1208 Blog
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Monday, March 8, 2010
This past
weekend, 16 Robotics members traveled to Kansas City to compete in the
Kansas City Regional. Our team was very victorious!! Although we did not
win the regional, we did learn important methods to help us in our next
competition, the St. Louis Regional. Our team first arrived in Kansas
City on Wednesday. After a restful night sleep (somewhat), we loaded the
suburbans and traveled to the Arena. Thursday was just a practice day,
and Friday was when the preliminary matches started. After a long day
and a half of matches, we ranked 21st out of 59 teams.
Because we were not in the top eight, we were not able to draft
other teams so we waited to see what team would draft us. It started
with the top team drafting, circled around to the eighth team drafting
and then made a round back to the top team picking their last team. We
were drafted by the eighth team. Because of this, we started the
quarter-finals playing against the top alliance. In the first match, we
lost, but redeemed ourselves by beating our opposing alliance in the
second match. In the third match, our two allied robots stopped working
so we were stuck with trying to defend our goals while the opposing
robots gained up on us. How unfortunate. Overall, it was a very
successful, and we’re looking forward to an exciting competition in St.
Louis.
Here is a brief overview of our KC competition experience:
·
We learned and
mastered how to traverse the bumps without tipping over.
·
We learned that the
numerous hours we spent on the autonomous mode were worth it, we have
one the top performers in autonomous mode.
·
We learned that our
robot was a great bully and could shut down opponents scoring very
effectively.
·
We learned that in
this year’s game wins and losses are not important, only scoring (by
either alliance) will add to your seeding score. Of course, in
elimination matches wins are very important, thus we learned that there
are two components to this year’s game: one not competitive, the other
intensely so.
·
We learned how to
make our lifting mechanism work effectively.
·
We learned that we
were one of the top robots at the competition.
·
We learned that in
the third match of a two out of three elimination match against the
number one alliance, when one of your alliance partners says “we have
lost control of our robot”, after only ten seconds of operation, and
your other alliance partner announces “our kicker has broken”, twenty
seconds later, it is a little disheartening.
Mostly, it was a
wonderful experience for everyone involved; we can’t stop talking about
it and are planning for St. Louis in two weeks! We hope you can
join us there.
Videos of the matches can be found at the
following links:
http://streaming.more.net/robo2010/match_007.asf
http://streaming.more.net/robo2010/match_014.asf
http://streaming.more.net/robo2010/match_023.asf
http://streaming.more.net/robo2010/match_033.asf
http://streaming.more.net/robo2010/match_048.asf
http://streaming.more.net/robo2010/match_054.asf
http://streaming.more.net/robo2010/match_061.asf
http://streaming.more.net/robo2010/match_077.asf
***
http://streaming.more.net/robo2010/match_087.asf
http://streaming.more.net/robo2010/match_094.asf
QUARTERFINALS
http://streaming.more.net/robo2010/finalmatch_001.asf
http://streaming.more.net/robo2010/finalmatch_005.asf
***
http://streaming.more.net/robo2010/finalmatch_009.asf
We
recommend qualification match #77 and quarterfinal match #5.
METOOL OUT!
Monday, February 8, 2010
After a week or so of practicing with our robot, we have made many
adjustments. First, we switched our front and back wheels to the
opposite of how we had them. Also, we are experimenting with
different flexible poles to use for the robot arm to lift it.
Another success we made was primarily contributed from the programming
team. The autonomous, the program used to automatically kick balls
in the beginning of the game, seems to be working flawlessly. The
kicker is being tested with different angles as we speak. We are
doing trials to find which angle would be most appropriate for which
situation. Last, we have finalized the bumpers for our robot in
case anything comes our way! With two weeks left to go, we seem to
be right on track.
Metool Brigade, OUT!
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
After school yesterday, we tested the robot in various situations
involving the bump, the tower, and the goal we have constructed.
The first obstacle we faced dealt with maneuvering the robot over the
bump without the battery holder hitting it. With some minor
adjustments, we easily fixed this. Then we experienced confusion
when the arm did not spring back as hoped. Overnight, we have
devised a plan involving tent poles that will provide more spring to
grab onto the tower. With these changes and an updated programming
system, we feel that today's testing should work out much better.
Keep your fingers crossed!
Metool Brigade, OUT!
Monday, February 1, 2010
As
of Saturday, we have attached a flexible, bending arm that extends to
grab the bar, which elevates the robot with the use of a wrench that
spools in a steel cable. Even though this was a rigorous task to
complete, we succeeded after several trials thanks to the adjustments made. The electrical board has also been redone due
to a mishap last weekend when the board split in half. Lastly, we
constructed a holder that keeps the battery in place while the robot is
in motion.
Metool Brigade, OUT!
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Sorry for the posting delay. In the days that we left you hanging
in suspense, we have majorly improved the robot! As of yesterday,
the kicker is officially attached to the robot, kicking the ball at a
height tall enough to clear the bump and reaching high speeds. In
addition to the kicker, a collector, which holds and puts backspin on
the ball, is now attached to the front. As for the wheels, there
are omni-wheels on the back of the robot and high-friction wheels on the
front. The omni-wheels allow the robot to decrease traction in the
back, which allows greater turning abilities. The front wheels
will allow our robot to climb over the bump.
Apart from the
robot, we have constructed the tower that the robots must hold onto at
the end of the competition. Sadly, during a test, our electrical
board experienced great trauma and cracked in half. We are in the
process of reconstructing a new board. Hopefully it'll all be
splendid by the next post.
P.S. The lifter works!
Metool
Brigade, OUT!
