Olympia Preparation/Subteam Updates: 1/17/08

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

We watched the video that was made for Olympia and the presenters discussed what they were going to present. We found out that Elyse, Kyle, and Peter B would be on King 5 the next morning.
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Mechanism:
Though no one stayed... We DID have a Mechanism meeting after Kyle went "You know what, you guys can go home."
-It was... Interesting. We discussed ideas for Outriggers and Ears. The Ears idea was multi-jointed, with a tension string to prevent flopping one direction but still allow flopping another (blah, being vague sucks).
-Outriggers... Well, actually got mentioned on the side of a proposed Poker mechanism. Study up on your music, and stand on your side to get the rather random hint. Actually seems like an interesting way to deploy Outriggers (since we likely won't want the outriggers dragging on the ground when we don't need them. I'm not sure how well such a design works though when you only want Outriggers, or when you are going the other direction)
-That's about it that people missed. We really SHOULD look into outriggers a bit more, 'cause a Gyro won't help you right yourself should some robot hit you and knock you over. A deployable Outrigger can kick you up right should you lie on your side :/
[qtd. Rai]

Olympia: 1/18/08

Fri, 18 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

We left school at approximately 11:00am for Olympia. Shortly after we got there we had lunch and then Paul Gudonis met up with us. After we finished eating we headed to Hearing room B in which the video was played and Elyse, Kyle, and Peter B made their presentation. Members from team XBot [488] and TRC [2046] showed up as well. After the presentation we had a tour of the capitol. We then headed home [or accidentally to Portland ^_^]. Good job presenters!

Seattle Times/Subteam Updates: 1/16/08

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

The Seattle Times photographer came again to retake photos. Afterwards there was an electronics meeting until 4:00 in which we made a shopping list for the electronics board and OI. The electronics meeting ended early and the mechanism meeting was canceled due to road conditions.

Atlanta Championship Update: 4/17/08

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Today was the first day of the Championship in Atlanta. We had several practice matches in the Georgia Dome and continued to work on the robot. It was a somewhat glitchy day for us, as a number of small things went wrong that caused us to not do very well; some connections were wrong, the chain came off once. We made some adjustments to the autonomous code--with the encoders on the wheels working, we can now drive based on distance, rather than time interval. It was really cool to watch all of the different robots--the best worldwide--playing the game, and to see some of the really nnovative desgns. There's teams from all around the country here, as well as international teams from such places as Mexico and Israel. Afterwards, we had dinner at the CNN tower food court, then played in the fountain in Centennial Park. Tomorrow, official qualifying matches begin.

Subteam Updates: 1/10/08

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Electronics figured out some of the basic necessities for the robot. After making a list of required parts, they checked the current inventory and determined some of what they need to buy. In additon, they did some research on different devices for measuring the angles of wheels.

Drivetrain discussed the requirements of the robot's role and different wheel configurations that would work best with each scenario. They decided on wheels with full 360-degree rotation capability, and then talked about the best driver interfaces given that choice. Sub-team members will be working on designing/prototyping the drivetrain configuration and thinking about driver interface systems.

Software team discussed tasks in preparation for programming the drivetrain. The IR board was assembled and some testing was done with it.

Subteam Updates: 1/14/08

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

On Saturday, drivetrain continued planning, determined the placement of motors, what kinds of motors will be used, and the general shape of the chassis.

Tuesday's meetings were all cancelled due to weather

Subteam Updates: 1/19/08

Sat, 19 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Drivetrain:
We decided to use a one stage reduction (6:1) using belts instead of using or buying a transmission.
We continued planning on the placement of the CIM motors and the mounting of them to the wheel modules.
Branden Gunn brought in a 1/2" stainless steel chassis we got to play with as well as other cut outs.
We discussed driving options further and played with programs brought in by Jim Troy and Sean Reilly.
Hope to begin assembling soon. [qtd. Elyse]
Worked on gearbox.
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Software:
Worked on a general idea for how the joystick will work and programming for it.
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Electronics:
Looked at the IR board. Got the batteries made and the chargers built [attached quick connects to both batteries and chargers].
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Spirit:
Worked on design of hoodie.

