LuNaTeCs Team 316

About the LuNaTeCs

The LuNaTeCs Team 316 is a small team in rural South Jersey that was started in 1999. The team consists of approximately twelve to sixteen students. The students come from the five local high schools in our area, majoring in engineering, writing, and culinary in some cases. The team has twelve mentors, all ranging from different types of professions.


LuNaTeCs stands for Learning Under Nurturing Adults Teaching Engineering Concepts and Skills. The team is a part of an organization called FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology). There are over 3000 teams that have been a part of FIRST since its inception in 1992.


Each January, the LuNaTeCs will anxiously await the revealing of the new "game" that is to be played that year. They are given 6 weeks to build the robot before shipping it out for the initial inspection.

Building the 2009 robot, Sammy Su.

The team spends over 15 hours every week in the workshop building the robot in those six weeks. Each student plays a vital part in building the robot. Some work on programming; others do electrical work; one student welds the robot with the help of a mentor. Not every student is required to work "hands on" on the robot. A few students direct their focus solely on Team Spirit for competition season.


In March, the team has their first competition. The team usually attends the Finger Lakes Regional in Rochester, NY. The second competition that the team enjoys going to is the Philadelphia Regional in Philadelphia, PA. The goal each year for the small team is to get the chance to go to Championships in Atlanta, GA.

The Drive Team and Back Up Drive Team for the LuNaTeCs after the Finger Lakes Regional 2009.

The LuNaTeCs participate in many community things each year. They do an Easter Seal project each year to help out people who have disabilities. The team also participates in road clean ups and collects plastic bottle caps as part of an effort to help out little kids who need dialysis or chemotherapy treatment.

The LuNaTeCs participating in the local 4H fair during the summer of 2009.

Thank you for reading the brief introduction to the LuNaTeCs. The team hopes you will continue to check up on their progress as they continue to change the lives of high school students in South Jersey.

Team Update: May 28, 2009

Here is a review of what we did this week in robotics.

Tuesday:
The orders for the light bulbs were due on Tuesday. Anybody who did not turn one, it is unfortunately too late to turn one in. Mrs. Callow had to get all the order sheets to the company yesterday.

We started to clean the room. Not much progress got done, but some was started.

Towards the end of the night, many students were discussing the pros and cons of going up to Boston in August. Mrs. Danner had talked about going up to Boston because we would be able to tour the iRobot factory. Ally said that there wasn’t much to do in Boston and that she would rather go down to Wildwood. This sparked a long discussion between the students, which meant that not much cleaning was done.

Thursday:
Mrs. Kirk, Mr. Mohrfeld, and Mr. Jerry started to clean up the room. Mr. Hinde, Mr. Don, and Mr. Weick were not happy with any of the students because the accelerometer and gyro were not put on the robot before PARC and still are not on the robot. Sammy and Billy started to research information about the two and to find out how to put the two pieces of electronics onto the robot for our next two off season competitions.

Mikey was learning how to program in Java because next year the robot will be programmed in Java. He was using a program called “Alice” to learn Java. If you have any interest in learning programming for next year, download “Alice” and mess around with it at home. After a few minutes, Billy went over to learn Java as well.

Rachel and Shannon worked on the letter to send out to sponsors. They worked as a pair for most of the night. Every now and then, one of them would stop working on the letter to help clean up some things.

Collin was mostly watching the mentors work on robot tonight, looking up information about PID (Collin, care to share with the team what you learned please?). Whenever somebody wasn’t doing something like working with Java, working on a letter, or researching things, they were either helping Mrs. Kirk sweep up the room or watching the mentors work on the robot.

Publicity Team Update: May 19, 2009

Publicity Team Update

1. Billy made up a flyer for the Light Bulb fundraiser with info from Billy
a. Has been checked over by Mrs. Morhfeld
i. Just needs to be printed out with all info on it
2. Collin, Mrs. Danner, and Sammy had a meeting with the web designer professor for SCC about the web design class creating our website for us
a. They will start to work on it in September
b. We will be able to pick our text (font, color, size, etc.)
c. We also got design ideas that her students made up for a banner for the website
3. Rough drafts for a letter to iRobot were due on Thursday as part of our homework
a. Explained who we are and what we want the iRobot Create for

Team Update: May 10, 2009

Don't forget about the two assignments that were given out during last Thursday's meeting that are due this Thursday. For those who weren't there, an email was sent out that night about the assignments. Even if you are not going to be at the meeting this Thursday, the assignments still have to be turned in. Give them to another person who will be at the meeting on Thursday or turn them in on Tuesday.

