March Newsletter
The Greater Kansas City Regional
SWAT competed at the Greater Kansas City Regional alongside 54 teams
and was ranked second overall with a qualification average of 96.8.
March 11-14 saw an im-
portant event in the history of
SWAT robotics: Team 1806 quali-
fied for the World Championship
in St. Louis for the third consecu-
tive year. This is quite the feat for
any robotics team and should be
cherished by them as well as the
community around them for their
hard work and determination that
has made them a stronger team in
recent years.
The Kansas City regional,
hosted at Metropolitan Community
College, is one of the main region-
als in the nation and hosts a wide
array of talent and designs. The
event was the FRC game of 2015:
Recycle Rush. Recycle Rush is, of
2015
Sponsor of the
Month!
FIRST Team 1806 is al-
ways looking to partner
with sponsors and indi-
viduals to help bring ro-
botics into the commu-
nity. For information on
sponsoring S.W.A.T.,
please contact us by
sending an email to
frc1806@gmail.com
course, a game where the robots
objectives are to stack totes and/or In this Issue
recycling bins with litter, pool Page 1
noodles, in them as quickly and
efficiently as possible. The Greater Kansas
This game is more about City Regional
individual abilities rather than Page 2
competing against the team aligned
Another Successful
opposite of you. Team 1806 shone
Spaghetti Dinner
in a great way through the qualifi-
cation rounds, becoming the sec- Page 3
ond seed. This means that team Preparation for the
SWAT averaged the second high-
est amount of points out of the 54. Oklahoma Regional
(Continued on page 2). SWAT Member of the
Month Mitchell Irwin
Page 4
Fundraiser Breakfast
at the American Legion
March Newsletter 2015

Greater Kansas City Regional (continued)

This achievement led to SWAT being drafted in alliance
selection by the number one seed at the regional: Team 1730.
1730, or Team Driven also selected team 1777 as their second
draft pick. The team stacked the totes quickly as they powered
through the first two rounds of the playoffs. They ended up
reaching the championship with their abilities to stack large
amounts of totes in a short amount of time. Sadly, the alliance
lost to the sixth seeded alliance. This would have not been
enough to make Worlds, but Team 1710, the Ravonics Revolu-
tion, won the regional chairmans award (a very prestigious
award). This meant that a wild card would go down to the sec-
ond place alliance captain, team 1730. But 1730 won the engi-
neering inspiration award, so they already had a bid. This
meant that team 1806 would be given a wildcard to go the St.
Louis! The weekend brought about great joy as well as a hun-
ger and drive to improve upon what was shown as faulty in live
play, and to prepare the bot for the next regional at the end of
March in Oklahoma City. Team 1806 has been hard at work
with their collection and moving bins upright, and are not tak-
ing it easy even with their automatic bid to go to Worlds.
SWAT is motivated to go to OKC and win this regional and
Our robot, Deep Freeze, is characterized by
prepare the bot to be recognized at the world stage at the end of
April. its ability to consistently make three six tote
stacks with recycling containers.

Another Successful Spaghetti Dinner

This years Spaghetti Dinner and Open House was an-
other successful event, featuring some great spaghetti
and fabulous desserts!
Every year the Spaghetti Dinner is sure to offer a
great time, and some great spaghetti. This year was
no exception, and visitors had the opportunity to
talk to the team, drive smaller robots, view last
years robot, learn about the team, take tours of the
shop and of course, eat some delicious spaghetti!
SWAT gear was also sold along with batteries and
LED light bulbs.
The event was hosted during a High School Bas-
ketball game, so it attracted a large crowd of those
interested and those who had never been exposed to
robotics and FIRST before. All in all, it was a great
night for the team and all who attended and wed
like to thank everyone for their support.
 SWAT Member of the Month
Preparation for
the Oklahoma Mitchell Irwin
Regional
After our high scoring perfor-
mance at the Kansas City Re-
gional, we were able to pick up
on some things to improve going
into Oklahoma, and ultimately
Worlds. One of the chief ele-
ments that slowed the robot
down was up righting recycling
containers to start the stack. The
team devised a mechanism to
first pinch the containers and use
gravity to rotate the containers
into stackable position.
1806 also used this time to
diversify the robots autonomous
abilities as they added a program
that would score more points by
making a stack of three yellow
totes while leaving recycling Mitchell is a senior at Smithville High School and part of the drive team.
containers upright. Modifications
were made to the collection to
allow for both inward and out- Ginger born, ginger bred, gin- with the team working towards
ward rebounding. ger until the day hes dead, OKC regionals, we need as much
SWAT also added a new set Mitchell Irwin is one ginger you help as we can get.
of intake wheels, angling them probably wont see snap. The dirt Mitchell works on coming up
offset to form a funnel like shape bike-riding former Sergeant-at- with plans and solutions for both
and improve our intake speeds. arms probably hears enough gin- the robot itself and the team as a
The team used this opportunity to ger jokes as it is. whole. As the Sergeant at Arms,
modify our tethered ramp, aptly Mitchell joined SWAT his he was supposed to set up meet-
named Mini-Fridge. The ramp sophomore year, the same year ings and seating arrangements; as
was modified to be longer and when the team made it to Worlds a fabrication team member, he
more gradual to allow for tote in St. Louis. He was surprised at helps design and build the robot
preloading and in the end faster how big and diverse the competi- to help achieve the goals. His fa-
stack times. We are all eager to tion was, and it remains his fa- vorite part of working on the ro-
see how the modifications allow vorite robotics competition to bot is figuring out how to fix the
the robot to perform and all of date. Although he never joined problems that inevitably come up
our competition in the coming the team freshman year as he in- when putting the robot together.
regionals and the World Champi- tended, he still has some good Mitchell is going to Maple
onships. advice for those who do. Really Woods for two years on an A+
get involved in what youre inter- scholarship, and he plans on fin-
ested in, he says if youre just ishing up his major in mechanical
there to be there, its not worth engineering at Missouri S&T,
your time. although he would make it just as
He said that the best way to get well as a ginja ninja.
involved is to go up to someone
else, and tell him or her what
youre interested in, or just ask
what you can do to help. And,
 Fundraiser Breakfast at the
S.W.A.T. will be
American Legion April 18th attending the
FIRST World
Championships
April 22nd 25th
in St. Louis at the
Edward Jones
Dome!

Visit our Website!

Thank you for making last years Pancake Breakfast a success!
www.smithvillehighrobotics.com/
Make sure you come out and support your favorite Smithville Ro-
botics team, SWAT at the American Legion Saturday, April 18th.
And Follow us on
The breakfast is a great fundraiser that helps the team pay for the
meals, transportation, room and board of the students that attend. Twitter! @frc1806
Come enjoy a fabulous breakfast of pancakes.

Thank You Sponsors!

Darrell Smith Benjamin L. Westman, DDS Bill & Bonita Farrell

Russell & Betty Woollums Paul and Dawn Clouse Earl & Diane Soetaert
Dave Telles Denny & Nancy Lowe G. Gupta
Chuck & Joan Hitchborn Ron & Mary Kay Grusenmeyer

March Newsletter 2015