Subteam Updates: 1/21/08

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Team: We decided to have absolute encoders instead of continuous rotation pots, multi-turn pots, single-turn pots, or incremental encoders for turning.
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Electronics: Got wood for an electronics board and started working on more ideas for the placement of parts.
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Drivetrain: Discussed motors..etc. [I don't really remember so if someone else on drivetrain does...please leave a comment to this blog or email me, thanks!]
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Software: Worked on drivecode--possible use of a dial, work on coding for gyroscopic sensor, and have the robot move relative to driver. Also asked to create a backup program in case the gyro or encoders have a failure.
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Fabrication: Found out whether we had enough noodles, cloth, etc. to make the bumpers, which we don't. Made a shopping list.

Fabrication Marathon: 1/29/08

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Not sure what's going on with the Blog recently, but whatever. Big enough news that this needs to be posted~

So, the day started with a 20 minute team meeting to make up for lack of school on Monday. Heck, we had a 2 hour delay this day (Tuesday), and another hour delay the next. Elyse met with a reporter from the Issaquah Reporter, which excited the news crew as they were anxious to see us in Build season.

Now, for the amazing news: Fabrication on all parts is done! ...Well, fine. We have about 4 access holes that we forgot to make, but that will be quick and easy to do.

Here's to hoping we can assemble the robot within the next few days!

Subteam Updates: 1/25/08

Fri, 25 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Software: They fixed their joystick code for polar and rectangular driving styles.
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Fabrication: Made parts? I'm not really sure...

Subteam Updates: 1/26/08

Sat, 26 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Fabrication and Drivetrain: Since there weren't enough parts for drivetrain, we [fab and drivetrain] all did fabrication. We drilled holes, deburred holes, filed, used the sandblaster, etc.. Kyle, Jim, and Branden were cutting parts and such in the auto shop.
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Software: Worked on IR controller and PID. They ended up scrapping the PID idea.

Subteam Updates: 1/27/08

Sun, 27 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Drivetrain: Design has been finalized. Currently in the process of ordering/purchasing/otherwise obtaining parts for the crab module and chassis
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Fabrication: We realized that more holes and other measurements are off; therefore, we may have to remake several parts. Basically, we did the same things as yesterday: drilling, deburring, filing, sandblasting, etc.
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Software: Worked more on programming. Decided what encoders to use for driving--had to figure out how many ticks per revolution would work.

Video/Subteam Updates: 1/11/08

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Nathan Bosseler and the Impact Studio Pro crew came to film the robot and team in action, along with interviewing members of the team. The footage will be used to put together a video for our presentation in Olympia. Also present were a reporter and a photographer for the Seattle Times.

Afterwards, drivetrain met. Mentor Jim Troy brought a simulation of four driver interfaces that had been discussed in the last meeting, and the team tried out the different methods. They later tested some sample gyros for stabilizing the robot as provided by mentor Branden Gunn. The team then worked on the configuration of wheels, battery, and motor on the chassis.
http://issaquahrobotics.org/assets/galleries/Photons/1-11-08-OIDemo1.JPG?r=87108

Subteam Updates: 1/23/08

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Electronics: Finished shopping list.
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Drivetrain: No idea...wasn't there. If someone can please inform me of what happened. Thanks.

Subteam Updates: 2/2/08

Sat, 02 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

It works! It really works! :D
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Drivetrain: the crab modules were put together and mounted to the frame. Each one was cleaned, assembled, and tensioned, then tested and troubleshooted by connecting the motor to a battery. Using a strobe light, we were able to determine the speed without the weight of the robot, appoximately 24 ft/sec. Slip rings were epoxy-ed to the modules. Finally, the robot ran under its own power in the hall for in a few several-second trials. Hooray!
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Electronics: several components were mounted on their boards, though not yet finalized, and the CAD for that was updated.
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Software: worked with the encoders. Also, the team calendar is now online!

Subteam Updates: 2/4/08

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Drivetrain: put together the slip ring assembly, soldered wire to the brushes and tested one of the modules. The addition of the slip rings signigficantly decreased the voltage and the subsequent Rpm. We then ran numerous tests to determine where the resistance came from, and elevated the slip rings slightly to improve the contact with the brushes. More still needs to be done.
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Software: fixed drive code, worked more on website--contacts page works!

