We are now still in first but we had a waste gadget. Score is 1900 -currently for us.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Total recall semifinal round
1344 points for our first round of semifinals. We were the only team to go without a six sigma in the pilot production.
Total Recall - Round 4
We have completed 4 rounds so far. We packaged 52 gadgets and delivered an additional 56 were delivered. That was a score of 1608 for that round. We are in first place with a score of 6072.
First round of TOTAL RECALL
Second Round - Total score of 1716 - 61 packaged, 50 delivered. Total Score of two rounds is 3240.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Total Recall - Drive practice - Bob Bullock State Museum
Today we had drive practice. It was good to see all the other teams there. Many more teams seemed to have working and functional robots on Drive practice today.
We had the opportunity to get on the field 7 or 8 times today. Each time we were there for about 12 - 15 minutes. We had eight different drivers today. Each of them had a big learning curve when driving the robot. We started the day trying to read the data port, move the MRT, deliver gadgets and return the waster to the material recall center. We then decided to try and move as many gadgets as possible without regard to read the data port. The second strategy was more effective since it took so long to align to the data port.
| Gadgets packaged | Gadgets Delivered but not packaged |
| 35 | 61 |
| 56 | 17 |
| 38 | 88 |
| 55 | 9 |
| 56 | 53 |
| 62 | 55 |
| 90 | 0 |
| 30 | 56 |
| 40 | 76 |
| 60 | 50 |
Friday, October 15, 2010
Total Recall - Drive practice is tomorrow and today's deliverables
Today, we had deliverables of team essay, website and Youtube video. The webteam worked throughout the day on to complete the site. Justin, Keren, Michael Watson and Linda McMahon worked late into the evening to get it complete. The team essay and YouTube video was submitted late in the afternoon. The link to the YouTube is
David finished the MRT hooks during 2nd period today. The hooks worked very well in controlling the MRT around the shop. They may have to be adjusted slightly. The servos still vibrate quite a bit as we turn the robot on or move the servos. Jonny came in and worked on the programming to tweak a few things. The programming team has done a very good job of programming while not always having access to the robot. Jonny got to test the data port reader on the and it worked. The data read is communicated with the positioning of the MRT hooks. The door works although we may need to speed up the speed on the door closing. . The MRT hooks work. It is great to see it begin to come together. Students put a wheelie bar under the robot to help with the tipping of the robot when it is loaded or begins to accelerate. Grey and David worked on the rollers for the omni wheel. A few of the students worked on tweaking the design of the arm grabber. Currently we have some issues with the golf ball getting stuck in the slot of the bucket.
David and Aaron did some practice driving during 8th period. They were successful at loading and carrying over 80 gadgets but they also accidentally dumped a bucket full of balls. The robot was able to carry a large load of gadgets as well as control the MRT at the same time although we will not be performing this task in the contest.
Drive Practice will be held at Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum. Michelle worked on the Engineering notebook and printed it out. We have a second checkpoint on it at Drive practice.
Below is a video of the gadget grabber demonstrated by Sean and pictures of the omni wheels in progress.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Total Recal - Coming to the end of week 5
We are on the eve of a deadline for some deliverables for the contest. The website and youtube video are due on Friday. We have drive practice at Bob Bullock State Museum on Saturday staring at 9:00 am and continuing until 3:00 pm.
The website team was very excited with the progress they made tonight. Jack took a computer home to continue to update and clean up the website. He and Keren are going to meet in my classroom at 8 on Friday morning to do some final checking for grammar, punctuation, etc.
The display team received materials from Mr. Jordan and other mentors tonight. Linda and Rebecca worked with the display team on the breakdown of what needs to be done and accomplished over the next few days. They have made a diorama of the display to help visualize the final product.
The robot team worked on a variety of parts this evening. Projects included:
- mechanical stop for the door at the top of the left slide
- plastic cover for the microswith at the bottom
- battery mount made of lexan
- epoxied two zipties together for a more sturdy and rigid connection between the door and the pulley
- New MRT hooks were made out of 1/4" material, drilled and mounted - we discovered the Data port reader gave virtually no room for error in driving to connect to the MRT.
- Data Port was completed and mounted but had to be remounted one inch over to allow more access for the MRT
- Bucket was ziptied to the robot deck
- All bolts have shortened on the standoffs, motor mounts, motors and door
- Angle pieces of clear lexan were made for the MRT hooks to assist in controlling the MRT. The black foam rubber was added to the angle pieces for additional control of the MRT. These pieces need to be slotted and mounted still.
