Important Dates

We just got an email from Professor Tjiputra (he runs the MD competition) with some important dates.

First, there is a training conference call for the "Samantha" link TONIGHT at 7:00pm.  The call in info is:

Samantha Call Conference
Call in to 1-866-951-1151, Conference Room 1066578

Sean and I will sit in on the call tonight - any other members of the software team are welcome to call in also.

There are also a number of scrimmages we can attend in November.  I've what I think the best ones for us in the upper right of the blog.  All full list can be found at:

http://ftc.csmd.edu/dates.html

Please remember that We need some people to come a bit earlier to practice this Sunday (6:00pm) so we can get the field set up.

Thanks
Coach Miles

Field Components

Our practice field is shaping up nicely.  Thanks to Andrew and his father we have the center part of the field completed.  Jim and his father finished three baton dispensers and the walls for the field were also completed.  All we need now is to complete a few rolling goals and we'll be good to go.

A lot of progress was made last session with initial designs for the wheels and baton capture mechanism being thought through and prototyped.  I should point out that the Scouts idea for wheel design proved to be superior to the parent's suggestions!

Here's a rough picture of the baton capture device - nice proto-typing by Jim P.

Scoring

The following things are ways to score.
Autonomous scoring-
parking on cliff 3pts
parking on mountain or unbalanced bridge 5pts
parking robot on balanced bridge 15pts
robot on dispensing side 10pts
dispensing batons 2pts each
Match scoring-
reg. or mag. baton in stationary goal 1pts
reg. or mag. baton in outside rolling goal 3pts
reg. baton in center of rolling goal 0pts
mag. baton in center of rolling goal 25pts
Doubler baton in any goal DOUBLES all points in any goal
Elements on balanced bridge 1- 10pts, 2-20pts, ect. increasing 10 each element

September 26 2010 4th meeting

People present:Grant, Sean, Scott, Andrew, Connor, Brad, Holden, Jared, Mr.Pontious, Mr.Don, Mr.Perie, James, Rick Tinker, Mr. Lanterman.
Software-Testing Samantha, all software has been installed. Testing equipment. A programed servo!
Maneuverability-Design and building of baton collector. Brainstorming. Tested combo's between brackets and poles for the spinner collector. The finalized design will be in the next post. Blueprints for baton collector.
Mobility-Building drive train. Testing field parts. 4 wheels on each side of robot.

September 20 2010 4th meeting

Grant,scott,andrew,brad,sean,holden,connor,jerid,Mr.Pontious,

FTC Email Blast

I receive a weekly email from FIRST about the FTC competition.  The email had some interesting links on how to manipulate the magnets that are hidden in some of the scoring baton's.  We'll be receiving the sensors but I thought it would be helpful to post the info from the email on this blog.  There is also a link for an FTC forum which should prove to be a useful resource also.

FTC Team Community Forum

This is a New forum for teams and is open to all team members. Teams may use their TIMS generated Login and Password, but may also register and create their own user accounts. We encourage you to reach out to teams using this forum. Ask for help, provide solutions and get to know the other FTC teams across the country. You can access this forum here: http://ftcforum.usfirst.org/

2.    Magnet Sensors

Did you notice that GET OVER IT! has magnetized game pieces? You can buy your Magnetic Sensor from HiTechnic.

3.    IR Beacons

We’ve recycled the IR Beacons from the HotShot! Season, but if you need one for practice, you can get yours from HiTechnic.

Thanks

Coach Reidy

2010 Competition Starts!

It's Robotic's Time!  We've got a very interesting challenge this year called "Get-Over-It!" which will really be a lot of fun to figure out.  A video description of the challenge as well as the detailed rules can be found at the FTC main site, which is:

http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/ftc
(use the "game info" link on the left side)

I do expect that all team members will have read the rules by our next team meeting which is this thursday. Don't worry if they seem intimidating - there's a lot of pages but we'll figure them out over the next few months.

We've got some meetings coming up.  This thursday at our house we'll be taking the old robot apart and inventorying all our parts.  While the inventory part may sound kind of boring, it's really important as, in the past we've wasted a lot of time looking for stuff that was right in front of us.  We'll also we asking the team to describe their initial thoughts on designs / operations for this year's challenge.

We will also have a standing team meeting / build session every Sunday from 7:00 - 9:00 pm at our house.

Parents: Those interested in helping please come to the Thursday session.  I do need some help coordinating a build of the robotics field (which is described in the link above).  We'll need to build some components and have about a month to get it done.

I'm looking forward to this year and am very confident that we will do very well!

Thanks
Coach Miles