Subteam Updates: 2/5/08

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Drivetrain: We assembled the second bridge and had to do a slight bit of filing on one of the corners of the polycarbonate on one of the crab modules. After soldering wires to the motors and attaching one to the robot we got the module to continually spin 360 degrees so now the wheels go in both directions we want! David was working on getting the electronics board ready for mounting on the robot, but it didn't get mounted so we are doing that tomorrow. We are aiming for finishing the drivetrain tomorrow morning so the programmers can finally have it.
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Software: Well...they need the robot and since it wasn't done, the programmers didn't really do robot programming. I'm not really sure what they did today to be honest.

Subteam Updates: 2/7/08

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Drivetrain: basic assembly completed. Still some tweaking needed, such as lubricating the crab modules.
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Electronics: did an amazing job of assembling and wiring the boards in basically a day.
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Software: received robot, began determining difference between encoder and module rotation and ways of zeroing them.

Subteam Updates: 2/11/08

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Robot delivered to software team! (which is VERY excited...)
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Drivetrain: finished reassembling the robot, began constructing supports and discussing and designing shell and bumpers. Delivered robot to programmers, who for six minutes were oblivious to said delivery despite the many suppressed laughs and intense staring by drivetrain.
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Fabrication: evaluated materials on hand for bumpers, marked and made some pieces for structural supports
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Software: worked on getting PID control for turning wheels tuned. Found a couple of mechanical problems--ribbed drivetrain appropriately.
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Electronics: wired motors to the board. Drilled holes into the polycarbonate for the OI.

Subteam Updates: 2/8/08 & 2/9/08 [WILL DO THIS SOON!]

Sat, 09 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

I combined the two days because we basically did the same things and I'm not entirely sure which happened which day.
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Drivetrain: Disassembled the crab modules multiple times and the robot was an empty chassis like it was a month+ ago. Tried to find ways to make them spin better: graphite powder, paper. Also cut grooves into the delrin so it gets out "gunk". Re-assembled the robot. Only about an hour or two left to complete the drivetrain, or well, make it ready for the programmers. Probably forgetting something...
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Electronics: Fixed wires, re-assembled the electronics boards. Moved the victors for the new placement of the box beam supports. Finished design of OI [Thanks Elyse!].
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Fabrication: Created new box beam supports for the electronics boards.
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Software: Couldn't really do much without the robot.
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Spirit: Worked on hoodie design.

Subteam Updates: 2/12/08

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Software: did more testing and fiddling with code
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Drivetrain: determined bumper mounting system, added rail to the top of the robot

Subteam Updates: 2/14/08

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

The robot drives! Software got the code working well enough to actually place the robot on the ground and drive it. Unfortunately, the driving is still extremely difficult and as a result, we crashed into a table and a few of the bolts holding the box beams to the electronics boards came loose. Looks like we still have a lot to accomplish in the next few days before our ship date.
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Fabrication: Measured and cut pool noodles for the bumpers.
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Drivetrain: Replaced the graphite brushes with the new copper ones which work better.
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Spirit: Hoodie design basically finalized.

Subteam Updates: 2/13/08

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Fabrication: filed the new copper brushes.
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Software: Worked on making the crab modules rotate at the same speed. Worked on other drivecode too.
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Electronics: Decided to cut a hole into the electronics board and move the electronics into it so they don't interfere with the bumpers.

Subteam Updates: 2/15/08

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Drivetrain: Attached one of the three pieces of metal to protect the electronics during competition. We still have 2 more to attach. We cut the bolts that were too long and kept hitting one of the brackets [or some part of the robot...] [I think] . These are basically our shell and seem to be fairly durable and effective.
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Fabrication: Cut new angle brackets to make the electronics board more stable so we don't cause it to get loose again like yesterday... These attached the box beam to the chassis.
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Software: Worked on the proportionality of the encoder and other code.
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Only a few more days left and we still haven't had driver practice =[.
Reminder: The robot is now being picked up by FedEx somewhere between 2pm-4pm Tuesday February 19th.