Anyone who did not turn in their Health History Form:
Those are needed ASAP for those who didn't turn them in. We also need 2 copies of your insurance card(s). Front and back please.

Team Update: May 7, 2009

For those who missed tonight's meeting (and those who forget what was talked about at the meeting) here is a quick review of what happened:

• We packed batteries, chargers, and everything else needed for PARC on Saturday
• Talked about what happened at the FLL demonstration this afternoon
• Discussed ideas for the demo bot
• Received an assignment for everybody to complete

For our demo bot, we have discussed making a Home Protection Personal Robot. All of our ideas for this demo bot are up on the white board, along with the assignment we were given regarding the demo bot.Our assignment was: Bring in a rough copy of a letter to send iRobot asking for an iRobot Create and explaining why we would like one. The iRobot Create will be used for our Home Protection Personal Robot. It is used for the Roomba, the personal vaccuum cleaner that Mr. Weick has been talking about recently. With the iRobot Create, we would be able to put different additions to it and program them to do what we want them to do. Here is a link of the Premium package (has many more things than the basic package does) : http://store.irobot.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2591901&cp=&sr=1&kw=irobot+create&origkw=iRobot+Create&parentPage=searchDo not send the letter you write. Everybody is to bring in a rough draft of the letter on Thursday. From there, Mrs. Danner will give us other instructions for the letters.

The other assignment we received was to look up information about the different sensors we want to put on the demo bot. The information we are looking up is: how they work and how we will use it on our robot. Everybody who was at tonight's meeting was assigned a sensor (excluding Collin who has a reprieve from this assignment only because of AP testing for another week) , with one sensor needing an extra person. We would like more than just 2 people on each sensor, so please step up and help find information about these sensors.

Motion sensor: Sammy and Mark

Smoke detector: Shannon and ??

Carbon Monoxide detector: Mikey and Billy

Some useful websites for this assignment: sparkfun.com and parallax.comNow for information about the FLL demonstration this afternoon:We had 4 students (Ally, Sammy, Collin, and Rachel) attend the FLL demonstration along with Mrs. George. Ally, Rachel, and Mrs. George got to see the FLL team show off their robot and their skit. Sammy and Collin did not because they were late getting to the school. After telling the FLL students about the robot, we then took them and Sammy Su into the cafeteria to give them a demo of Sammy Su and to let them test her out. Collin and Sammy showed them the robot and how it worked, and then in pairs of two, helped them drive the robot and pick up balls. We did have a snag this afternoon about half way through the demonstration while two of the FLL students were driving the robot. Our pick-up mechanism stopped working right, so we started throwing the balls into the holder so the students could still try out the dumping. We have gotten together as many things as we could to hopefully fix the problem Saturday morning.

Everybody attending PARC: Don't forget, we are all meeting at SCC at 5:15 AM in jeans (not hole-y, ripped up jeans) and your new shiney shirt. We do NOT want to see any underwear please! So if that means you have to wear a belt, please do. We beg of you. :)Drive team has not been decided yet. Mr. Weick and Mr. Don are deciding who is drive team. Make sure to bring money for lunch and for a pit stop on the way home. iPods and sleep are allowed on the way to and from. We should be getting home between about 8 and 10. Everybody should have gotten an email from Mrs. Danner about which car they will be riding into. She said that any changes in cars are allowed, she just doesn't want to know about them. Just make sure that the person you are switching with is ok with it please.

I apologize for such a long review. Hope everybody had a nice day! :)

Team Update: April 2, 2009

Tonight Mr. Hinde gave tasks out to everybody who was here. Mr. Don is coming up with tasks for the other students to complete. All of these tasks are to be completed before PARC because we want the majority of these things on the robot for PARC.