- The MRT will set against the Data Port and be held in place with the servo hooks.
- The arm/grabber made great progress tonight.
- The last Igus flange bearing was mounted for the motor shaft and axle
- The motor/shaft coupler was begun. David M worked on one with the drill press but then David W. worked on with the mill. It has been cut, and drilled for the two different shafts and set screws but needs to be tapped still
- Bucket was cut out and bent last night
- Square angle piece was mounted to the front of the arm
- Pulley was slotted for the string
- Arm was mounted on the pulley but not with the axle through the arm. The arm sets on top of the axle.
- Servo mount tabs were cut, drilled, tapped and mounted on the arm
- Aluminum extension was cut, drilled and mounted on the servo horn with 4/40 machine screws
- The extension was bent and then taped to the bucket for demonstration. It works but the golf ball does get stuck in the apparatus sometimes.
- We will have to put another wooden pulley on the opposite side of the arm for balance
- Jack worked on sanding the rollers for the Omni wheel using a 4/40 machine screw, the drill press and some sandpaper. He got two of them sanded down. We will look at using it as a support under the bucket for when we are loaded. This will prevent us from dumping the gadgets on the floor.
- Jonny came by to work on programming but did not have much time since he had a concert tonight. He did confirm that we have a dead servo.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Total Recall - Day 29 and Parent meeting
Good work day in the shop for the team.
I discussed with the Robotics II classes about the importance of posting to Basecamp on a daily basis so we could see/track progress. This is so important for other subteams who need information about the robot build but are not there each day or in the shop the entire time. I also discussed the lack of students at the work sessions on Saturday and Monday evening and the fact that this class was no different from any other extracurricular class in regards to team meetings/work times. They should show up to meetings when called even if they are on weekends and school holidays such as Monday.
Progress on the robot included:
- Red deck had large wheels and caster mounted
- Large silver wheels had hubs and tread mounted
- Bolts were cut for the motor mounts, caster and wheels
- Began painting the bucket blue
- The bucket was cut to fit on the new deck
- Reinstalled the door support and slides
- Microswitches were soldered and installed on the slides. The slide had to be drilled and tapped for a 2/56 machine screws.
- The corner Lexan pieces were drilled for access holes for mounting. They were also heated and bent at the top so that a gadget could not get stuck on top of it.
- Jonny tested the code on the door. It was very successful with the wooden door in place but not so with the Lexan door. See the attached video. Two videos are attached. The first one shows 60 gadgets being released. The second shows 180 golfballs being released. Notice in the second one that so of the golfballs release but then they get jammed. Jonny has worked a drive code to help with this scenario but has yet to test it.
- Fingers for data port were filed and sanded on the lexan piece
- Grant worked on laying out the drill pattern for the fingers to be mounted to the wire assembly
- Standoffs had a section that was not very strong, so we inserted wood wedges into the locations and glued them in place. The excess was trimmed off with the bandsaw.
- Standoffs were installed using the right angle brackets
- Servo mount holes were cut out in the standoffs
- The arm motor was mounted to the right standoff
- Tim Ousley came by to visit with the team and do some video of the omni wheels.
- Grey sanded the lexan circles down so they would insert into the PVC pipe. He then expoxied 2 lexan circles into each piece of PVC pipe.
- Joe worked with Grey on cutting the outer plates for the omni wheels. He got one small axle cut. The wheel looks good. It shows great prospect.
- David M cut three arms from plywood and glued them together for the actual arm piece.
- Brocklebolts were made for the pulley arms
- Aluminum disks were drilled for the motor/axle arm for the pulley
- Igus flange bearings were mounted with 4/40 machines screws that were cut off
We have some issues to work out that include weight balance since the door motor is located at the back end hanging over the back of the robot. We will lighten the deck in the back beyond the wheels. Jack B. suggested we use a wheelie bar or wheel to keep us from tipping over. The bucket will have to cutout on the grabber side so the standoffs do not stick over the end of the robot. Scott McMahon asked many different groups/students about their work projects. He asked questions for clarification as well as to make sure the students were aware of not only what they were doing but why as well. This is a usual daily activity for him in the shop.
The BEST award team met in regards to the notebook, display and notebook. Michael Watson spent some time with the Web team. He communicated the importance of posting on Basecamp projects that have been done as well as the need to get all files on Basecamp so others have access to it.