Subteam Updates: 2/16/08

Sat, 16 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Drivetrain: Took off the polycarbonate on the bridges, drilled holes in them, and attached the metal plates to hold the brushes down. Made new skids that are kind of like skiis and lowered them. They are now a tad bit shorter than 2".
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Software: Worked on drivecode-PID.
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Fabrication: Made the bumpers and painted 1318 on them.
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Driving: We practiced driving in the classroom and then decided that there wasn't enough room so we drove in the commons. We tested driving in a straight line, turning, and using translate mode. Translate mode seemed to work to some degree. The spring seems to absorb most of the impact of the ball and the robot doesn't tip over when a ball is thrown at it or when it's kicked.
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No springs! Heh heh heh heh =].

Subteam Updates: 2/17/08

Sun, 17 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Drivetrain: Took off the turn motors and Branden replaced the bolts in them and we then put them back on.
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Software: Adjusted the PID and possibly some other drive code.
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Fabrication: Disassembled and reassembled the bumpers to attach pen nuts. Put on one of the two bumper pieces which took forever...as in an hour or so. It was hard to get the bumpers flush. Also, we had to do some measurements, etc. We will attach the other bumper tomorrow since one of the pen nuts came loose. It shouldn't be nearly as bad later on.
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Electronics: Drilled a hole into the upper electronics board and pulled the wires through it so they won't interfere with the bumpers. Zip tied the radio to one of the support beams. Elyse finished painting the OI board and it looks very nice. We used plastic fusion to attach the control board to the OI board, attached the RC with screws, and attached the joystick with velcro. We need to cut some new wires since some are too short, etc.
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Mechanism: Yes, really, a mechanism section! Kendrick decided to attach "ears" to the front and back arch on the top of the robot so when the ball hits the ears and the bumper the ball goes forward so we can somewhat herd the ball.
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Driving: Sadly, we still can't go entirely straight and are a degree or more off. It is calculated however if we are one degree off in both directions we will have gone 90 degrees in approx. 24 feet which is about the width of the field...if I said something inaccurate, please correct me. When we try to drive straight the robot slightly veers to the right, which is somewhat odd since the robot seems to be heavier on the left side and slightly leans that way. We had some problems with translate mode and can't entirely do that right now. We still have not driven with the remote for hybrid yet...I believe that software is almost done. We discovered that if the flag is approx. the height it will be in competition, the flag falls over and nearly touches the ground when we turn...which is a problem. We never ended up going to Aviation HS, but we will tomorrow.
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Yeah, yeah, my post is long.

Subteam Updates: 2/18/08

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Electronics: Solder extensions to the wires on the IR board and crimped the ends.
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Drivetrain: Attempted using bungee cords on the flag to stabilize it, but instead it just kept the flag down when it fell over so we decided that the best choice is to just have an entirely stable flag support. We attached a piece of polycarbonate to the support beams and attached the radio to the bottom of it.
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Driving: We finally went to Aviation HS for driver practice today! We had some problems with going straight at first but that improved after the code was fixed. We also had issues with translating. Sadly, we broke the gear box in one of the turn motors and are waiting for our order of replacements. Even with this disability, the robot was fairly drivable in the end. All four skids were torn off after hitting random corners and we are replacing them with box beams in Portland. A few people had some time to try driving, which was a neat experience. In the end we concluded that Elyse is our driver. It was good to watch the other robots and see how they functioned and start thinking of ways to prevent them from scoring in competition. We never actually went full speed and were still quite fast. Our spins are fairly cool and very fast. Software took turns of getting to test the robot and fix the code when problems arose and we managed to fix or improve several bugs. We removed the old flag and are going to have our flag the way we did last year with the angle bracket. We still have to mount the flag in Portland as well. When we returned to IHS we noticed the antenna was broken on the radio on the robot so we attached a new one and placed it to the side. We found that the belt somewhat slips. When we quickly go from driving forward to reverse and vice versa the robot makes unhappy sounds. I'm not sure if we actually got to tensioning the chain.
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We still have not tested Hybrid mode and have a non-functional OI. We hope to change both of those in Portland.

Subteam Updates: 1/19/08

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

The robot is happily in its lovely crate =]. We cleaned up the room and put tools and other items in the boxes they should be in. The bins and room look much nicer now. It's unfortunate that so few people showed up today to help out. The "Thurs" bin is now the 2008 bin and has several items we will need in Portland. We decided that we should buy some new/extra skids since our former ones are somewhat damaged and probably won't survive through all of the competitions. We made a shopping list and task list for Portland. The bumpers should be far easier to take on and off now. We will attach 10x11 plates in Portland to protect the sides of the electronics boards. These will be waterjetted and have our name, etc. engraved in them. We most likely will have at least a meeting before we go to Portland. Have a good break everyone!
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GO TEAM!

