2016: FIRST Stronghold
The game for the 2016 season, FIRST Stronghold, was centered around a medieval castle theme. The point of the game was to drive through opponents’ defenses, shoot boulders into their tower, and at the last moments of the game, surround and climb the opponent’s tower. This game was unique in that the defenses could be changed up by the opponent, and an individual standard (banner) could be placed on top of the driver station that represented its respective team.
The competition started with a 15-second autonomous period, where teams could get points by crossing defenses and shooting boulders into goals in the opponents’ tower, without the drivers operating the robot. After this came the tele-operated period, where the robot could again earn points by crossing the opponents defenses, which included five obstacles like an elevated platforms and a draw bridge. The robot could also score points by again shooting a boulder into goals, with each robot only able to hold one boulder at a time and the option to shoot into either a higher or lower goal. During the last 20 seconds of the match, robots could then go to their opponent’s tower and either surround it or climb it.
Watch the game animation here.