, but we proved them wrong.”

Another interesting pit was the temporary home of Robotz Garage, Team #4451 from Laurens, South Carolina. The inspiration for their pit design was from one of their mentors who used to work in a garage. The walls of the pit is a lightweight metal frame wrapped with plastic and a big poster that looks like wood siding for an interesting décor. The walls are covered in graphics which represent memories of the team, shout outs, and different team stickers. All the tools are located through a secret door through the back of the pit. The truck in the picture above was built by the team and has a fiberglass frame which is used to transport their robot to and from the competition field.

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