2006 Robot: Chomp (and Circumstance)

Chomp was the team's 2006 robot. Chomp was designed as a do-it-all robot for Aim High, meant to receive balls from both the human player and floor and shoot them into the center goal on the field. Due to the complications that come with the build season, little time was spent on final testing, particularly with the hopper. It shot the ball, and that's all we needed to know, right?
Once Chomp arrived at the Colonial Center for the Palmetto regional, we were rather surprised. Practice day was mostly spent debugging issues with batteries and software. Friday's matches were looking grim for the team, with a 2-4 record. Late in the day, the senior members of the group decided what must be done: Chomp must be cut and re-modified. After much deliberation and discussion, we did it. Out went much of the ball collecting and shooting system to lower the robot's center of gravity, with the hopper holding on to block shots from other robots. Saturday morning, against some tough competition, the team ended the Palmetto Regional with a 5-4 record, good enough to become the second backup for the finals matches. In three games, we had gone from the 30's in the rankings to spot number 16.

We have disassembled both Chomp and Circumstance, and began to rebuild them (slowly). Chomp was renamed Bob's Revenge, and he can be driven at this point. Circumstance, as of now, is a chassis with treads attached and no motors are currently on him. He was renamed George (pronounced with a British accent).