One Week Away

We are one week from the first competition on Saturday, December 12th. And, like any other team before a competition, we are scrambling to finish things up.

A lot has happened since the last blog post. First of all, we went to EIS and presented what we were doing with robotics and technology, and they took a great interest in FTC. They then proceed to pull a big check of $2,000 out of their pockets and give it to us. We are absolutely so grateful to them and all they've done for us!

Another thing that's happened is that we went to the Alpharetta Library and did a collaboration of presentations with the Chattahoochee team Taco Tuesday for kids and their parents.  The kids loved it and they got to drive the robots and ask questions. It was a amazing to see their faces light up!

We have created a scoring mechanism that is going to allow us to dump the debris into the buckets on the mountains. We've improved the wheels and their rubbery surfaces, and we've attached the hanging mechanism (the t-slot). These are some pictures and videos of how everything is working so far:

 

Sorry this wasn't a very long blog post, but we have a whole lot to do and only a short amount of time to write about it!

Major Progress!

It's been a while since we've updated, but a lot has happened since then! We've had major progress in getting up the mountain, and that's mostly because of a new type of wheel that we tried. When we removed the rubber from the normal wheels, it gave us lots of traction for grabbing onto the bars and propelling us forward.

We also received our T-slots that we're going to use as an arm to hang on the top bar of the mountain and also score debris! We put it together and it's working perfectly. We couldn't have asked for anything better right now.

On the topic of outreach, we went to Ocee Elementary school for their family science night. We taught them about FIRST, and what they do, and what FLL and FTC and FRC are like, and what the important aspects of all three are. The kids got to drive the robot, as well as a lego FLL robot, too. They really enjoyed it.We also hosted the Chattahoochee High School team in our garage so that they could use our field.

We also had a build day a few Saturdays ago, in which we went to a large gathering with other FTC teams where there was a full field where we were able practice, and try trial and error. This was where we had the robot get the highest then it had ever gotten. There's a video on that near the end of the post. ;)

Things are progressing quite nicely, and we learned that we are one of the few teams that have found a way to make it up the mountain that far and well. Hopefully our progress will only get faster and better, so we're keeping our fingers crossed as we continue to work.

Hosting the Chattahoochee High School Team

Experimenting with the wheels

Experimenting some more...

Our T-slot contraption :)

Ocee Elementary schoolers driving our robot

Helping Hands

Our mentor, Tom, invited the team to his house to help him with a service project. He and his wife have friends with a 22 month old daughter who is has severe visual impairment. She was born prematurely and that is one of the effects. Her name is Sanjanna.

We built  something called a Perkins Play Space. It is basically a box with plexiglass sides and toys hanging from the top that she will be able to lay in. It is supposed to encourage her to reach out and be able to explore by touch. Tom had all the parts and our job was to build it.

First, we reviewed the plans and decided who would work on what. David, Jack, and Mr. Kerns began cutting the pieces. Jackson and Mr. Grant worked on cutting the holes in the plexiglass for the top. This is what the toys will hang from. Quintin and Tom planned for assembling.

When had been working for while, Sanjanna’s family came by to meet the team. We met her mom, dad, and brother Thomas. We learned about Sanjanna and the problems she faces and how the play space will help her. 

After a quick dinner with everyone, we said goodbye to the family and got back to work. By this time, we were assembling the frames for the sides. We also used Tom’s CNC machine to write a bible verse on one of the frame pieces.

We had to leave before it was finished, but Tom doesn’t have much left to do before he delivers it to the family. Not only did we learn a lot, but it also felt really good to do something for a special little girl.

Movie Stars

We are excited to introduce our new outreach video.

Click here to view the star-studded movie.

We want to thank Joe Ninowski for making the video for us. He did an awesome job!

Family Science Night at Mimosa Elementary School

We were invited to participate in Family Science Night at Mimosa Elementary School. This was the same event we did at a different school in the spring, and we knew it would be fun. Since only Jackson and David could go, we invited Team Genius to join us (FTC team 5875, the Inspire Award winners at the Techno Crusaders qualifier).

 

We set up in a classroom and had 3 groups of kids to present to. We presented what FIRST and FTC are all about to kids and parents. Upon the start of our presentation, we explained the importance of engineering, the different engineering fields, and how FTC can prepare for college, work, and everyday life after college.

Team Genius and our team had our display boards and we both demo'd our robots. Team Genius let the kids drive theirs around.

While the kids were driving, parents came and asked us questions about our team and FIRST. Some even asked in depth questions about our robot.

We gave everyone who wanted a FIRST pamphlet and a business card in case they had any more questions. We really enjoy doing this outreach.

TSI Field Trip Day

On Wednesday October 22nd, 2014, we went to see our new mentors, TSI Solutions. We were given a tour of their headquarters and met many of their employees. TSI solutions makes parts that other companies buy to use. Sometimes TSI makes sub-components that they sell to other companies instead of making others build the components. We were able to see some of the sub-components that they were working on. They donated us some T-slot aluminium channel of varying length. We aren't sure if they can be used on the robot, but we might use them for a sign in our booth.

Brandon met their VP salesman, John Post Jr. at a Surface Mount Technology Association convention. They were very excited to help us and they gave us some great pointers.We prepared a small introduction about our team, FIRST, and our robot for them to hear. They also showed us a pneumatic golf ball putter that was self refilling and in sync with itself. Over all, it was a great trip and we hope to hear more from them again

You can find more about our new mentors at http://4tsi.com/.

Field Trip for the Bot-Mobile

On Wednesday, December 11, Quintin took the robot to his pre-engineering class at Vantage Point Education in Duluth, Georgia. He did a presentation about FIRST and all the different levels (FLL, Jr. FLL, and FTC) and his experience in each.

He thoroughly explained the robot design process and how they landed on their final design, challenges along the way, etc. The class watched the FTC Block Party video so they had a better understanding of the game and program.

The kids were very interested and asked many questions. This tied in to the mechanical engineering unit the class was currently working through as well as the Electrical Engineering unit they just completed.

Way to represent, Quintin!

GRITS

But we're not talking about the breakfast food.

GRITS is the Georgia Robotics Invitational Tournament and Showcase and it was recently held at the World Congress Center. The robotics competition is for the more advanced FRC teams, but FTC teams are invited to participate in a showcase. Quintin and his dad went to represent Team Ctrl-Alt-Del.

They took our robot, even though it was still in the very early stages of building. They got to see other robots, which was very helpful. And they got some pointers from more experienced teams.

It was a good day!