Brainstorming night number 1

The team met with rules packets in hand to discuss Breakaway.

We opened up the discussion with looking at the contest from an offensive as well defensive point of view.  Strategy and design go hand in hand but strategy was discussed very heavily this evening.  In addition, tournament scoring/seeding was also discussed in the process. 

Scott McMahon, Texas Instruments lead the evening of activities.  We had 15 students present along with 8 mentors. 

The pictures in the gallery summarize the evening's discussions.  In the process, we discussed three phases of the contest:  autonomous, teleoperated and finale.  Offensive and defensive strategies were again discussed in each of the phases.  No design or strategy decisions were made in regards to the robot or the contest but I think some design and strategy decisions are starting to form in the eyes of the team.  Some designs such as Ackermann steering were eliminated from the discussion. 

Tuesday will be an Open House for the community.  We will demonstrate robots and answer questions to visitors about our team, the contest and how they can be involved.  Brainstorming will also occur in the Scientific Research and Design (Robotics II) class as well. 

On a side note, Stephen and David began work on a test bench for the programmers.  This will allow the programmers to begin to work on code in regards to motor control and gain familiarity in the LabVIEW environment. 

Norman Morgan

Robotics I and II

Chem Con

512.732.9280  ext. 33459

Team 2468 - Who do you Appreciate?

www.chaprobotics.com

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from Reflexions

Brainstorming for Breakaway

Team 2468 chose to spend Saturday of Kickoff inventorying and identifying parts as well as reading the rules page by page as team.  Breakaway is the title for this years game.  Alliances have to score soccer balls in their own goal while attempting to prevent the opposing Alliance from scoring in their goal. 
On Saturday afternoon, we read thru the rules as a group.  The rules were discussed to clarify what each one meant and how it applied to our team.  The discussion often times would go off on an tangent into strategy and design of the robot.  As in the past, this was expected while at the same time, we tried to stay true to our purpose of the day:  read and understand the rules. 

At the end of the day, we discussed how we would look at the strategy and design of the robot in six parameters.  The parameters were:

• Offensively we will ...
• Offensively we might ...
• Offensively we will not ...
• Defensively we will ...
• Defensively we might ...
• Defensively we will not ...

Team members were dismissed with their rules packets in hand late in the afternoon.  Small discussions of different designs and aspects of the game broke out in the classroom and shop. 

Brainstorming as a group will occur on Monday night.

Norman Morgan

Robotics I and II

Chem Con

512.732.9280  ext. 33459

Team 2468 - Who do you Appreciate?

www.chaprobotics.com

Posted via email from Reflexions

2010 Breakaway GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Team 2468 is beginning our third season as a FIRST Robotics Team.  The game was revealed on Saturday, January 9th.  Over 1600 teams from 11 different countries will be building the robot they believe best solves this problem.  Each team will have six weeks to build this robot and prepare it for shipment.  Teams will compete in over 40 different regional contests. 

 

Westlake High School's Team 2468 is looking forward to the new contest and season.  Please feel free to come by the shop to check out the team working on the contest.  We will be meeting Monday thru Thursday evenings in the classroom/shop as well as Saturday's of each week.  Below is a description of the game and the course.

 

Breakaway is a game played on the FIELD (illustrated in the figure below). Two ALLIANCES, one red and one blue, composed of three FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) teams each, compete in each MATCH. The object of the game is to attain a higher score than your opponent by shooting BALLS into a GOAL, climbing on the ALLIANCE TOWER or PLATFORM, or by lifting an ALLIANCE ROBOT off the PLAYING SURFACE. Each Alliance consists of three robots each. 

 

 

A MATCH is 2 minutes and 15 seconds long. An AUTONOMOUS PERIOD starts each MATCH during which the ROBOTS are controlled by pre-programmed instructions. The AUTONOMOUS PERIOD is followed by the TELEOPERATED PERIOD during which the DRIVERS assume control of the robot. The ROBOTS continue to play the game until the TELEOPERATED PERIOD is over.

 

 

Each team will start with one robot in each zone of the course.  12 soccer balls are on the course to be placed by each Alliance with three in the far zone, two in the middle zone and one in the closest zone to their goal. 

Norman Morgan

Robotics I and II

Chem Con

512.732.9280  ext. 33459

Team 2468 - Who do you Appreciate?

www.chaprobotics.com

Posted via email from Reflexions

From High School Robotics to the White House | GeekDad | Wired.com

From High School Robotics to the White House

• By Chuck Lawton
• January 10, 2010  | 
• 8:00 am  | 
• Categories: Science and Education

Image: Adriana M. Groisman courtesy of usfirst.org

A few months ago, President Obama launched the “Educate to Innovate” campaign to strengthen competency in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. During this event, some students were invited to demonstrate their robot they built as part of the 2009 FIRST Robotics competition. One of those students, Steven Harris, commented on the importance of high school robotics teams and his experience with his own team:

via wired.com

FIRST Robotics has revealed the 2010 contest. Geekdad writes about President Obama hosting a FIRST robotics team at the Whitehouse.

Does your school have a robotics team? Are they involved in FIRST, VEX, BEST or some other contest? If they are not, email me to find out more about the contest or check out the links below:

http://www.usfirst.org

http://www.vexrobotics.com/competition/

http://best.eng.auburn.edu/

Posted via web from Reflexions

Robotics Gear Tutorials: Sariel's LEGO Technic creations

Gears Tutorial

September 29th, 2009

21 comments

via sariel.pl

Excellent explanation of gears found in LEGO kits. Great pictures with explanations of each gear are included. Example gear systems are explained with disadvantages and advantages.

Posted via web from Reflexions

FLL Conference Call for Central Texas FLL