Blog
A story of intrigue, romance, and betrayal. Or something like that.
Never Saw It Coming
Submitted on February 6, 2010 by Lord_Tristan
The past few weeks have been (relatively) productive. The mechanical team has dis- and re-assembled the tripods, presumably to make way for the wheels and bumpers to be attached. The bumpers are quite nice, being covered in a color reminiscent of the deep ocean. Their powers are just as mysterious their color.
On the subject of mystery, the programming team has continued to delve into the world of The Code. After five years of failure, the camera now works. The motors have been similarly temperamental, but will see reason with time and patience.
~On high, playing Track 3
Help Hired
Submitted on February 4, 2010 by Rockenfels
As of this post, we have another loyal member updating you on the happenings and such of the team. He will announce himself hopefully soon so look forward to that
Your chronicler who just moved up the ranks
~Rockenfels
This Week in Robotics
Submitted on January 25, 2010 by Rockenfels
Hello again from the wonderful world of robotics. On the 21, we managed to get a few of the electronics parts that we have on the test chassis. This meeting was pretty much dominated by the mechanical team, seeing as how the programming team is still trying to get up and running. I'll be getting you an update on the meeting on the 23 as soon as I compile the data.
Your very tired chronicler,
~Rockenfels
Catchup
Submitted on January 21, 2010 by Rockenfels
Sorry for the delay, we've been hard at work trying to get the bot ready so I'll bring you up to speed.
1/14/10
The mechanics team started trying to create a kicking mechanism using a pneumatic piston with surgical tubing to create something like a crossbow. Turns out that there's not much power there, so they abandoned it. They also managed to get the gear boxes, CIM motors, and electronics board (minus electronics) on the test chassis. The programing team managed to set up the computers with the proper software so we could get something done next meeting.
1/16/10
The Kicking mechanism was prototyped. They still went with the crossbow-like design, but ditched the pneumatics in favor of a gear/rod assembly (
Seperation of Power
Submitted on January 12, 2010 by Rockenfels
Today we had our first build build day. We went through the kit of parts and explained what stuff was. We also realized how badly we need little things like tables, white board markers, duct tape, etc. The most important thing we did was to split the main team into smaller separate (and somewhat equal) sub-teams for the individual aspects of the robot.
We divided into the following teams
1. Programmers of the bot
2. Drive train and kicking mechanism
3. BUMPERS (shudder)
4. Electrical
5. and Misc.
Expect a full list of people later.
From somewhere underground
-Rockenfels
Under New Management!!
Submitted on January 10, 2010 by Rockenfels
Starting now (the 2010 robotics season) the website is under new management! I'll do my best to keep you informed and up to date on the season as it progresses...starting now. We had the kickoff yesterday and heard the wonderful speeches (Super Nerds!!) and had our first build meeting today. Things are moving quickly and it looks like it's going to be a great year.
We're out!
Submitted on May 20, 2009 by joanna
You thought that we were done with blog posts this year, didn't you? Well, I am here to write one last blog post. Today was senior's last day of high school. It was quite a bittersweet day. Thankfully, we had a small robotics meeting today to get ready for our visits to the junior highs to help promote our club for next year.
Next week, we'll be showing off our robot during the lunches at the junior highs. We're hoping that people will see it and come join the club next year or the year after. We hope that once they see us and the robot, they'll find that robotics is a club for everyone, not just your stereotypical nerdy computer geek.
Anyways, this is the end of what I think will be my last blog post on the robotics website. This is definitely sad for me. I've thoroughly enjoyed posting here every week and getting to share my experiences. I'm hoping that you've enjoyed reading about them, and that you'll become a part of the robotics family in some way in the future.
Home Sweet Home!
Submitted on March 15, 2009 by joanna
2009
2008-09 Iowa City Robotics Team 167
The Milwaukee regional competition ROCKED! We were 7th out of 53 after the preliminary matches, which meant that we got to pick alliances for the quarterfinals. Huge thanks to teams 2062 (C.O.R.E.) and 1736 (Robot Casserole) for joining our alliance! We won our quarterfinal matches (one of the matches only by one point) so we went on to semifinals. We lost in the semis after two hard-fought matches. In the chaos between the matches, Robot Casserole accidentally grabbed a bad battery and stopped towards the beginning of the match. We lost the match, but had a great time!
