Thursday Preparations

We arrived at the Chaifetz Arena at 8:30 this morning for a day of practice and preparation for the competition tomorrow and Saturday. Outside the doors, we were greeted by old friends from Team 4256, WCA's CyborgCats, and reminisced with them for a time. The day was eventful; I'll divide my recap into several simple portions.

Unloading: Once the doors had opened, we headed quickly to our designated pit area, where Carl, Henry, Addy, and I set up the tent while the others unloaded Serenity and our gear. Christine began removing the lead weights and covering them in radiation-blocking tape, for the safety of all involved.

Scouting: Walter filled out a survey from Team 2838 on Serenity's capabilities: once again, we have a finger in every pie, although her primary function is as a mobile feeding station. Jonah and I checked out some nearby teams: Team 3330, System of the Corn, built a robot specializing in climbing to the exclusion of all else; it doesn't even have a shooter. Team 2978, The Cavaliers, built the opposite: a shooting robot without a climbing function. And good old Team 3284, LASER, has built an enormous robot with a hefty shooter. A climbing robot like 3330's is somewhat disadvantaged, at least according to Walter; with the new rules update, robots can't shoot Frisbees from atop the pyramid, so a robot that can only climb can only score 30 points for its team at maximum. Grace and Addy prepared several sample questions to ask other teams while scouting; using a checklist culled from those questions, Grace, Jonah, and I wandered around the pit to interview various teams and hand out buttons.

Practice Matches: Our first practice match was a bit of a bust. Many things went wrong: the arm conveyor belt was too loose to function, the dustpan broke off, and autonomous mode hadn't been programmed for the lighting conditions in the arena. On the other hand, we weren't out there to try and carry our team; we were testing Serenity's capabilities in the field, such as our ability to block or push large robots (we discovered Serenity can do the first, but not the latter).

Our second match was much more satisfying. We were on an alliance with 4330 Rambunction from Ladue and the 4256 CyborgCats from WCA. The latter was especially impressive, scoring several 3-point shots and climbing to the first rung of the pyramid. Serenity, meanwhile, proved an adequate defender. Also of note is that a pole fell on Carl's head while he was entering the arena before the match. Despite this, he knew what he was doing when it came to driving. Additionally, our autonomous was still a bit wonky.

The third and final practice match went a bit astray when Serenity immediately backpedaled and angled herself against the wall in autonomous. After that, we tried and failed to pick up a few frisbees, before entering our defensive game as usual.

All in all, an eventful day for the team. Mike and Christine are staying an extra few hours to make some much-needed changes to Serenity, but the remainder of the team have headed home to rest up for the coming competition. Here's to another great showing for Team 3397!

Competition in Two Days

We compete at the St. Louis Regional in two days! We will be there on Thursday all day prepping and practicing, and then on Friday and Saturday we will be competing. The public is invited! Here are the details:

Where: Chaifetz Arena, SLU Campus

What: FIRST Robotics Challenge Saint Louis Regional

How Much: FREEEEEEEEEEE

When: March 15-16

Why: Because robots are awesome that's why

There you go! Come on down and watch the RoboLions compete in our fourth ever regional!

Saturday Report

So in the past two weeks, we've completed the robot (who has a name now- meet Serenity!), packed it up, and begun working on a practice bot to work on our driving, programming and other various skills. We're also working on a top-secret project with this backup robot that may or may not be applied to Serenity at competition! Shhh :)

Work is going well. Dan has been programming his heart out as he tries to fix bugs and get autonomous to work. Walter, Carl and Mike have been tirelessly working on the project. Other team members have been contributing as well. Marquise has drawn up awesome plans for the pit design at competition.

We're going to be selling shirts this year as well! They are pink and say I (heart symbol) ROBOTS on the front with 3397 and our sponsors on the back. They will be sold for $20 and hopefully will be in time for competition!

We'll continue to update on the progress we make. Competition is in two weeks now- get pumped!!!

Late Night Musings

As we approach the final moments of our build season, the robot is looking awesome and ready to go. She is still yet to be named, however- that decision will be made in the exact final moments.