Chairman's Update

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Our entry for the Chairman's Award has been submitted for the Portland regional! Thanks to everyone who worked on it and who sent in pictures. Now all we have to do is put together a presentation...

Post-Portland Update!

Sun, 02 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0800

WE WON THE CHAIRMAN'S AWARD!
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Congratulations Team! Thanks everyone for all of their work this year with outreach, fundraising and presentations. Without you, the Chairman's committee wouldn't have had anything to write or talk about. For those of you who have been working on other things, here's what the Chairman's committee was doing. We had one Saturday meeting when we wrote up all of the things we've been doing this year in short answer form, then over 2nd winter break composed and edited the 10,000 character (1800 word) essay. We collected pictures, and then submitted four of them and the rest of the written portion on the 21st. Carrie put together a lovely binder for presentation to the judges, including our promotional dvd from Olympia. The presentation was a little last-minute, due to the conflicting scheduling, but I think it came together well. Thanks especially to Kyle for stepping in to present on an hour's notice! Thanks also to everyone who gave feedback on the presentation along the way--we really appreciate it!
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Now someone else write about the regional, because I want to know what happened!

Portland Regional Update

Sun, 02 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Warning, long update. The first three paragraphs are useful if you have no idea what has happened. The following paragraphs then will be more commentary about the regional.

First off, a brief explanation of how the competition works is in order. A FIRST Regional takes place over three days. The first day (Thursday) is devoted to practice and robot repair, meaning that none of the matches a team participates in on Thursday are applied to the tournament. On Friday and Saturday, qualification rounds are held, where teams are randomly paired and play a set number of rounds with no regard to their win or loss record. This year, the number of qualification rounds for each team was seven. Now, once the last qualification round has finished on Saturday, the top 8 ranked teams are notified that they get to continue on into the elimination rounds. Since alliances need three robots, these top 8 teams draft for two more partner teams each, then proceeding into a best of three tournament bracket.

As most people by now have noticed, IRS didn't do so hot at the competition, with a record of 2 wins and 5 losses in the qualification rounds. By the time qualification rounds were over, we were ranked sixth from last. Quite obviously none of the top 8 teams chose us for a partner.

<hr />

Why did this happen? Why did our robot go 2-5 during qualification matches?

The very nature of Overdrive makes it so merely running around the track during tele-operated is not an efficient enough strategy for scoring points. If so much as a corner of your robot crosses backwards over a line marking each quarter of the field, you lose five laps' worth of points. Most robots could run around 3 laps. The very fastest had a record of about 7 laps (this was team 847) if I recall correctly. Therefore, if even your partner teams get penalties, all of your laps have just become worthless, and most of the time your team will lose enough points to negate other robots running around the track. 2 points per lap is not good enough when our robot never gets more than 6 laps in. 
There are certainly reasons our robot never got more then six laps in. Heck, the average lap count was maybe three. A big obvious reason why our average is low is because our robot tipped over when team 368's hurler rammed into it from the side, yet 368 didn't get penalized. Also, our robot is so short that it can get stuck in the center lane divider, which happened twice. It is possible for an alliance member to knock us free (which happened in those games), but that won't make up for the time we lose for sitting still, and the time our alliance partner loses for trying to hit us at the right angle and right velocity to knock us free. Finally, the robot pulling sharply to the left causes us to hit the walls with high frequency. Everytime we do that, we lose speed, time, and pose a chance of getting stuck in the wall. The reason for pulling to the left hasn't quite been diagnosed yet, but it seems to be due to our wheels being incapable of perfectly resetting to their original position after a turn. 
Of course, those are all tele-operated challenges. None of that has regarded the one fifteen second period where our robot actually is an efficient scorer. One lap could make 16 points rather then 2. Half of a lap earns 8 points. It really is too bad that our robot never made either of those requirements. Two of our runs had people errors, with the wheels being calibrated backwards (so the robot tried to drive into the wall rather then towards th line), and forgetting to plug in the Infrared Receiver. Other times, the robot tried to turn too sharply and simply crashed into the wall. Finally, other robots actually drive faster then we do during Autonomous, and can out speed us, and even get in our way when trying to make the turn. Autonomous for us really suffered due to neglect, despite it being the most important 15 seconds of the game. I can't recall ever seeing people working on making a remote that could send signals across the field. We admit it - our autonomous could have used some work. It was simply very unfortunate that our build season was so rushed so our drive code was imperfect - having to work on drive code leeched away precious programmer time, which could have been used on autonomous. Making eight times the normal amount of points would have been decisive.