We didn't win any of the awards that we applied for this year, but we got some nice feedback from the Chairman's judges. Hopefully if we do this next year, we'll be able to show growth from this year.
But for seniors, this was our last time at Milwaukee Dome as robotics team members. We've had a great time, and we'll have memories and pictures to last a lifetime...
2009
Seniors of Team 167. Go Class of 2009!
Practice Matches
Submitted on March 12, 2009 by tdawson
Well, today was the first day of the regional. We took place in practice matches. We attended our first practice match and found out our bumper was dragging on the floor. We fixed this on time for our next match, but discovered that we still drove slowly. We switched to four wheel drive and starting to work on autonomous mode and added some traction control.
We were finished with inspection before noon and were excited to get to some more practice matches. Unfortunately, as we were fixing one problem, we were informed that our current bumper situation was illegal. We had our inspection "revoked" until we remedied the situation, which took a while. I was able to practice as a human player, and we were able to test our robot moreso than in years past.
All in all, we're pleased with where we are and we're excited to see how tomorrow plays out! Good luck and safety to everyone participating!
We're Here!
Submitted on March 11, 2009 by tdawson
We just arrived in Milwaukee! Practice matches start tomorrow, and Friday and Saturday we compete in qualifications and (hopefully!) elimination rounds.
I'll be posting a round-up at the end of each day with results and photos!
It's tomorrow!!!
Submitted on March 10, 2009 by joanna
So... we're all swamped with studying for make-up tests since we'll be missing school Thursday and Friday, so this entry will be short. Woo hoo! Short entry!
We finished packing everything last week, so I think we're good to go on that. We've got a bunch of awards stuff to remember to bring documentation for. Our scrapbook looks AMAZING! Thanks [b] for being so amazing and helping us out.
Our Chairman's Award presentation is coming. We're still working on memorizing the points we have to cover and working with our props. Since this is our first year doing this, we have no idea what to expect, but I guess we'll just be ready for anything.
Okay... I have to go back and study if I don't want to fail out of all my classes this trimester. For any other teams going to Milwaukee, good luck! Hopefully you get a tiny bit of sleep in four days (which means maybe more than 10 throughout four days collectively?)
Shirts Arrive!
Submitted on March 6, 2009 by tdawson
Today we received our shirts for 2009! Each student and mentor will each receive one black shirt and one grey shirt. The fronts have the emblem for the 2009 season:
2009
The front of our 2009 shirt shows off our emblem for this year: the corn is our logo (obviously), with a moon representing lunacy, and arrows to either side symbolizing our robot's dumping function.
And the backs have a nickname, our team name, number, and website, and our theme for this year: SPRING (Students Promoting Robotics & Inspiring New Generations) Into Action! Below this appear our sponsors; founders have their logos, and the rest are thanked with text.
2009
The back of our shirt. Sponsors are just below what you can see.
I really like the black shirts, and the grey ones aren't bad--the colors just don't pop as well. We are still waiting for our buttons and banner, and then we will be ready for Milwaukee!
Lobbying is fun
Submitted on March 3, 2009 by ecoffel
Current music track: the birds outside, and the dishwasher.
Yesterday we (and the other two FIRST teams from Iowa) zoomed over to Des Moines to bribe... err, I mean lobby our representatives in the Iowa House and Senate to increase STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) funding.
We brought our test chassis, which is just a metal base with wheels (since our real bot is in a warehouse in Milwaukee). We were informed that there would be no outlets available for us at the state capitol. This was a problem... so, we brought six lead-acid robot batteries, which are a bit smaller than car batteries and an inverter to power our laptops and robot equipment. We looked (only slightly) like terrorists.
During the lunch break, state legislators wandered over, and we explained our club and the FIRST program. Our Johnson county rep took us up into the House chamber, and we were recognized by the legislators (they all stood up and clapped for us). Twas pretty cool.
Overall, it was a great way to advertise the FIRST program. We hope that we influenced the legislators a bit... or at least showed them that funding for science education produces some cool stuff.
note: it is early. This entry may or may not be coherent.
Searching, checking, packing.
Submitted on March 1, 2009 by Masha
Current music track: Mami Kawada - Joint
Hi!
Yesterday we made a lot of progress with deciding what stuff to bring with us to Milwaukee. It wasn't too hard, because most of our stuff was either in the toolboxes, or in pre-labeled cardboard boxes.