Shannon -- Finding information on the accelerometer
Mark -- Finding information on the gyrometer
Collin -- Looking up code to program the robot to track trailers and follow them
Sammy -- Look up codes for accelerometer and gyrometer that have already been created
Mathew -- Take VEX bot home and program it
Mikey -- Make the Safety Animation Video for next year's season. This is to have MAJOR progress on it before PARC
Rachel -- New pit design. Make a model of the pit the way you want it to be.
Ally -- ???
Christian -- ???
Que -- ???
Montrey -- ???

Everybody who is not on this list, get in touch with either Mr. Hinde or Mr. Don to find out what task you are to do before PARC.

SATURDAY
For anybody doing the 5K......Wear your practice shirt and team sweatshirt to the race. Remember, registration starts at 8 and the race starts at 9. For students, so far we have Sammy, Shannon, Collin, Christian, and Mark.

Team Update: March 2, 2009

I need everybody's section of the robot book TOMORROW because the book needs to be put together and packed tomorrow. You need to have pictures included in your section of the book. If you don't have, contact somebody to get pictures.

For anybody who needs a reminder (which hopefully you don't need one and I will get an email back from everybody today with their section of the book included/attached in the email before midnight.....), here are the assigned parts again:

Section 1: Drive system - Shelby and Rachel
Section 2: Wiring - Sammy
Section 3: Pneumatics - Mat Moran
Section 4: Ball Collector - Mikey and Q
Section 5: Dumping Mechanism - Christian and Montrey
Section 6: Framework - Ally and Shannon
Section 7: Progamming - Collin and Mark
Section 8: Build Season and Schedule - Mrs. Danner and other mentors

It is YOUR responsibility to print out your section with pictures and it is YOUR responsibility to make sure it gets put in my hands tomorrow.

Team Update: February 13, 2009 (Part 2)

For those who were on the team last year, hopefully you all remember the robot book we made up. For those who are new on the team, each year we make a book about the robot. We put as much information as we think is important in there. It is a great help when a judge asks you a question and you aren't sure of the answer and you know it's in there. It helps us be prepared which could possibly help us win an award.

Here is the breakdown of our topics and who has signed up for what:
Section 1: Drive System - Shelby
Section 2: Wiring - Sammy
Section 3: Pneumatics -
Section 4: Ball Collector - Mikey
Section 5: Dumping Mechanism - Christian
Section 6: Frame work - Ally/Shannon (Shannon for bumpers)
Section 7: Programming - Collin/Mark
Section 8: Build Season & Schedule

We need someone to sign up to do the Pneumatics section of the book, and we still need Matt F., David, Mat M., Montrey and Q to sign up for something. We will have doubles on some sections of the book, which is a good thing. The people that still need to sign up for something, I will be asking you today (in 2 hours hehe) what section you want to work on. It is important that you put as much information as you know on that subject in this book.We need to have the rough draft by tomorrow, and the final draft must be turned in by Monday at the latest. We will also like to have pictures for each section. If you aren't able to take pictures, chances are either I have already taken a picture of that part of the robot. If you want more or I didn't take a picture of that part, tell me exactly what it is that you want me to take a picture of, and I'll get the best angle to take the picture. Today during the morning since there will only be about 2 mentors there with us, each person is to start writing up their section of the book unless they are actively working on the robot. Come lunch time, it will be too hecktic to write up parts for the book.

4 more days til we ship SAM off!!!

Team Update: February 13, 2009

Here is an updated list of who is doing what section in the robot book:

Section 1: Drive System - Shelby and Rachel
Section 2: Wiring - Sammy and Matt Fordham
Section 3: Pneumatics - Mat Moran
Section 4: Ball Collector - Mikey and Q
Section 5: Dumping Mechanism - Christian and Montrey
Section 6: Framework - Ally and Shannon (Bumpers)
Section 7: Programming - Collin and Mark
Section 8: Build Season and Schedule - Mrs. Danner and all the other mentors