<hr />

What's truly amazing about the competition, is that other teams clearly took time to build a Hybrid code that WORKS. Team 1540, the Flaming Chickens, designed a tall box on wheels with a top that can elevate for a total of three different heights. The box can shoot fowards, use sensors to figure out where a ball is, and raise its top to height setting #2, which is just below the overpass's height. The top of the robot then rams into the ball, knocking it free from the overpass and earning the extra 8 points every attempt. Even more amazing, is that since there was almost no time lost knocking the ball off, their box could shoot past line #2, reach the other overpass, and reliably knock a ball off from there as well while crossing that finish line. That's a total of 28 points they could reliably earn in Autonomous mode, assuming there were no opposing teams with red or blue shirts to throw off their sensors (which happened in the finals). 28 points is more then our team EVER earned; our highest contribution to the team's score is 16 points: 4 for crossing a line in Autonomous, and 12 from crossing the finish line. This team, 1540, was undefeated all tournament long. Watching this team in particular should have clued us in to the fact that autonomous is a critical part of our game plan that we unfortunately neglected.

<hr />

Now, for designs that worked and didn't work.

Ball pokers were interesting to observe. There were teams that extended a thin shaft up to try and knock the ball free (360 is a good example of this). None of those were able to reliably knock free the ball. On the other hand, teams watched the Flaming Chickens and their unique use of their roof to knock the ball off. Elevator robots like 488 learned to raise their elevator so the top of it would just brush the overpass and knock the ball free, taking other team's strategies and becoming more effective because of it. Coincidentally, 488 was ranked second place after qualification matches. There was another team that made it into the final match with a "hammer" that swung upwards. This design also was able to reliably knock the ball off, but sent it flying backwards as opposed to forwards. The direction actually made a slight difference, as it prevented teams from counting the ball flying over their finish line and getting points for hurdling the ball. In any case though, having a good sized area of contact was what separated the good pokers from the rather useless ones. If we decide to put a poker onto the robot, it has to be a fairly large area, rather then just a pneumatic shaft poking upwards.

Hurlers, for the most part, were comprised of only two classes of designs that worked astoundingly well. Only a handful of teams used a hook like design with an arm to raise the hook up to the overpass's height. Since the hook design itself was unable to grab a ball, those teams all did fairly badly. All of the well preforming teams used elevator designs and catapult designs. While none of the catapults were able to effectively knock balls down from the overpass and also had difficulty scooping the ball into their launch pad, once they scooped the ball up, it never came loose. Also, they had amazing range, which was vital when a match was going to end. So what if they can't place a ball back on top of the overpass, when they can launch from twice as far as any elevator, and still get the 8 points for Hurdling? One final thing to consider: Most good Hurlers made 2 to 4 laps every match. That's right about our team average, and only two laps lower than our highest score. Yikes?

Clearly, as we've seen some hurlers that can also move at a reasonably fast pace, we walk away from this regional knowing that we must really accentuate our robot's primary features - its small size, excellent maneuverability, and blazing-fast speed should allow us to weave through opposing robots easily and gain more laps than we had. An imperfectly tuned drive code and various mechanical problems hindered us from achieving this goal. We learned much and fixed many mechanical and programmatical problems during this regional and hope that we can do better in Tacoma, even if we were disappointed with our performance in Portland.

<hr />

However, there was a light at the end of the tunnel for the IRS...