However, sorting was something that had to be done. For the sake of not going crazy trying to find that-one-thing-you-desperately-need-right-now.
I threw away two broken allen wrenches and found red electrical tape. I didn't even know we had red electrical tape, all tape I've seen so far has been black.
Things still MIA are "Igus" bearings for the rollers, spacers for the rollers and PVC cement. I haven't the slightest idea where they could've disappeared.
The plastic boxes from last years have very peculiar labels. For instance, one of the boxes has a long piece of duct tape which proudly reads "Electrical/Little lift WHATSITS".
- What is this?
- Put it in the electrical box.
- In whatsits? :)
Sorting can be fun. At times. I'm extremely glad that most of our hardware is sorted and is in appropriate toolboxes. I had to separate all nuts and bolts and washers last year. Not fun, especially when you think you're done, and someone suddenly hands you yet another plastic box full of bolts and screws. This year everything is moderately organized!
We also grounded the driver's station, because it had been found to be sensitive to static electricity. This is slightly ironic, because I was the one doing it, and that day I was probably the most statically charged person in the lab. I turn on the water - it zaps me. I touch a person - zap. I touch the driver's station - another zap....grounding is nice. The ground pins are now connected to the metal case by a PWM cable. By the way, scrubbing paint off the metal casing is harder than it sounds like.
I should probably go to sleep, because we have a meeting with Iowa state legislature in Des Moines tomorrow, and I have to be at school at 6:45am. See you later!
What do we do now?
Submitted on February 18, 2009 by joanna
So... our robot is shipped off... so you may be wondering, "what else do you have to do now?"
Well, I sit at home, twiddle my thumbs, and watch TCM 24/7 (fyi to the non-classic movie lovers: TCM = Turner Classic Movies)...
Um... not exactly. We've got the Chairman's Award and Woodie Flowers Awards due at 11:59 P.M. EST tomorrow which is 10:59 P.M. for me. We've got a lot of writing and editing to do and pictures to scrounge up. I just found out yesterday that the TIMS Yearbook Page also gets judged for the Chairman's Award, so a few friends and I furiously scribbled down a few things yesterday night since it's due today.
But apart from writing, what else have we been doing? Well, yesterday four team members went to Rockwell Collins Engineering Week at Jefferson High School in Cedar Rapids, IA. We got to talk about our club, the FIRST program, and answer any questions that students had. Jefferson is thinking about maybe starting their own FIRST robotics club next year, so we hope we made a positive impact on them.
Conclusion? Robotics is about more than just the robot. We get to perfect our writing and communication skills. Sound fun? I think it does. And that's not sarcasm. Really. Just the product of weeks without sleep and 25 pages of AP Government reading. Oh, speaking of AP Gov, I should probably get back to that... until next time!
Happy robot!
Submitted on February 16, 2009 by ecoffel
The afternoon of the final build day started, as is to be expected, with slight panic. We thought that the processor had possibly been damaged during construction because our code no longer worked; the PID loop that controlled the wheels was going insane.
However, after some testing and growling and hissing, we discovered that the problem was the code updates... they had changed the inner workings of the Encoder class, which caused the encoders to record the wheel velocities as slower than they really were. This was giving the PID loop bad data and causing pain and suffering. After a bit more growling, we modified our code to fix the problem... and the robot is happy again. Happiness!
(our robot better be happy... it has received better treatment than most robots, considering it has its very own teddy bear to accompany it on its bumpy truck ride up to Milwaukee.)
Ready to ship!
Submitted on February 16, 2009 by Masha
The robot is crated up! I have to emphasize, it's a very colorful crate. A plastic bag full of decent/half-dead/dead markers and 6 girls can do miracles.
The bot is in good shape; we put Velcro on the rollers, so now the balls actually go up the lift (gasp). We also discovered we were 2 pounds overweight, but that was with the trailer hitch. We didn't even have to do any cheese-hole-ing, like a lot of other teams! We also replaced the previous lift motor with a CIM one. It's slightly heavier, but the speed controller doesn't shut it off every 2 seconds for safety reasons (I guess, safety = fail).
Next time we see our robot will be in Milwaukee! It's four weeks away, and I'm really really REALLY looking forward to the competition.
Hope to see you all there!