Joyce and Linda held a parent meeting to discuss WESTA and answer any questions about the team up to this point. I visited with the parents for a few minutes about our past, our current progress in BEST, plans for the Spring and our future. Funding continues to be a major hurdle we must be concerned with.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Total Recall - Day 29
The students did not have school today so we had a small group come in today. Although the group was small, progress was made on the robot.
Robot progress tonight:
- Door zip tie was attached
- Door frame mount was cut down to size and routered for weight reduction
- Painted the new wheels silver
- Painted the deck red with two coats of paint
- Drilled new wheels for the hubs
- Corner lexan inserts for the bucket. This also replaced the support plywood as well as the washers inside the bucket.
- Jonny used the mill to shave the ends down on the slide which will have the microswitches on it. He used the drill press to drill for the 2/56 machines screws. He got two holes drilled for the top microswitch.
- David M worked on the arm
- Claude updated the CAD drawings for the door motor and mount
- Jonny and Scott soldered the leads on the door motor
- Daniel C cut on the fingers for the data port from the 1/4" lexan
- Grey and David brought in the outer panels for the omni wheels they completed at Tim Ousley's house on Sunday.
Michelle, Achi and Keren worked on the BEST award tonight. Lauren came in after band to work on the display with Linda. Linda and I discussed the layout of the display and how we could possibly save some money by not buying so much cloth.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Total Recall - 4 weeks today
We had to compete with ACL, SAT test and Westlake Marching Festival today for shop workers, but we made very good progress today.
Work competed today included the following:
- Grey completed the new wheels, although one blank was cut from the wrong size so he had to make a third wheel
- New door mount board so we will have room to mount the door motor
- Door pulley pieces drilled for mounting to each other
- Motor hub for small motor was completed
- Motor mount block was cut, drilled and mounted on the new door mount board
- Door was reassembled and remounted to the robot.
- Door motor mounted with pulley completed (spindles were drilled for attachment to each other as well as attachment to the hub)
- Zip tie was attached to the spindle
- The attached video shows the motor mounted to the bucket but we will have to work on center of gravity since the door assembly has loaded up the weight on that end outside the large wheels. This will create some concern for drivers to be aware of.
- Grant completed the data port reader (sanded the fingers and attached the fingers to the base piece with the springs and wire loops)
- Jonny tested the data port reader (this design was first intended to be on a swivel but had to be modified because it was not consistent)
- The decision was made to mount the data port reader permanently to the deck - this proved to be very consistent as long as the driver continues to drive forward into the data port
- Jonny made the decision to change the button required to read the data port so it would be easier to do
- Jonny mounted the Cortex on the side of the bucket
- David, Sean B., Claude and Chris worked on the final design of the gadget grabber.
- David cut the board mount for the front of the grabber
- Sean B worked on the standoffs for the grabber. He got the motor hole drilled, all the shafts holes and mounted the Igus flange bearings
Discussions were held about what projects need to be completed on Monday. They included microswitches for the door, mounting the zip tie to the door, grabber completion including pulley and shaft system. Painting of the robot was also discussed.
The display team met with Linda and Rebecca to make some final decisions. They also looked at the PVC frame and cloth from lasts years display. Late in the afternoon, Linda and Rebecca went shopping and searching for display materials.
David W., David M., and Grey are going over to Tim Ousley's house on Sunday afternoon to work on the omni wheels design.
Scott McMahon received a strange call from a team in Denton. The Texas Academy of Math and Science called asking him about how to make an arm as well as some programming help. They did not realize that Scott lived in Austin. Scott worked with Sean B to make a few videos explaining how our arm worked on our robot from last year. Scott visited with Sean about how we would share these videos as well as some programming help to this team over this next week.
Total Recall - Day 28 and another Surprise visit from a Superintendent
Today was not an after school work day but progress was made on the robot design as well as the BEST notebook and display.
David worked on the servo mounts only to realize that if we mount them to the deck, they will be to low to attach to the MRT. We also cannot mount them on the bucket door end because we could not grab the MRT on the narrow side. Discussion then moved to mounting them on the grabber standoffs. The servos will be mounted in the plywood standoffs with the hooks on the outside of each standoff.
During the Robotics II periods, we continued to work on same pieces that were not quite completed on Thursday night. Walker and Grant worked on the Data port reader. They trimmed the fingers some more and cut excess off the ends of the finger board. They also began work on attaching the two pieces of the data port reader.