After a very long and frankly unsuccessful day in competition, our semi-depressed team members were sitting in the stands. We had watched the finals that our team had not participated in, and sat through the awards ceremonies, watching all the teams around us receive awards, but not us. But the very last award was the most prestigious award at the FIRST regional - the Regional Chairman's award. As we heard the announcer congratulate this team for "overcoming the loss of mentors and funding, while proceeding to propose political action in their state legislature [and] spreading their message to the community", we all sat up a little straighter and perked our ears up, for this description sounded strangely familiar. All of us anxiously waited with bated breath as we continued to listen. Finally, when we heard "And face it... their unique two-wheeled drive mechanism is just cool", we knew the deal was sealed. "Congratulations to the IRS, team 1318!" Overflowing with newfound energy and euphoria, our team filed down to the field where we received our trophies and banners. Though our drivers and programmers didn't do as well as they had hoped, the work of our Awards Committee had paid off after all, and with it, we had secured team 1318's first ever invitation to the FIRST Robotics Competition world championships in Atlanta. Georgia!

Olympia Update

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Today, the Washington State budget was signed in, including $150,000 for FIRST teams across the state. :D All of the work preparing for the Olympia presentation and talking with the representatives has paid off. Representatives Hunter and Jarrett will be attending the Tacoma Regional, as will (maybe!) Governor Christine Gregoire, which is amazing! Yay FIRST!

MIcrosoft Regional Update: 3/20/08

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Today was the first day of the Microsoft Seattle Regional. Our team woke up bright and early in order to arrive at the Greater Tacoma Convention and Trade Center early to unpack. Dressed in our full Issaquah robotics society regalia of purple shirts and yellow ties, we socialized with other teams as we anxiously awaited the opening of the pits. When the doors opened at 8:30, we entered the pit area and set up our workspace. For our pit station, we erected some cubical walls to decorate and organize our space. We mounted our sponsor signs on the robot and in our pit area, and hung our team flag up in the stands where our team watched the matches. All day from 9 until 4, we got a taste of what the competition tomorrow will be like as we took our turns in practice matches on the playing field set up inside the convention center. Having made some improvements to our driving code since our last competition in Portland, our early matches went quite well. In our first match, we made 13 laps around the track in five minutes, then 8 laps in two. This is a vast improvement over our record in Portland, where we averaged about five laps a game. Throughout the day, we continued to refine our programming and were able to participate in many practice matches, as there were few mechanical problems. With all of this practice, and the modifications we've made to the robot, we're more confident and feel more ready for the competition than we've ever been.

Afterwards, team members not working in the pits went to the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner. Those who stayed later went to The Rock for pizza.

Tomorrow, we begin qualification matches to determine team seeding. We encourage all of our supporters to come visit us tomorrow and watch a few matches. The qualifying matches will be held from around 9:30 to 4:00 on the 5th level of the Tacoma Trade and Convention Center. Admission is free to the public!

Microsoft Regional Update: 3/21/08

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Today was our second day of the Microsoft Regional. The day got off to a slow start as we were disabled in our first match. After a frantic hour in the pits repairing connections to the motors as matches progressed without us, we rushed back to the playing field with the robot and some more drive code modifications. The remainder of our matches were very successful, as we refined the robot and developed strategies. One match in particular was exceptionally good, as we scored an incredible thirty-four points out of our team’s total thirty-six. Things only got better as the day went on, and by the end of matches for today, we were fifth out of thirty-one teams, and are in a good position going into the final qualifying matches to be one of the alliance leaders for the finals—an accomplishment unmatched in the last four years of our team. At the Friday awards ceremony, we received another piece of exciting news, as our team was the recipient of the Judges’ Award, for the “Three S’s” of our team strategy—small, speedy, and simple.

Afterwards, all the teams traveled to McChord Air Force Base for dinner, an airshow, military robot demonstrations, and team social time. We were able to watch a C-17 plane maneuver, as well as go inside it and investigate the structure and equipment. In addition, we saw a couple of robots designed to investigate suspicious objects for explosives, and got to look at several fighter planes from throughout the Air Force’s history.

We returned to the hotel tired, but happy with out performance and ready for tomorrow’s matches. We’re quite optimistic about tomorrow, and hope to have good news to announce then!