Robotics Week #6
Submitted on February 15, 2009 by joanna
Ahhhh!!!!! We ship Tuesday morning, and we're planning to crate up the robot tomorrow evening. Good thing we have a day off school for President's Day so we can finish all of our homework!
Matt Cover (from my previous blog entry) made a surprise visit to the lab today. He dropped in, said hi, and then left to go to an astronomy lecture. But before I turn all of my entries into Matt Cover entries (and hopefully he doesn't read all of these and come to the conclusion that I stalk him), I should continue on about what went on this week.
Today I learned that when the robot is on, you shouldn't hit it with a hammer. I was attempting to hit the robot frame together and then bolt through the connectors, but after I hit it, the robot suddenly went on a rampage and ran into a table, spilling a bunch of bolts all over the floor. The robot frame slightly died, and chaos reigned for about 10 seconds as all of us looked at each other trying to figure out was happening. Apparently, the jolt of the hammer triggered something which the PWM loop tried to correct, causing the robot to go crazy. The mess was fixable... maybe a 15
minute set back? I suppose it could be worse.
Chairman's Award and Woodie Flowers awards are due on Thursday. We are all going crazy. We have reached the word limit on the Chairman's Award, and we're pretty proud of what we've done this year. We've still got a bit to write for the Woodie Flowers award, but we would all really love for our mentor to win.
So, someone told me that my blog entries were always slightly long, so I suppose I'll cut it off here. One more day of chaos, one more month of preparations. Then it'll all be over. But at least I learned something. When the robot's light is on, don't hammer it. Otherwise you may go as crazy as the robot.
More testing
Submitted on February 14, 2009 by Masha
Hi. We finally started on and finished the crate today! There will be no more "Uh...guys, I think we need a crate." And we successfully tested our bot on the Regalith (however you spell it). It's pretty fast! The motors aren't calibrated yet, so it was hard to control the direction of the robot. Note: not to ram the robot into people.
The belts on the lift have stretched and need way more tension. We'll probably shorten them tomorrow. But the brushes work incredibly well, and the shooting mechanism doesn't fail either!
Apparently, our robot is now a "she." When we were about to feed a ball into it, there was a yell "FIRE THE BRISTLES!" So now it's a pirate ship. And pirate ships are female..right? Now our baby....errrr, robot needs a name. Harvey is a guy's name. She's a girl. Well....according to girls in the club, she's a girl. I'm not sure what the guys' opinion is on this question.
Meet Matt Cover: Team 167 1998-1999
Submitted on February 13, 2009 by joanna
Hey! So I recently caught up with Matt Cover, who was on the robotics team the first year Team 167 was involved in FIRST and was a mentor for the past few years. He's now a research engineering at Operator Performance Lab (OPL) located at the University of Iowa. He got his bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering with a minor in Computer Science with a specialization in software engineering in 2007. He is currently writing his dissertation for his doctorate in electrical engineering. Here's a Q&A I had with him:
JOANNA: What years were you involved in robotics? Who was the mentor? How many people were involved?
MATT: I was a member of our science club at City High when we were looking for cool projects to do for the '97-98 school year. We heard about the FIRST robot competition and decided to apply for the 1998 competition at the national level down in Orlando, FL. We worked with Univ. of Iowa professor Geb Thomas and two of his engineering students, Jerry Steele and Greg Gerling. The first year there were about 20 high school students who worked on it.
After this year, a separate robot club was spun off from the science club and the robot club as it is known now was started. Students from all over Iowa City were invited to become a member of the Iowa City team (City, West, Regina). I also participated in the 1999 competition. The City High mentor both of those years was Gary Garton, a science teacher at City, who has since retired.
While the Iowa City team continued in future years while I was a junior(2000) and senior(2001), I did not get back into the robot club due to my AP course load and orchestra which was very time consuming and often conflicted with the times we were getting together for robot club.
JOANNA: Why did you join robotics?
MATT: Well, I really liked seeing applications of all the math and science that I was learning in school. Robotics allowed me to put the homework and exams to practice with a hands-on project and furthered my excitement for becoming an engineer when I reached college.
JOANNA: What are your fondest memories of FIRST robotics?
MATT: I liked the game strategy/planning and designing of how the to make the wiring most efficient with all the electronic components. While I enjoyed doing programming, there were other students who were far better at it than I at the time.
JOANNA: How did FIRST robotics affect your life/career path/etc...?