Work began on laying out the cut out patterns on the new size wheels. The wheel blanks were cut out. Grey came in after school to complete the marking of one of the wheel patterns. He got the 3" pattern cutout very easily. When he was cutting out the 1 1/2" pattern, the blank split on one side. He tried another hole by drilling half way thru and then turning the blank over. This was successful. Grey decided he would complete the blanks on Saturday morning.
During the football game on Friday night, I received a call from Linda Rawlings. At first, I was very concerned about her calling me at the game. I answered and she asked if I could met her at the shop in a few minutes. My mind was racing with thoughts about what was wrong with the shop or what complaint she had received. She said she had visitors from New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois. I went to the shop to meet with Linda, Ellen Balthazar and the visitors. I game them the same documents the visitors received on Thursday. It was very interesting to me that the visitors from Thursday and Friday questioned the size of the shop and the facilities.
Total Recall - Day 27 and Visitors from Superintendent's Consortium
Today was a very good day in the shop.
It started out with a group of visiting Superintendents from a Consortium of Successful school which Dr. Wellman participates in. I had a chance to visit with them for a few minutes about our program and the importance/impact of robotics in the school. They each received a a FIRST robotics pamphlet, a Chap Robotics team pamphlet and a document I prepared for them stressing the importance of our program. The document is attached.
The robotics team began during the class day. Second period David worked on the servo mounts. Claude, Grey and Bryce came in during their lunch (which they do nearly every day, by the way) to work on SolidWORKS drawings of various parts and assemblies of the robot. Lauren and I researched videos on the internet about marble tracks and marble contraptions.
During 6th and 7th periods, we worked on a variety of parts of the robot including: new size deck, motor mounts for the small motors, plywood support strap for the inside of the bucket and pieces for the arm. Very few of these projects were completed so they continued after school. Projects that were completed before the night was over were:
- Back door will raise and lower - it seems to work very well at this point
- Pulley for the door were cut from Lexan and Plywood
- Door motor mount was cut, drilled and bent
- New bucket was cut to fit on the deck
- Support struts were glued into place for the ramp inside the deck
- Tinned loop wires for the data port
- Springs for data port held in place with tinned wires and wood screws
- Data port fingers were cut, filed and sanded
- Data port fingers were drilled so that they would fit over the springs and wires
- Grey worked with Miguel on SolidWORKS Cosmos stress analysis on the wheel design so we can lighten the wheels
- Layout/drawings began on the standoffs for the arm
- Arm designs were refined and contemplated
- Sheet metal was cut for the front of gadget grabber
- One piece of the wooden arm was cut
- Jonny worked on reading the data port and was successful in telling what the port was stating
Work continues on the BEST award, display and website. I am concerned about the display. This group seems to be moving slower than I would like. They seem to think that it will get done. Michelle and Grant have some designs for the T-shirt revolving around the Willie Wonka "Nerds" theme.
Before we left the shop for the evening, the team tested the bucket door releasing 80 gadgets into the manual processing center. The results were very exciting. They also tested more gadgets but we had some difficulty with some getting stuck in the corners and getting lodged and not coming out.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Total Recall - Day 22
Today was a very productive day during the school day and right after school before I had to leave.
Progress today before I left was:
- Bucket was released from clamps
- Connor and Iain got the motor cutouts on the bucket
- Proof of concept of the sliding door was made and evaluated. It was made of 1/4" plywood, Igus slide rails, Igus slides and a piece of cardboard. The door had rubber bands attached at the bottom to assist in the door returning to the down position.
- Robert and Josh got the bucket door reinforcement was cut from 1/4" plywood and the door was cut from the piece
- Josh got the door cut from 1/4" plywood
- The slides for the door were cut from the Igus slide rails
- Jack got the ramp located in the bucket was trimmed down to size to fit into the bucket
- Several students worked on the supporting struts for the ramp were used cardboard in a tic,tac, toe formation under the ramp. It was cut at an angle to support the ramp.
- Aaron and Kendall worked on the spindle for the door. The motor mount will effect the size of the spindle. We would like to
- Walker and Grant worked on the Data port reader using springs from the clothes pin, a 1" X 4" wood plank. They are working on a prototype for the data port reader. It seems to be a good concept and could possibly a workable solution.
- Jonny and Robert began to work on code for the small motor to raise and lower the door along with microswitches located at the top and bottom to cut the motor off.
