TCEA LEGO Robotics Training - Third and Final Day

Today we will have our third and final day of training here in Austin.  Notes from the day will be displayed below.  If you are watching live, please tell us hello, where you are from and a little something about you.  I am also interested in how you found the blog.  Please share with the group.  Several people in the class are interested in how to develop a Personal Learning Network (PLN).  Most of the teachers in attendance here will be participating in a robotics contest for the first time, so drop them a line in the blog for any resources you think they could use in regards to LEGO contest, team management, lessons, resources and encouragement.  

 

I received an interesting quote today in my email, so I thought I would share.  

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.

- John Quincy Adams

 

Made me think a little and wonder if you ever thought about it. 

• Who do you inspire? 
• How do you get inspire? 

1. Who inspires you? 

 

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Total Recall - Day 11

Students broke up into small groups in the shop to begin work on the robot.  Claude took the CAD team and made assignments to work on.  Six different students were working on CAD models of robot parts and or systems.  David showed several students how to use the mill while working on his wheel hubs for the large robot wheels.  David M. worked on casters/wheels/skids for the front of the robot with a few other students.   Several students worked on laying out the course dimensions on the carpet.  A large group of student use the GST to test how long it takes for Gadgets to travel down.  They were testing in different quantities. The MRT was completed and ready for testing.  Jonny and Robert continued to work on programming in RobotC.  They have made great progress in the programming of the different features of the robot.  Dustin and Brett were in the shop today working on the website and content for it.  

The FTC team continues to work on their design while the BEST team works at the same time.  

Today we received good news from Linda McMahon that our corporation for Westlake & Eanes Science & Technology Association came through today.  We still have work to do on the 501 (c) 3 non profit paperwork though.  It is great to see this happening and most of the thanks goes to Linda for all of her hard work and guidance.  

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Day two training

 

The notes for the day will be below in the blog.  If you are watching it live, please comment or share any resources so we know who is watching.  Your comments will be approved 

 

 

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TCEA LEGO Robotics Training

Day 1 of the three day workshop was very informative and interesting.  We each received our LEGO Education kit and laptop.  Each of us had to organize our kits, build our first robot (DomaBot) and begin to play in the LabVIEW environment.  We learned and saved several basic drive programs.  Drive forward, drive backward, point turn, swingturn and loops were the main topics.  

The workshop was very well organized and run by the three presenters:  Betty Justus, Peggy Reimers and Kathy Holberg.  Each of them demonstrated and worked with all of the teachers.  We each were given two task at the end of the day: work on "The Square" contest and our air conditioner interface drawing.  

The software did not seem as daunting as I had believed it would be.  The fact that I have used Mindstorms definitely helped me in utilizing the software.  I am looking forward to Day two. 

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Total Recall - Day 10

Week two began with a smaller group of the team meeting.  It was rather disappointing to see the turnout we had at the meeting, but the meeting was successful none the less. 

We began the process with where are we and what do we need to get done.  Sean and David reported on the progress of the robot design so far starting with an update on the progress from Saturday.  Designs of the robot were written down and discussed for each individual system.  We have chosen to focus on one game specifically.  This simplifies our strategy as well as our robot.  The robot will include two majors systems on the robot.  Demonstrations of these systems were given to the class with cardboard and/or paper prototypes. Questions revolved around specific details which clarified the design and its purpose.  

System one was decided to be multi functional.  This system will model a previous apparatus we have implemented in the past.  This system will be utilized in controlling the MRT, manipulating game pieces as well as Data Port communications. 

System two will be a utilized to control games pieces from the GST.  This system will undergo some refinement from the cardboard prototype.  These refinements will include location on the robot, release mechanism, elevation from the floor and material consideration.  

David presented team structure to the team on the Whiteboard.  Team leads and sub team leads were identified. Team members also identified what teams they wanted to work on.  After this presentation, Sean gave the group some tasks that needed to be completed by each team.  CAD of the robot systems is high on the priority at this time.  Some of the parts of the robot can go forward at this time.  Game field production can also begin on Tuesday.  

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TCEA Robotics Workshop

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Total Recall - Day 7 -- One week down, 5 weeks to go!

One week has gone by since Kickoff for Total Recall.  Progress continued not only on the robot design but in regards to some other areas as well.  We had students working on many different aspects of the contest today but still have many things to be nailed down at this point.  Progress was made in the following areas:  programming, robot piece design, game field pieces made, website, Solidworks and robot construction. 

Programming 

Jonny and Robert worked with Scott.  The team worked on a debounce feature which could implemented with the data port reading and relay of information.  Jonny did a very good job in working with and explaining to Robert what they were attempting to do.  Student mentorship is so important I believe in the success of our program.  Jonny also visited with design teams in regards to how programming would be involved with their designs.  

Robot Design

Students divided up into groups to work on systems of the robot.  We started out with the day with four different groups focusing on one specific aspect of the robot.  Each group worked on cardboard prototypes that were to 1:1 scale.  Several different iterations of each design were worked on and evaluated by each individual group.  Presentations were made at the end of the day by each group.  They demonstrated their prototypes to the team.  Team members offered feedback about the designs for clarification as well as ways to possibly improve the design.  Progress was made in eliminating some designs but final decisions still need to be made on several of the features.  

Game Field

Lauren and Michelle worked on the MRT construction while Sean R worked on the MPC.  Each group will complete their piece construction on Monday.  Tim Jordan worked on the calculations of the Scanning Tube since some of the dimensions do not seem to be correct.  The official Q and A has stated that an updated copy of the dimensions will be available soon.  The pipe and fitting were purchased for the Scanning tube to be manufactured.  

Website

The website team met with Linda and Rebecca today to begin to work on the structure of the site.  They discussed the evaluation rubric for the contest as well as did some work on looking at some other designs.  Assignments were decided upon to begin the initial creation of content for the site.  

SolidWorks and Robot Construction

Several students worked on SolidWorks of robot parts as well as working on tutorials.  Manuel worked with Grey on the SolidWorks File of the large motor. They were were working on the beginning of the motor mount.  David demonstrated making a drawing, printing, cutting and milling a block.  

Good progress was made for the first week of Total Recall.  A few of the systems are in the process of refinement while others still remain to be worked out.  

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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