MATT: FIRST robotics strengthened my love of electronics and made the decision to go into electrical engineering as soon as I reached college very easy and allowed me to get into my courses right away.
JOANNA: Do you see some of the effects of FIRST robotics in your life now?
MATT: While I have no doubt that I would have been successful regardless if I was in FIRST robotics in high school or not, I believe that FIRST taught me a lot about teamwork earlier in my life than students who didn't participate in FIRST.
JOANNA: What was the biggest lesson you learned from robotics?
MATT: I think that FIRST taught me that you really need to stay committed to a project from beginning to end to be successful. We really struggled the first few years due to money constraints and unfamiliarity to the competition. Just putting in your best effort, day after day, was what kept our team alive during those early years. (But we did also discover that early elimination gave us more time at Disney World!)
Testing... Success?
Submitted on February 12, 2009 by ecoffel
Incredibly enough, we successfully tested our bot tonight. This is incredible, seeing as a team 167 tradition has been to build large portions of the robot at the competition (testing and practice are for n00bs, right?).
We had some slight difficulties with balls getting stuck in the lift mechanism, but overall, it worked very well. It can suck a ball up from the floor and into the hopper in about a second, and it can blast balls out of the hopper fast. Note to other teams: do not sit your robot next to us.
Anyways, we'll be finishing up software (we've nearly got traction control!) and various mechanical problems over the next few days, and then we'll stuff it in a crate and send our baby... err, I mean robot off to MKE.
Good bye!
Website Deadline Tonight!
Submitted on February 12, 2009 by tdawson
The deadline for website submission is rapidly approaching. Some parts of the site (like the blog!) have been up and running smoothly for a while. However, their are still some areas of the site that are severely lacking (read: non-existent).
But don't worry, our website will be all nice and shiny by the due date. Of course, the site has always been about being updated often and easily, so it isn't ever really "done." We'll still be updating the news and blog, trying to find every last scrap of relevant media, and trying to piece together our club's history per Dean Kamen's request.
Got a problem? Grab a hammer.
Submitted on February 11, 2009 by Masha
Today we found out that our robot is 1/16 inch too tall. How did THAT happen...? Turned out, the top of the lift is not square, and it was sticking out beyond the allowed dimensions.
After walking around the bot for a couple of minutes and loudly contemplating what should be done with the lift, the solution was found.
The bolts on the lift were slightly loosened and the hammer was promptly brought to the bot. The lift was given some encouragement (i.e. fierce pounding with a hammer) and it settled into place.
The conditions of the robot are closely monitored, and we're trying not to give it too much calcium.
Vacuum cleaner
Submitted on February 10, 2009 by Masha
Some of us had a thought that we should name the robot "Vacuum Cleaner." This comes from the fact that we're using toilet brushes on our bot. They are awesome, therefore we are awesome. QED. So there :P
Now, if only the robot could sweep the floor by itself....
Until it learns to do that, we shall stick with "The Harvester." This makes me think of the book "Dune". And the computer game, if any of you had played it. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, go on Google and look up "Dune 2000" or "Emperor: Battle for Dune."
Camera! Hurrah!
Submitted on February 10, 2009 by ecoffel
Hello from software...
We've finally got a PID controller working for all four wheels. We were attempting to implement acceleration control (so we could limit the rate of acceleration to prevent wheel slipping), but we were unable to get acceleration readings fast enough to correct for wheel slip. Now that we've severed two limbs (and by limbs I mean drive motors) to correct our obesity problem, we will be able to compare the speed of the two (front) driven wheels to the two (back) non-driven wheels. Hopefully we'll get some sort of basic traction control working in the next week (or, we'll just continue our tradition of building all software at the competition).
A rare success story: we got our electronic eye to start looking around today! We hope to mount the camera on the top of our robot so that we can see inside the ball shooter mechanism while we're driving (so we can see if it's clogged or something).
Anyways, I should probably go do something productive and try not to fail my classes during this week. How sad. Good bye...
Robotics Week #5
Submitted on February 9, 2009 by joanna
Ahh!!! Where does the time go? Week five has already ended, and we are on the home stretch. Whereas in baseball, home stretch is a good thing, in robotics, the home stretch means developing or furthering a caffeine addiction, a drop in grades, and/or overall health depreciation.
