The team had a fantastic time on the Boise trip! Team members viewed breathtaking scenery in Yellowstone and Big Sky national parks while traveling through the Rocky Mountains. During a picnic lunch the team was also to witness several people parachute off the Perrine bridge on the Snake River in Twin Falls, Idaho. The team also participated in an event photo on Boise State University’s famed Blue Turf.

After an undefeated win at the Lake Superior Regional, the team thought it was well prepared for the World Championship. The Idaho Regional proved those assumptions wrong. The team replaced the robot’s arm that was bent at the Lake Superior Regional, implemented a new camera system, fixed a major bug in the robot’s base software, and vastly improved the data-gathering system.

During the competition, DNA placed in the top 8 and made it to the Semifinals. The shooter arm shaft broke during the first Semifinal match due to the cumulative stress of practice and competitions. The build team was relieved to have this failure occur in Boise, and not the World Championship, so that the students could repair it and develop pre and post-match checks for the robot to mitigate and eliminate mechanical failures. Despite being eliminated, the team was happy with the accomplishments they had achieved. Ultimately, DNA Robotics will head off to the World Championship with more experience and a better engineering process.