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OverviewFIRST Robotics Team 1477 Texas Torque is a high school robotics team out of The Woodlands, TX dedicated to giving our members hands-on experiences in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).

Outreach

At Texas Torque, we employ our resources and influence as community leaders to act as a vehicle for extending the reach of STEM throughout our area.

Teamwork

Through student interaction, team members find a collaborative and engaging environment that facilitates creativity, inspiration, and growth.

Programs

Our team works to strengthen the presence of STEM by founding, mentoring, and supporting both local and international FIRST teams.

The Remix 2019- Holy Cow(bells)!

Last Saturday, 32 teams from Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Mexico met at The Woodlands College Park High School to compete in the sixth annual Robot Remix.

The Remix raised approximately $1500 for the Montgomery County Women’s’ Shelter and collected over fifty small LEGO sets for a local children’s hospital. More than twenty bedding sets were collected for Angel Reach, a program that supports youth who have aged out of the foster care system.

This year’s competition was one of the fiercest ever! Torque finished qualification matches sixth, allied with team 5892 Energy HEROs and team 624 CRyptonite, but was eliminated after some tough defense played by team 118 Robonauts.

Congratulations to the winning alliance—team 118 Robonauts, 5261 Cyber Shock, and alliance captain 2468 Team Appreciate! The Robonauts, although routinely superb, was unable to play offense for the majority of the event due to technical issues. Instead, they became one of the most terrifying—and loudest—defense bots ever. While 5261 had a rough start, they rounded out the alliance and contributed to one of the most formidable offensive alliances at the Remix with Team 2468’a speed and precise maneuvering.

We would also like to give a big thank you to the volunteers that helped ensure the event ran smoothly. Special thanks go to our sponsors, Russo’s NY Pizzeria, and team 4610 BearTecs, 624 CRyptonite, 5417 Eagle Robotics, and 5414 Pearadox for running workshops.

Thank you to the teams and audience members that attended the Remix. We hope to see all of you next year!

Get Ready for The Remix 2019!

Each year, Texas Torque hosts the Robot Remix, an off-season event that provides an exceptional competitive experience for both rookie and veteran teams alike and serves as a fantastic way for individuals to challenge and enjoy themselves. This year, 32 teams from all over the continent will face off in Destination: Deep Space, the game from the 2019 competition season.

Texas Torque also uses the Remix as an opportunity to give back to the community through LEGO kit and bedding drives. The LEGOs are donated to local children’s hospitals, while the bedding is given to Angel Reach, an initiative to help young homeless adults. All profits from the Remix are also donated to the Montgomery County Women’s Shelter.

The competition will be held at the Texas Torque World Headquarters (location of the Lone Star North 2018 Regional) on October 26th.

If you would like to volunteer, please visit this link.

Please contact [email protected] or our lead mentor, Scott Rippetoe, at [email protected] for more information.

For more information or to register your team, visit this link.

2019 FIRST Houston World Championship

Texas Torque’s last event of the 2019 season was the Houston World Championship at the George R. Brown Convention Center and Minute Maid Park. This was the biggest event of the year with over 400 teams attending.

Texas Torque was in the Hopper Division along with 67 other teams to compete for a chance to play during Einstein rounds. After many successful qualification matches, Texas Torque ended with an 8th rank and a 7-5-0 win-loss-tie record. Texas Torque picked team 4020 Cyber Tribe, 4063 TriKzR4Kidz, and team 3635 Flying Legion to complete the 8th seeded alliance.  During the playoffs, our alliance was eliminated in the quarterfinals.

Congratulations to the World Champion finalists in the Turing division alliance! We would also like to congratulate team 973 Greybots, team 1323 Madtown Robotics, team 5026 Iron Panthers, and team 4201 the Vitruvian Bots for winning the Houston World Championship! We would also like to congratulate team 1902 Exploding Bacon for their induction into the Hall of Fame.

2019 FIT District Del Rio

Texas Torque participated in the Week 4 District Del Rio Competition this past weekend alongside nearly 40 other teams. After a great series of qualification matches, the team finished Saturday night at Rank 1 excited for the day to come. On Sunday, despite multiple technical problems, the team finished the rest of the qualification matches with a record of a 10-2-0 (wins-ties-losses) and earned 22 Qualification Points. Torque’s final alliance partnered them with close-by Team 5892 Energy HEROs from Houston, Texas and Team 5894 J.E.H.S. Cyber Jags from Edinburg, Texas.

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Elimination matches were tough but the team was able to make it to the semifinals with our great alliance members. Congratulations to the winners; Team 7521 Ultimate Robotics,  Team 7088 Robodogs, and finally alliance captain Team 6377 Howdy Bots!

While disappointed by the robot’s results, the team was able to end the competition on a high note since we won the Chairman’s Award! This has continued our four year Chairman’s winning streak! Be sure to check out our chairman’s video below:

The Del Rio Recap video can be seen below:

The team will be competing in the First in Texas State Competition in two weeks and are excited for what we will accomplish there! Keep up with our TwitterInstagramFacebook, or The Blue Alliance for updates on our progress.

2019 FIT District Channelview

Last weekend, students, mentors, and parents of Texas Torque traveled to Channelview, Texas to compete for our first competition of the season. Ray, the 2019 robot, competed in 10 qualification matches and ended in rank 13.  Texas Torque joined the alliance captain team 5261 Cyber Shock and Team 7494 Circuit Bizurkers to compete in the elimination rounds as the fourth seed alliance. The teams advanced to the finals and ended with a 9-9-1 record. Although there were some problems with the robot, overall Texas Torque performed very well. Congratulations to Team 624 Cryptonite, Team 3834 Crab-bots, and alliance captain Team 5892 Energy HEROs for winning the district championship.

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Torque was also very proud to be awarded with the Safety Award- sponsored by Underwriters Laboratories as well as safety captain Victoria Tatman for being awarded “Safety Star of the Day” by Underwriters Laboratories.  Additionally, for the second year in a row, the team won Engineering Inspiration Award for our outreach efforts.

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Check out our Channelview Recap video!

 To keep up with the District Del Rio Event that we are competing at this weekend, be sure to follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or The Blue Alliance for updates on our progress.

First Robotics Competition 2019 Kickoff

Last Saturday, students, mentors, alumni, parents, and supporters of Texas Torque met up in The Woodlands College Park High School LGI to watch the FIRST Robotics Competition 2019 game reveal. This much-anticipated webcast revealed the year’s challenge and marked the beginning of the new FRC season, DESTINATION: DEEP SPACE.

The 2019 competition involves a space themed game in which two teams of three robots compete to grab disk shaped “hatch” panels to place on a “rocket” or a “cargo ship”, then place “cargo” kickballs afterward. In the first 15 seconds of the game, a sandstorm, or black curtain, is lowered in front of the drive teams, instead of the autonomous periods in past years. At this time, teams can control the robot using visual feedback from the robot and its cameras and sensors. After the initial sandstorm, the curtain is then raised for the tele-operated period. In the last 20 seconds of the match, teams return their robots to the habitat platform and scale different levels of steps to gain additional points.

The following video released by FIRST further explains the challenge.

Following the exciting reveal, Torque members spent the next few hours brainstorming and discussing design and strategy for the game. Students collaborated with mentors and alumni to come up with prototype ideas and strategies to maximize match scores. For the next six weeks, team members will work to design, prototype, construct, and program a new robot for the season before the seven week competition season begins.

Texas Torque wishes all teams the best of luck and hopes that everyone has fun this season!