So, our robot pretty much looks like a robot this week. We have all our rollers attached, and and most of our motors mounted. We finished mounting all the electronics this weekend. We do have a problem, however. We are overweight. The maximum weight our robot can weigh is 120 pounds. We are currently at 124 with still items to attach. But, we're working on solving these issues. Hopefully, everything will be resolved before shipping next Wednesday.
Chairman's Award, Woodie Flowers Award, and the Website Award applications are being worked on. We've still got a bunch to write for all of these, but we've got notes and anecdotes to sprinkle in. We've gotten really good teamwork on these items, and I'm hoping this will continue. The website is due this Thursday, and the Chairman's and Woodie Flower's Awards are due next week.
We've got some other events being lined up. There is an Engineering Day at a high school about 30 minutes away from our school. They've invited robotics teams and engineers from the university to talk about what they do. They're hoping to start their own robotics team next year. Hopefully we'll be able to help them get what they need to get started. Robotics is such a great opportunity for high school students.
Sometime we'll also be talking to state legislators. This was supposed to happen on March 2nd, but because our robot will already be in Milwaukee at this time, our adviser is trying to change times. I'm not sure if times have been changed yet, but I guess I'll find out soon enough. These are all great opportunities to run through our Chairman's Award presentations.
The end is in sight. It will be a bittersweet moment for all this year's seniors when they realize that they will never work on a robot as a student for the FIRST robotics competition ever again. Personally, I hope to cherish these last robot building moments with my lifelong friends and plan for the competition which should be a blast! So... hang in there everyone!
Robotics Week #3.5
Submitted on January 29, 2009 by joanna
Hey Everybody... so I've been kinda busy for the past week, so this entry will cover weeks 3 and half of week 4...
So we've gotten the basic frame of our robot built. We're working on our rollers. My friend (let's call her [M]) and I went to Wal-Mart and came out with 10 toilet brushes to use for our rollers on our robot. It was really fun to go shopping for random things at Walmart and then walk out carrying so many toilet brushes... I actually had to go back just yesterday to get 16 more toilet brushes. Well, I should probably explain. So our rollers are going to hopefully harvest the orbit balls from the ground. We're using the bristles of our toilet brushes on the rollers which will be connected to a motor to coax all the orbit balls into our robot.
Well... maybe I should explain the game, just in case you don't know it already. So, we'll be on a low friction surface. The objective of the game is to place as many orbit balls (balls made up of wires and is basically hole-y and empty in the middle) in opposing team's trailers as possible within a 2'15" game period. We can harvest balls from the ground or one person on the team can try to throw them over a wall. Hopefully this sort of explains the game. If you're not satisfied with my explanation, you can work on a program to kill me through your computer, or just visit www.usfirst.org and click on FIRST Robotics Competition.
We're also in the process of writing the essays for the Chairman's Award and Woodie Flowers Award. The Chairman's Award recognizes teams for their "exemplary efforts in spreading the FIRST message as well as their talents in organizing materials for their presentations." The Woodie Flowers award is for a mentor who has "done an outstanding job of motivation through communication while also challenging the students to be clear and succinct in recognizing the value of communication." We've decided to nominate one of our mentors who has spent an enormous effort to help us and teach us. He's been amazing. Thanks [name of mentor].
Week 4 is almost over. Panic will soon take over as we scramble to finish the robot. But as long as we're having fun, I think it's all worth it. We've grown closer as a team, and I personally have learned more about my team members as individuals and their talents than I ever have before. I know this sounds sappy like the end of a romantic comedy (rom com? idk... I'm not up on the whole teenspeak), but it's totally true. So until next time, so long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodbye.
Robotics Week #2
Submitted on January 17, 2009 by joanna
Week 2 of the Robotics season has come through and ended. I think everyone's pretty excited and is pretty involved in the building/planning process so far. Because of the crazy cold weather here, we've had school canceled for THREE WHOLE DAYS! It's given us all a chance to sleep, relax, and of course, draw up plans for our robot.
On Friday, a group of students (me included) went to a mall downtown and talked about different ways to store and harvest our balls. We brought a book full of robots from 2006 (since the games are somewhat similar minus the surface we're driving on) for inspiration. After three hours of discussion, we settled on the original plan. Go figure.