- Karen posted a questionnaire on Basecamp for each team member to till out.
- The BEST Award team worked on compiling more data.
- Sean and David were going beginning to work on servo mounts and small motor mounts after school.
- Claude and Grey worked on SolidWorks designs of the ball grabber and arm.
- Grey was working on the SolidWorks for the door of the bucket.
- Sean was working on the ball sorter for the display.
We discussed the design of the door motor mount, small spindle and the apparatus for raising and lower the door. A discussion also revolved around extending the chassis 1" in the front where the balls come out of the bucket as well as extending 1" longer in the front.
Grey, Bryce, Claude and I discussed lightening the wheels. This will reduce the inertial mass of the wheels.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Total Recall - Day 22
The shop was very busy tonight with lots of students. Many of the students present work and move forward in their progress while some others continue to seek out their position on the team.
David, Claude and David met to discuss some of the decisions of the weekend drive practice and team meeting. Decisions include:
- an arm operated with a motor for up and down control, a servo grabber control
- servos mounted on the corners for control of the MRT
- sliding door on the bucket controlled by a small motor and a pulley on the motor shaft
- bucket will be two inches taller
- use the golf ball/lazy susan caster
- data port reader will communicate through the servos
Several designs were discussed in how to make the data port reader interface with the data port. Lots of discussion around aluminum strips, clothes pins and the piano wire rolled into a wire spring.
Karen and Michael visited about the structure of the website. One focus of their discussion was on a biography feature of each teammate to possibly be included.
Michael and I visited about his work with the Anderson team on Monday night. We discussed the possibility of a student from our team going over to work with their programming team on the coming Saturday.
Jonny and Tim worked on reading the data port interface. Although we do not have the apparatus ready for the robot, Jonny has successfully demonstrated how to read the data and communicate it with a dial feature powered by a servo. I had to rain on his parade and inform him you could not utilize paint or decorations in conjunction with the dial for communications purposes.
Chris and Milo completed marking and cutting the layout of the new bucket. David and Sean glued the bucket and clamped before leaving for the night. David worked on the design for the servo mounts for the MRT.
The FTC team continues to work on their design each day.
Total Recall - Week 4 Begins
I was sick today and did not attend the meeting or school today. In robotics II, students who were present at the Drive practice gave reports on how our robot performed, times we recorded, evaluation of our time line and observations of other teams robots. In the evening meeting, Scott gave a presentation on motors.
With less than 3 week until the contest day, I hope the students realize the sense of urgency to get things done.
Total Recall - Day 21
Drive practice at Roger Beasley Volvo in Georgetown, Texas was today. We learned that our time line was on target. We definitely need to work on the manipulator to control the MRT. It took 40 seconds to load 60 golf balls. Our caster design with the lazy susan and golf ball worked very well.
The design of the robot will change to include the following: an arm with the servo claw, a door that will raise straight up with the power of a small motor, two servos with hooks to manipulate the MRT. The bucket will be made 2 inches taller but be made of one layer of cardboard but will still remain in the one square foot print.
The design notebook was turned in for the original checkpoint. We received very positive feedback on the progress and the general state of the notebook. We have high hopes for the design notebook this year.
Before the team left drive practice, the team sought out a meeting place to discuss the days proceedings.
Several of the students along with Scott, Linda and Tim went back to the shop to work on designs. Upon return to the shop, they worked on designs and ideas from the day of drive practice.
Total Recall - Day 20
Tonight we worked on the bucket for the gadgets. It is now complete with all sides three layers thick and the door is hinged. The ramp was installed as well. We continue to work on the design of release mechanism for the gadgets. The arm design has been put on the back burner until after drive practice as well as the omni wheels. The data port reader still remains to be finalized in the design.
The BEST award team continues to work on the design notebook and the display. They had made great progress and will have something good to present on Saturday at Drive Practice. The display will revolve around Willie Wonka. Sean and Lauren continued to work with the NXT brick and the color sensor. They have been successful at getting the sensor to distinguish between yellow, black and white balls. They are also working on a sorting technique for eggs as well.
Drive practice is Saturday at Roger Beasley with an initial check on the Engineering Notebook.
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Artistic Representation of my life.
Artistic Representation of my life.
From: coachnorm, 14 minutes ago
My artistic representation for Educational Environments Grad School class at Texas State University
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From: coachnorm, 14 minutes ago
My artistic representation for Educational Environments Grad School class at Texas State University
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