Team History
The Bearbotics Story
The Bearbotics robotics team (FIRST FRC team #4068) serves high-school students in the Lewis-Palmer School District in Monument, Colorado. It began when student Clark Pappas proposed to the LPSD School Board in 2011 that a team be formed to participate in this top-tier STEM program, with all its opportunities for challenge, achievement and inspiration. Here's an overview of the continuing journey of the team and its accomplishments. And our thanks to the coaches, mentors, sponsors and parents who make this possible!
2012: "Rebound Rumble"
We started out as "Aperture Robotics" (referencing the video game "Portal"). This was a "learning year" with a lot of team spirit. We finished building the robot on the Thursday of the event -- but it ran!
Regional: (1) Colorado
Award: Rookie Inspiration
2013: "Ultimate Ascent"
This was another "learning year", but the team progressed. Robot design and construction applied techniques learned from the 2012 competition.
Regional: (1) Colorado
2014: "Aerial Assist"
We changed the team name to "Bearbotics", and moved the workspace to Grace Best ES. The team grew and continued to take on more technical challenge in the robot design and build.
Regional: (1) Colorado
2015: "Recycle Rush"
This game was a tough challenge requiring a large robot, and Bearbotics stepped up to the challenge.
Regional: (1) Colorado
Accomplishment: selected to participate in playoff rounds (for the 1st time for Bearbotics)!
2016: "FIRST Stronghold"
The team continues to develop its skills in robot offensive capability (scoring). The result is the highest robot performance ranking in the first 5 years of Bearbotics!
Regional: (1) Colorado
Accomplishment: selected to participate in playoff rounds again!
2017: "FIRST Steamworks"
A challenging season in many respects, but the seeds are planted for a different path in upcoming years. And check out the great team graphics!
Regional: (1) Colorado
2018: "FIRST Power Up"
The team continues to grow, and creates a versatile "utility player" robot that can score in the end-game challenge.
Regional: (1) Colorado
Accomplishment: selected to participate in playoff rounds again!
2019: "Destination: Deep Space"
More team growth and a new strategy: let's take robot engineering and competitive performance to the next level. We build a tall, fast, tough, controllable robot -- and other teams take notice.
Events: (1) Colorado, (2) Utah and (3) Houston World Championship
Accomplishments:
(1) Colorado: CHAMPIONSHIP!
(2) Utah: RUNNERS-UP (aka "FINALIST")
(3) Participate in World Champs for the 1st time! Achieve a winning record against top teams!
2020: "Infinite Recharge"
We're now at 45 students (!), with the goal of competing with the top teams in Colorado. We build our best-scoring robot ever, which is 100% CAD-designed and CNC-fabricated, using more motors and a wider range of materials than ever before. But this is the year of COVID19, and immediately after the Utah tournament everything is cancelled....
Regionals: (1) Utah, (2) Colorado (cancelled)
Accomplishments:
(1) Utah: semi-finalist; first-ever team qualification to lead a play-off alliance!
Due to COVID19 restrictions, we don't have a team picture for 2021
2021: "Infinite Recharge at Home"
Even with COVID19 restrictions all season, we put in a full year. We significantly upgrade our 2020 robot and use it for this year's "virtual" competition, and design and start the build of a new improved robot. We welcome our largest rookie class ever (19), and develop new ways to help our team of 39 learn and grow.
Competitions: (1) "Carbon" (international) group
Accomplishments:
3rd in Group (missing 2nd by just 0.07%)
1st in robot autonomous ("AutoNav"), 2nd in human-driving ("Hyperdrive") and 3rd in target scoring ("Accuracy" + "Power Port")
Ranked in top 10% of Colorado, USA and World