This Saturday (AKA today) the FIRST Lego League (FLL) state competition was held. A group of students from our team went to volunteer. We were supposed to be there by 7:30am, but since we had to drive about 2.5 hours to get there, we all made it somewhere between 9 and 9:30am. We guarded stairwells, took out trash from restrooms, cashiered for pizza, became hall monitors, and manned practice tables. The practice tables were probably the coolest. Basically, we stand there with a clipboard that team mentors sign up for practice times on, then make sure that each team only gets a maximum of 10 minutes on the table. Also, we had to make sure kids didn't walk away with any legos. We got to see a bunch of teams of 4-8th graders. I was pretty impressed with a lot of the robots. They had really neat innovative and workable methods of doing their tasks.
One of the tasks was to take a polar bear, skiier, and some other object over a line of legos. I was most impressed with a team that decided to catapult this items using their robot. Another task was to move a ball over another line of legos. One team made some sort of slingshot that shot the ball over the line of legos with ease. Most of the teams got along really well. One team worked so efficiently that it reminded me of a top-knotch army. Some other teams didn't along well at all. There was a team that spent 7 of their allotted 10 minutes arguing about what task to practice first. Well, I guess this is all part of the learning experience.
FIRST Lego League is a great experience for upper elementary and junior high students. I could definitely see the enthusiasm all the students had for what they were doing. I hope that they continue into high school and join FTC/FRC teams. I would definitely recommend that FTC and FRC teams go and volunteer at FLL events.
I'm hoping everyone is having fun doing robotics this season. Enjoy hanging with your robotics friends. For lack of a better ending to this entry, I'll just end with ROBOTICS ROCKS! Sorry. I promise that I'll write something better next week.
Robotics Week #1
Submitted on January 12, 2009 by joanna
So... I got an okay from our team's web guy (tdawson) to write a blog about each week of robotics. This will be going on our robotics team website too which is still being set up. He's doing a great job with it so far. Once we get the real URL for it, I'll post it here.
Anyways, we got the kit last Saturday. We watched it at a team member's house (let's call her [M]) who is a freshman and awesome. So we sat around in her basement talking and half watching the incredibly long line of speeches about safety, FIRST, and whatnot... After about an hour and fifteen minutes, Woodie Flowers entered the screen. Now, Woodie Flowers is awesome. Not only does he have an awesome name, but he's also a professor MIT and pretty much started FIRST. We got excited (which usually means screaming and yelling for others to be quiet) and started to listen. After his little speech, the game was revealed: Lunacy. We were all wondering what that could mean. But without further delay, the game simulation/animation video was played. Then Woodie Flowers and another person from the FIRST team came out and did a little demonstration for us. After that, I had to leave because of a clarinet lesson. So... someone else will have to cover what happened after that...
We had a meeting Sunday to go over the video and some building plans. Again, someone else will have to cover this... I was at church service and unable to attend this meeting. I hear that it was pretty productive. Now, I know what you're thinking. If you're not there at these meetings, how on earth do you know what's going on? Well, first of all, it's pretty unusual for me to not be there so often in the beginning of a season. Second of all, we've got a really great communication system. Starting last season, we've been using Google Groups to send emails to all team members. The secretary or whoever is willing to type up a summary pretty much sends an email after each meeting. That way, no matter what your schedule is, you'll have a general sense of what's going on. Everyone is involved in this process, and a lot gets done over emails. Of course, our entire team is very close, and no one so far has had his or her head bitten off by anyone else on the team yet. So in other words, anyone on the team is open to questions.
This year, we've been meeting in a lab at our local university. We've been able to meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6-8:30pm and Saturdays from 1pm to whenever. So this week, we got some sort of chassis for the robot done. Also, we got our gearboxes constructed and mounted two on the drivetrain. We also designed some sort of harvesting methods to get the balls from the field. This planning was done by everyone who wanted to help and the mentors (engineers). The engineers are really awesome. They don't just do all our work. They listen to our ideas, comment on them, and then help us when we need it. They pretty much just rock, and we love them for everything they do.
Pretty much, that's what we've done this week. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate for the next six weeks, and we won't have too much ice and snow.
I think my next entry will be about the Chairman's Award and Website Award. Since we were one of the recipients of the NASA FRC Sponsorship Grant, we are required to submit the Chairman's Award. So, it's just been another opportunity for the team to work together and get some writing skills to match our out-of-this-world engineering skillZ with a capital Z. Fo Shizzle.