She can now 'vomit' the frisbees onto the floor (or onto other robots!) but cannot yet pick them up. All that's needed for that to happen, however, is the attachment of a small piece of plastic. Other than that, all we need to do is tidy up the robot to get it inspection-ready, practice driving and fine-tune the coding. And naming the robot!

Here are some pictures of our progress today!

And that's all for today, folks! 

This. Is. FINAL. COUNTDOWN.

Today's the day. The final day. The day on which we must finish the robot.

As of now, the robot is in a fully assembled state. The feeder arm is attached, the electronics are all set, and the robot can drive. The arm also moves.

We think that this will be the first year that we will be able to participate in a few practice matches at competition prior to the actual rounds. In past years we have always spent that time finishing the robot- but lo and behold, we finished the robot this year! The only thing left to do is finish programming and tweak the arm so that it can effectively pick up frisbees. Dan is working on finishing programming the cRio, and Mike, Marquise and Walter are finishing mechanical stuff. So, it's go time! Let's go RoboLions!

A Few Days Left...

We're getting down to the wire here. Bag n Tag day is on Tuesday! Can't believe that 6 weeks have gone by so quickly.

To update our followers on the progress we have made:

The robot (who is yet to be named) is now able to move. Electronics are configured and Dan and Josh are working on the programming, which has some kinks to be worked out. The feeder arm is able to be attached, however, we have it unattached right now so that we can complete it and do some preliminary testing before attaching it to the bot. It is currently painted shiny gold while our frame is black. No plywood this year- thanks to students at Ranken Technical College, we have a beautiful welded aluminum frame!

Bumpers are nearly completed as well. Our bumper design captain, Marquise, came up with a great design that allows us to flip the covers from blue to red in an instant. Much easier than last year's bolted bumpers that took 15 minutes to change.

Aside from that, we're just getting ready for the competition. Ordering tshirts, spirit items and spreading the word about competition! Which, by the way, is March 15-17 at Chaifetz Arena. More info to come later!

Speaking of events, if you're a fan of musicals, our high school (University City High School in St. Louis, MO) is putting on Footloose this Friday and Saturday at 7PM on both days. Tickets available at the door. Three of our team members will be in the show! It'll be awesome so come see if you can!

More updates will come as progress are made. As for now we're just working away!

The Wheels On The Bot Go Round And Round...

As you all saw with the video, our robot is now in motion. Well, to be completely correct, it is not moving right at the moment- there is work being done on it. Nathan, one of our newest (and youngest- we've got a brave 8th grader here!), is working on building a shield to protect the electronics and inner workings of the bot. He's in the midst of testing materials and angles right now, to figure out the optimum combination to protect against breakage. We've thought about using green or cloudy colored plastic and using LEDs or a blacklight on the inside of the shield to create a colored aura-type thing! It could look like kryptonite. Ok, well maybe that's just me crossing my fingers for a cool, aesthetically pleasing robot! This will be the year!

In other news, we had to break out the first aid kit for the first time. And I'm about to have a grand ol' time describing the event in thrilling detail.

Enter Christine, new freshman RoboLions member. A diligent worker, Christine takes the greatest of care when handling tools. However, on this fateful night, there was one tool which would turn out to be her greatest adversary: The file. As she filed away, the file slipped and grazed Christine's finger, ripping tiny bits of skin from her flesh. Droplets of blood began to bead on the surface.

Ok, that makes it sound a lot more dramatic than it was. It was a tiny scrape, and she slapped a BandAid on it and got right back to work, no big deal. But we did have to open the First Aid kit to get a BandAid. Exciting, this is the first time this year.

The naming of the robot is still in the works. I think an election shall be in order soon, so far the favorites are looking to be Serenity, Hammurabi, Huitzilopochtli (don't ask), Nazgul, and Fluttershy. Oh, and Nazca. I kinda want to add Galadriel to the list, if we're starting an LOTR trend here. Comment to add your ideas to the list!

There may be more posts tonight, as progress continues, so stay tuned!