PARSIPPANY — On Saturday, December 16 Parsippany’s NanoGurus Robotics hosted a Holiday Meet First Relic Recovery Event at the Parsippany PAL Youth Center.
The object of First Relic Recovery Event is to attain a higher score than the opposing alliance by scoring Glyphs into the Cryptoboxes and completing rows, column, and ciphers; transferring Relics to the Recovery Zone; retrieving Jewels; parking on the Balancing Stones, and navigating to specific parts of the Playing Field.
First Relic Recovery is presented by Qualcomm and is played on a 12 foot by 12 foot square field with approximately one foot high walls and a soft foam mat floor.
The field is divided in the middle into a “red” and a “blue” side corresponding to the two alliances. In the center of the field is a taped off area that hold the Glyphs. The scoring elements for First Relic Recovery are 48 alliance-neutral Glyphs (24 gray and 24 brown), 8 alliance-specific Jewels (4 per alliance) and 4 alliance-specific Relics (2 per Alliance). There are 4 alliance-specific Cryptoboxes (2 per Alliance) with taped off safe zones in front of each. There are 4 alliance-specific Balancing Stones (2 per Alliance) on which Robots begin and end the game. There are also 2 off-field alliance-specific Recovery Zones where robots place recovered Relics at the end of the match.
Matches have two distinct periods of play: a 30-second Autonomous period followed by a two-minute Driver-Controlled period. The last 30 seconds of the Driver-Controlled period is called the End Game which adds new scoring opportunities for robots to achieve.
Autonomous Period:
During the Autonomous period, Robots operate using only pre-programmed instructions. Alliances earn points by: (1) selecting and removing opponent colored Jewels from platforms, (2) scoring Glyphs into the Cryptoboxes, and (3) parking their Robot in a Safe Zone in front of their Cryptobox.
Driver-Controlled Period:
During the Driver-Controlled period, alliances earn points by: (1) Scoring Glyphs into their Alliance’s Cryptoboxes and (2) Creating Cipher patterns with their Glyphs in the Cryptoboxes.
End Game:
The final 30 seconds of the Driver-Controlled Period is called the End Game. In addition to the previously listed Driver-Controlled Period scoring activities, alliances earn points by (1) moving their Relics to safety in their Recovery Zone and (2) balancing Robots on the Balancing Stones.
The competition was won by Glen Rock and the outstanding rookie team was Wood-Ridge.
NanoGurus is a neighborhood organization which competes in First Lego League and First Tech Challenge competitions organized by First (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology). The NanoGurus team was founded in 2006 and has since won many FLL and FTC awards.
The NanoGurus is always looking for new parent coaches and mentors to extend more students this fun learning FIRST experience! This season, the team established eight new FIRST Lego League teams, all of which are coached by parents, and mentored by experienced members of this flagship team. New teams start with a training session, followed by mentoring throughout the competition season.