I need a rough draft by tomorrow and a final copy of your section by Monday. We don't have time to put this off. If you don't have your section tomorrow, you are going to be working on your section instead of working on the robot. And if you aren't working on the robot, Mr. Hinde and the rest of the mentors here will not be happy because there are many things to do. So, make sure to complete your section of the book. And remember, PICTURES!!!! :) Put pictures in your section. If you can't get any pictures, tell me and I will take pictures of the things you want me to take pictures of and will send it to you. The pictures don't have to be in your rough draft, but definitely in your final copy.Oh, and as a reminder to everybody: Make sure to bring your shiny shirt tomorrow. Somebody will be down in our workshop at around 11 to take a picture of all of us and our robot. So, be here, awake and ready! :)

Sammy

Team Update: January 21, 2009

Mr. Hinde - Shannon
Mr. Mohrfeld - Sammy
Mrs. George - Shelby
Mr. George - Ally
Ms. Kirk - Collin
Elmo - Christian
Aaron - Montrey
Mr. B - Mat Moran
Mr. Weick - Mikey
Mr. Jerry - Rachel
Mr. Fordham - Matt Fordham
Mr. Don - Q
Mrs. Danner - David
Mrs. Callow - Mark

That is the list we had as of last Thursday. Tomorrow is Mentor's Day. Everyone, please bring your gift/card/whatever you're bringing with you tomorrow to the workshop to show your appreciation to the mentor you chose. If you haven't gotten it yet, remember that we put a $15 limit on the gift to make it fair.

3 more weeks of build season left!!

Team Update: January 13, 2009

Hello everybody!

For everybody that was at the meeting tonight, hopefully we got closer to Mr. Hinde's goal. I was primarily working programming, so I have no clue how far anybody else got tonight.

As for Mentor's Day, we managed to get everybody but David and Q signed up for a mentor. Here is the list we compiled tonight:
Mr. Hinde - Shannon
Mr. Mohrfeld - Sammy
Mrs. George - Shelby
Mr. George - Ally
Ms. Kirk - Collin
Elmo - Christian
Aaron - Montrey
Mr. B - Mat Moran
Mr. Weick - Mikey
Mr. Jerry - Rachel
Mr. Fordham - Matt Fordham
Mr. Don - **Still need somebody**
Mrs. Danner - **Still need somebody**
Mrs. Callow - Mark

Q and David, we need to know whether you want to do Mr. Don or Mrs. Danner, preferably by Thursday. If I don't have an answer from you by then, I'll either get it from you that night at the meeting, or will get a hold of you somehow.

If anybody needs help coming up with an idea for the mentor you chose, please ask for help from somebody. Remember, we are putting a $15 limit on whatever you're getting your mentor. Be creative! For anybody who was on the team in fall of 2007, you'll hopefully remember that little contest we had to figure out who knew the mentors best. One of our mentors had wanted to be on Broadway. An idea for whichever mentor that was could be to create kind of like a trophy for them, one like they would get for being an excellent actor/actress on Broadway.

See everybody on Thursday!

Team Update: January 12, 2009

We've gotten a few responses back on who wants to do which mentor:
Mr. Hinde - Shannon
Mrs. Danner -
Mr. Don -
Elmo - Christian
Aaron -
Mr. Mohrfeld - Sammy
Ms. Kirk - Collin
Mr. Fordham -
Mrs. George -
Mr. George -
Mr. Weick - Mikey
Mr. B -

Team Update: January 11, 2009

January 22 is Mentor's Day. Shannon and I think that it would be really nice of all of the students to do something for the mentors. Each student should pick one mentor and either get them something, or do something that shows that we appreciate everything they have done for us. Email me back with what mentor you want to do something for that way we don't have doubles on one mentor and none on another mentor.
Here is the list of mentors (I may have forgotten one or two on accident. If you see one missing, please tell me!) :
Mr. Hinde -
Mrs. Danner -
Mr. Don -
Elmo -
Aaron -
Mr. Mohrfeld - Sammy
Ms. Kirk -
Mr. Fordham -
Mrs. George -
Mr. George -
Mr. Weick -
Mr. B -
Please get back to either me or Shannon as soon as you can on who you want to show appreciation for. We all should show appreciation on a daily basis to them, but January 22 especially. We're gonna do this first come, first serve. We might need a few students to do more than one mentor, I'll let you know if we need to. This is really important that you get back to me soon. Once a few students start replying to this email, I'll send out an updated list of who is taking who.
Thanks!!
Sammy