Prototype Brainstorming

FIRST things first. (ba-dum-tish!) The FRC game this year, Ultimate Ascent, is similar in several ways to last year's Rebound Rumble, but trickily different in others. As in Rebound Rumble, a 15-second autonomous period, in which robots act purely on their programming and not at the direction of human drivers, starts the match. Robots score points by propelling frisbees (not basketballs) into 1-point, 2-point, or 3-point slots, each of which are respectively higher and harder to reach. Ultimate Ascent's title comes into play in the endgame, wherein robots are challenged to climb a tower with three rungs and remain hanging there long enough to score points.

On Kickoff Day, also known as "FIRSTmas" by Walter, the team elected to try a different strategy than we normally do. Instead of trying to build a jack-of-all-trades robot, we decided to specialize on the endgame and design and build a climbing robot.

Today, Walter and Mike brought four prototype concepts before the team to vote on. The choices included: a "side hook" plan, in which the robot grasps the rung of the tower and hoists itself up; a "corner hook" plan, in which the robot would grab onto the corner of the tower and climb up diagonally; a "tow truck" plan, in which the robot would pull itself up with a winch; and an "inchworm" plan, in which an extremely complex robot would yank itself up the tower, flipping over repeatedly in an inchworm-like movement.

With each team member voting for a plan A and B, we ultimately elected to build prototypes for both the "side hook" and "corner hook" plans, and to decide from there which to utilize in our final robot.

Day 1 of Design

Just some pictures from our first day of design:

 Paul modeling the game piece this year- Frisbees!

 Addy doing some research on the game rules

Discussing strategy

FRC Kick Off 2013

Happy New Year everybody!!!

Here we are, at the St. Louis Science Center, anticipating what is sure to be another fantastically suspenseful FRC  Kickoff! Everybody's just milling around and chatting now, but at 9:30, the fun will begin- the countdown to the release of the 2013 game.

There have been many hints dropped on Bill's Blog about what the game will be this year, but as usual, no one has been able to make much sense of them. I'm sure it'll all make sense when they announce the game, however- the GDC is pretty clever like that....

I'll be updating periodically, and as soon as the game video is released (and the website accessible- it's usually bogged down by traffic!) we'll hyperlink it up at the top as per usual.

Peace out!
Captain Grace 

Andrew's Triumphant (Partial) Return

Greetings! It is I, Andrew White, dusting off the Fourth Law of Robotics blog to announce that I am, in fact, currently attending a meeting of FRC Team 3397! Yes -- commence your rejoicing, for I HAVE RETURNED!

...Of course, this likely won't last, for sometime soon rehearsals for our spring musical will start, at which point team members Captain Grace, programmer Henry, and myself shall again depart. So enjoy my presence while you can. :)

Thrown Down

As you may have learned from the previous post, the RoboLions attended the Cow Town Throw Down in Kansas City last weekend.

The competition was difficult. Some of the best teams in the Midwest were present, with robots that could rival those of NASA's level (minus the million-dollar budget). Our team wasn't exactly as prepared as we could have been (we were making major changes to the robot the day before competition- and did not test those changes.) Needless to say, we ran into a lot of issues during competition, and had to repair our robot multiple times. We finished 42 out of 45 teams, However, we did win our last match, which was exciting- ending the competition on a positive note.

All of the challenges we ran into definitely taught us some lessons about what it means to be prepared. We also learned more about the importance of team dynamics, and communication. But we enjoyed the competition nonetheless, especially cheering on our friends teams 1985 (the RoboHawks) and 1094 (The Channel Cats) as they went through the finals. 1094's alliance ultimately won, beating out reigning champ team 16 (Bomb Squad).

Enjoy these pictures from the competition, they will soon be up on the Facebook page!

Kansas City, FTC and other updates

Next weekend, the Robolions will be competing in the Cow Town Throw Down, an offseason event in Kansas City! So these past few weeks we have been working diligently to get Thor up and running. So far, we've reworked the shooter, which we're still not sure will work as well as we would like it to. Our old motors weren't giving us the torque we needed, so we had to reconfigure the programming to comply with the new motors. Right now, we're just getting everything set finally. Good thing this is just a fun event, because Thor will most likely not be in top condition!

The FTC team has been making progress on their robot. They have finally gotten a chassis put together, as well as begun to configure the wiring. They're learning how the electronics of a robot work, and a few have begun to work with Dan on programming using LabView. Hopefully they'll be able to get everything working by December 8th, the date of their first competition.

In other news, the Robolions are running the concessions stand at the local FLL Qualifier next weekend, the 10th and 11th. The event is free to the public, so everyone is invited to Brittany Woods Middle School to watch the tournament!

Peace out,

RoboLions
Team 3397

Pictures from the Homecoming Parade a few weeks ago! Enjoy!

The float

Getting ready to throw candy

Ms. Lauterborn and a parent get in on the fun too!

The parade route. It was a beautiful sunny day, perfect for showing off the robot outside! There were lots of cheering, adoring fans along the streets- we're so popular :)