FIRST FRC Regional 2009

Wow, what an adventure! The students did an awesome job in the FIRST FRC Regional. The blizzard we had here in Colorado interrupted things a little, but sure didn't interrupt the excitement. I was able to head down all day Saturday, the final day.

It was like going to an NHRA drag race at Bandimere Speedway! Controlled chaos. Pits lined with students, robots, tools, all kinds of crazy costumes. Thousands in the stands, giant arena in the center, huge PA system and big screen display. Wow. Heck, we were even in the news.

The team had a roller coaster ride. Their first few matches went really rough. The very first match they DQed and ran into penalties later. Unfortunately the team was absolute dead last all throughout the competition. You can imagine how disappointing that would be after working so hard for 6 weeks on the robot. Nevertheless they were having fun and kept a positive attitude, which is a credit to the character of each of them.

We had a good bot, and it worked great. It was one of the most maneuverable and fastest on the field. So it didn't seem fair to be at the tail end of the listings. They did catch a break towards the end with a couple good matches. But things totally turned around when we got picked by one of the finalist teams to join their alliance!

From low to soaring in a hearbeat! The last three games we got crushed, I'm sad to say, but it was still a triumph for Team 443, which had never made it that far in regional competition. So pretty soon it was time to pack up the robot into its shipping box, pack up the tools and head home.

I'm really proud of the students. They are an impressive lot and if they ever doubted it before, I hope they know now that they can do anything they set their minds to.


FIRST 2009: [Lunacy! | Five Week Flurry | Under Pressure | Away | Progress | More Progress | Done Building! | FRC Regional 2009 ]

Done Building!

The team really pulled together and polished off all the details over the last couple weeks.

Bumpers were built after 3 tries at fabrics, lexan covers made to protect people from pinch points and protect the bot from debris and collision, vinyl stickers declaring team and sponsors, and numerous finishing touches.

The scrimmage on Saturday was a success (so I hear; I was out of town) with the robot able to score on other trailers very consistently.

The robot weighs in at around 100# last I checked, but they added balast towards the rear to improve handling and traction last night before packing it up to ship out today. Yup, that's right, the robot is crated and ready to go!

Let me tell you a little about the robot (I am including this from a prior post as this content is more appropriate here, plus I now have pictures to go with the descriptions).

The robot has seven separate motors to drive all the wheels and gizmos on the robot. We've used up our entire stock of aluminum channel from the FIRST kit as well as a healthy portion of additional channel we bought. We're running 4 wheel drive skid steer, with one CIM per side driving the wheels with a single chain.



We're using an industrial belt mechanism (above right) with a longer belt adapted to it, and one of the smaller FIRST DC motors driving it via the original chain/sprocket system. We've added hooks to the belt to lift the balls out of the back of the chassis area and up to the scoring device.



There's a rolling bar on the front of the chassis (above left), just below the height of the balls to help force them into the chassis--or spit them out if need be. It's driven by a CIM and belt drive at a fairly high RPM.

The controller (above right) sits on top of the raised platform just above the ball collection area. The ball lifter (orange belt) rises up just behind that.

We have two more motors on the chute that guides balls to their target. They have wheels attached to accelerate the balls along their path.

In all, this robot build-up has been a big, satisfying success! From idea to tentative designs and builds to raw panic to finished and very functional robot all in two months. What a ride! And we're not done yet, we still have the Regional Competition on March 26-28 at Denver University Magness Arena (pdf). Hope you can make it!




FIRST 2009: [Lunacy! | Five Week Flurry | Under Pressure | Away | Progress | More Progress | Done Building! | FRC Regional 2009 ]

More Progress

Team 443 made tons of progress in the last week, with a nearly completed ball collector/lifter, a functional drivetrain (they took it for a spin with the temporary controller), a great start on the ball scoring device, and a new gizmo to help collect or spit out balls at the front of the chassis.

Our scrimmage is coming up in another week, so we have to scramble this week and the upcoming weekend. There are a lot of little details to work out but the robot is definitely coming together.


FIRST 2009: [Lunacy! | Five Week Flurry | Under Pressure | Away | Progress | More Progress | Done Building! | FRC Regional 2009 ]

Progress

Things really came together Sunday. I missed out Saturday and some work was done to fix up the frame for competition and mount the motors. Sunday we fixed up the wheel spacers, finished mounting the motors, built and mounted a chain tensioner, started fitting the chain to length, built out the platform for mounting electronics and battery, worked on the belt system, and worked on coding to control all the stuff. Basically we got a ton of stuff done and, I think, we'll have a robot running around picking up balls by the end of the week.


FIRST 2009: [Lunacy! | Five Week Flurry | Under Pressure | Away | Progress | More Progress | Done Building! | FRC Regional 2009 ]

Away

We spent some time last night working more on the chassis to figure out the layout of the ball pickup, motors, electronics and so on. We're getting closer. The ball pickup seems promising. The students did a great job on everything and had lots of smart ideas.

We're still trying to arrive at a final design and hopefully will get there soon. We have a tendency to make big changes from session to session because we can't all attend every session and because we have some communication challenges that makes it difficult to maintain continuity of design across build sessions.

Hopefully the team will work something out tonight and Saturday.

I am indisposed until Sunday, and am being called away to Orlando by work next week. So my contributions will be pretty limited for awhile. I think the pressure will start to get pretty high by the time I get back.


FIRST 2009: [Lunacy! | Five Week Flurry | Under Pressure | Away | Progress | More Progress | Done Building! | FRC Regional 2009 ]

Under Pressure

I don't know. Team 443 has only 13 sessions left, about 50-60 hours. I missed out on a few last weekend as I had family obligations. Unless a miracle happened tonight (I was in class so couldn't attend) we don't have a complete chassis frame. And we don't even have the parts to make a chassis frame.

I feel like we should be a lot farther along. I think we could be more communicative and more cohesive in our efforts. I just hope we can finalize most of the chassis frame by the end of the weekend, along with having a suitable mockup of the ball harvester mechanism. If we can do that, we might have a chance, here. Hm.



FIRST 2009: [Lunacy! | Five Week Flurry | Under Pressure | Away | Progress | More Progress | Done Building! | FRC Regional 2009 ]

Five Week Flurry

Five weeks left, and Sunday saw a flurry of activity on a number of areas by FIRST FRC Team 443. In one corner the team worked on the controller and programming toolchain. We had another team building a mockup trailer while learning about basic woodworking. Another group was designing the moon rock collection systems.

Our prototype robot, Gwen-a-gear needed a controller transplant so several students learned how to use an end mill while working on a lexan controller mounting platform to bolt onto the chassis which already has the moon wheels installed.

A couple of the students worked on decomposing the work into a work breakdown structure (WBS), plan, and rough schedule to help the entire team stay focused.


FIRST 2009: [Lunacy! | Five Week Flurry | Under Pressure | Away | Progress | More Progress | Done Building! | FRC Regional 2009 ]

Lunacy!

Lunacy is the FIRST Robotics Challenge 2009 game that was unveiled at the kickoff this morning. Many of us on team 443 were able to make the kickoff presentation in the Denver Museum of Nature and Science IMAX theatre. Here's the game animation.



We got our parts kit, did our inventory, now it's time to think about strategy...


FIRST 2009: [Lunacy! | Five Week Flurry | Under Pressure | Away | Progress | More Progress | Done Building! | FRC Regional 2009 ]

Happy New Year!

Happy new year to you!!

We're just two days away from the Tech Challenge Kickoff! Can't wait to find out what this year's contest is all about!