Microsoft Regional Update: 3/22/08

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Apologies about the lateness of this update!
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The final day of the Microsoft Regional was a very exciting one. Our team did very well in our remaining qualifying matches, and by the end of those rounds was seeded second, with a record of 8 wins, 2 losses, and 1 tie and an average score of 25.5 points per round we competed in. As one of the top eight teams, we led a three-team alliance in the elimination rounds. We invited teams 488 and 1696 to join us on our alliance. After strategizing during the lunch break, our alliance won our first two quarterfinal matches to progress to the semifinals. There, we were defeated by the 3rd seeded alliance that went on the win the competition.
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The final matches, between the 1st and 3rd seeded alliances were intense, and it was a lot of fun to watch the robots compete even from the stands. We’re quite pleased with our performance at this competition. By the latter half of the matches, we were consistently making about eight laps around the track each match (16 points) and had the capability to cross four lines in the hybrid period, reliably crossing at least two (8-20 points).
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After all the matches had ended, we packed up our robot and tools in our crate for shipping to Atlanta, GA, where we will attend the national championship April 17-19. We’ll be sending updates from there as well.
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P.S. Congratulations to Team 488 (Team XBot) on winning the Microsoft Seattle Regional Chairman’s Award!

Atlanta Championship Update

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Hello from Phoenix! The first leg of our journey is complete. In about an hour we'll be on a plane to Atlanta, where we'll get ready to compete in the FRC Championship. Our team is in the Newton division (out of four, Newton, Curie, Galileo, and Archimedes) and will be competing there with over eighty other teams. Streaming video of the competition is available here: http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/robotics/first/atlanta-finals-2008/

Atlanta Championship Update: 3/16/08

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The team arrived safely in Atlanta today after several hours of travelling. A small crew went into the pits in the Georgia Dome to uncrate the robot, which looked none the worse for travelling all the way from Tacoma. Afterwards, we all had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. Tomorrow, we'll be competing in practice rounds and working more on refining our robot's driving. It's going to be a very exciting competition!

Atlanta Championship Update: 4/18/08

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Today was the first day of qualification matches. The competition officially began with the Opening Ceremonies, which recognized the major sponsors of FIRST and acknowledged several award winners as well as including statements by Dean Kamen, the founder of FIRST, Woodie Flowers, FIRST advisor, and Paul Guidonis, the president of FIRST who'd been with us at our legislative presentation. They were also joined by former President George H. W. Bush, who was one of the major supporters of FIRST at its incenption. Qualifying matches began shortly afterwards. Our robot performed well, but our alliances were not always effective. We lost our first two matches and won the next two, leaving us with a record of 2-2 and a ranking of 51 out of 85 teams in our division. Tomorrow, we have an additional two matches before the elimination rounds begin.
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After matches today, we took a group photo (that we hope to have posted here soon) and visited the Georgia Aquarium, which was a very cool, interactive aquarium. Tomorrow will be the last day of competition and the FIRST Finale party in the evening. We're all looking forward to it.
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EDIT: We also gave our Chairman's Award presentation, which was well-recieved.

Atlanta Championship Update: 4/19/08

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Our final day at the Championship was an amazing one. we got up early in order to get the best seats for our matches today. Our robot performed quite well, but we lost both our matches to some amazing teams. Our final record, then, was 2 wins and 5 losses, placing us 66th out of 85 teams in the Newton Division.
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After the Newton champions, Teams 968, 233, and 60, had been crowned in an intense set of matches, we proceeded to Einstein Field. There, between the presentation of national awards, the best teams in the world competed. Newton fell to Galileo in the third round of a penalty-ridden matchup. Curie beat Archimedes, for a Curie-Galileo final. Galileo's alliance of 1114, 217, and 148 was ultimately triumphant. Our team didn't win any awards, but all those that did were each exceptional in those particular areas and truly deserved to win.
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To cap off the season, after finishing packing up our pit area and crating our robot for shipping back home, everyone went to Centennial Park for the end-of-season party. It was carnival-style, with inflated obstacle courses and activities, games, karaoke, a climbing wall, rides, prizes and food. And then, at the very end, a spectacular fireworks show. Hooray for FIRST Overdrive 2008!

Robot Arrival: 5/2/08

Fri, 02 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The robot successfully arrived back from Atlanta this afternoon. The crate was slightly damaged--it looked as though it had been impaled with a forklift prong, but the contents were all fine. After unloading the crate, we tried to drive the robot, but it apparently has a short, so that'll have to wait. We'll have a meeting on Monday for those not busy with AP prep to do some organization of Robotland, and possibly try and fix the robot.

CNC Milling Machine

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Link to progress on CNC Milling Machine: http://xyzzymachine.blogspot.com/