The crystallization of sweat and tears: "Moving Macnica"

Hello everyone! I'm Kousuke, a new FAE!

Sadly, this will be the last episode!

At last, we have completed a robot that achieves our initial goals of "guaranteed hits" and "guaranteed acquisition of artistic points for additional items."

Here it is!

A robot that embodies the love Macnica

A circuit board wired to light up the department (4th floor)

Macnica has a culture where all employees remain first penguins.

This time, we decided to incorporate that culture into a bat!

In addition, we were able to create a moving Macnica by attaching the exterior of our building to the casing.

The appealing point is that I placed a lot of LEDs so that the floor of the department I'm currently in is lit up! (I had a lot of trouble with the wiring.)
This will definitely get you some artistic points.

Rules Recap

First, let's review the rules!

This competition is an individual battle between robots made by five newly graduated FAEs.

The winner is decided by the total score of "where the ball flies" and "the time it takes to go around the base".

The total score is determined by combining this with an "artistic score" at the end of the competition, and the person with the highest score wins.

Also, this time each player will be able to bat twice, so even if you don't get a result in your first at-bat, there will still be a chance to make a comeback until the end!

First turn at bat: Will he find himself in a pinch right away?!

The TSC Cup is finally about to begin.

The venue was full of people looking forward to today's event.

There are also people from departments other than FAE who we don't normally get to talk to, so all the new graduates are feeling a bit nervous.

First of all, it's important to decide the order.

I chose number one because I thought this robot, which had inherited the culture of "First Penguin," should be the first to step up to bat.

Then the robot was put up to bat and the game finally began.

The first pitch was released by the pitcher.

First, batting. The ultrasonic sensor detected the ball correctly and successfully hit it back with the bat!

They score 20 points for the hit and begin to advance towards home base.

But then an accident occurred. The moment the robot reached first base, it stopped (tears)

I waited for a few seconds but he still didn't move...Here comes the tearful stop. The first at bat is over.

Then the next FAE's turn came, and after a while the new graduate FAE's first at-bat ended.
At the end of the first at-bat, each FAE's score is as shown in the table below.

I can't believe it, we're in last place.

But there is another chance. I won't give up yet!!

The first turn at bat

Scoring after the first round

Second turn at bat: Final form for victory!?

We were 100 points behind first place, and even the closest team, fourth place, was 40 points behind us.

During the final check the day before, the robot was able to complete a lap around the base, but today it seemed a bit nervous.

In order to ease the robot's tension even a little, we removed the painted parts of Macnica to make it easier to move forward and let it take its second turn at bat.

In his tense second turn at bat, the bat hit the ball back just as before.

This time, it's a great hit with 3B!! He gets 60 points and starts moving around the bases to complete a lap.

He advanced to first base, second base, third base, and finally made it back to home base!

Although it took a while, finishing in 49 seconds, it was a great run.

After that, the other FAEs got their turn to bat and their second at-bats came to an end.

Hitting 3B (2nd at bat)

Returning to home base (2nd at bat)

Score after 2nd round

Artistic score announcement ~Who will be the winner?!~

After each player has two at-bats, the final artistic scores are announced.

First, the TSC President shared his thoughts on the match.

After a message to each of the new FAE graduates, the artistic scores were finally announced.

I was selected for the art award!

I'm so happy!! This earned me an art point!

In addition, the General Manager of the Technology Department announced the "Special Technology Award," which went to RK, who hit a home run, and he was awarded extra points.

The final result is below!

Final score sheet after artistic and technical scores are announced

The result was a tie for third place.

Although I wasn't able to achieve my long-awaited victory, I am very happy to have made it into the top three (even though I only came in third out of five).

To be honest, there are still many areas where I think we could have improved upon it, and there are many things I wish we had done differently.

I would like to pass on my feelings of disappointment for not getting first place and my ideas about what I should have done to next year's juniors.

Afterword

Thank you for reading this far!

I joined the company as a new graduate and took on the huge challenge of this production training without knowing what to do.

To be honest, there were so many things I didn't understand that it was difficult for me most of the time.

However, thanks to the support of many people beyond the boundaries of my department and division, I was able to complete the project without any problems. I would like to thank everyone.

After completing my production training, I will begin studying products to become a MACNICA FAE.

I will continue to do my best so as not to waste the experience I gained in this production workshop!!

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