Team Update: Kick Off Weekend 2011

Hi everyone!!

I hope everyone had fun this Kick Off weekend! The best is yet to come now :) I think this year is the year we will make it to Einstein and win it!

First off, I would like to thank Michelle for the entire team for providing each student with a notebook this year. These notebooks are great ways to make sure we have everything written down for the night and will help each student get just a little more organized.

Unfortunately, no one got the right answer for the holiday challenge that Mr. Hinde and Mr. Weick gave out. The students are still able to give answers and are encouraged to. We were given three hints to help us along.
1) there is a definite number answer.
2) Mr. Weick gave the exact encoder used in this challenge
3) it may have come in the 2010 Kit of Parts in a quad

Students, keep submitting your answers! These three hints should help you find the right answer.

Our safety contact for today was that there is black ice on the roads right now. Remember that you are unable to see the black ice and can slide, no matter how careful you try to be. Also, be aware of your surroundings, especially when texting. If you are not paying attention to what is going on around you, things could take a terrible turn.

As a reminder, this year the game is LogoMotion. For those who haven't yet seen the video, below is the link to it on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSc8FWfJQlU

Today we went over our homework, which was to make a prototype of the robot for this year. We had some great designs. Some ideas for picking up and holding the tubes included a magnet design, wrist motion, and a claw. We had ideas like a rotating/pivoting arm, telescoping arm, and a bendable arm. There were many, many more ideas. All these ideas are wonderful. As stated today, please do not be discouraged if an idea is not used on the robot exactly. The robot always ends up being a mixture of many different ideas.

Certain students have been given very specific tasks this year. All of these tasks or jobs are very important to the team and how well we function.
Safety Captain: Rachel Peterson
Manual/Team Updates: Issa Cardona
Post Questions to FIRST: Christian Clour
Moniter Chief Delphi: Michael Marandola
Cell Phone/Email List: Samantha Kirk

Everyone on the team is to make sure the following list is worked on:
- every student is to have a Chief Delphi account and is to be looking on there every night for interesting things, such as solutions to a problem we are having or other problems other teams are having and the solution to their problems
- all students are to make sure they have registered on STIMS. If you haven't already registered, go to usfirst.org and click on FRC. On the left side there will be a tab called "Registration" and when scrolled over, it will have another menu availabe. Click on STIMS. New students: Click on the button for new students and follow the directions from there. Veteran students: put in your login information to update your registration.
- make sure you are looking at Bill's Blog every night- Check out the Blue Alliance for teams who successfully lifted and hung the tubes in 2007
- watch videos of the 2007 competions either using the Blue Alliance or YouTube

This week we are focusing on prototypes.
Group 1) Drive system. Mr. Fordham and Scott are in charge of this group with Sammy, Mat, and Gain working on it. They are testing different drive systems and control, such as onmi wheels, tank drive, etc. As of right now, 2 omni wheels are successfully built and the frame that came in the Kit of Parts is being built.
Group 2) Telescoping/Lift system. Mr. Weick is the mentor in charge with Christian, Ally, and Issa working on it. So far they have been messing around with the extruded aluminum and linear slides. They are thinking about doing a continuous loop with pullies.
Group 3) Claw/Hand prototype. Wayne is the mentor in charge with Mikey, Rachel, and Dana working on it. Right now they have two designs they are working with.
Group 4) Sensors. Michelle and Mr. Cardona are the mentors in charge of this group with Nick and Jakob working on it as well. The team received 3 line followers in the Kit which are supposed to sense from 20 feet away. However, the sensors cannot "see" from that far away. The group is planning on using the cameras and other sensors to pick up and/or place the tubes. Right now they have wired the line follower and have updated the classmate with the new software. They are planning on using the 2010 robot to test the line follower.

Monday night is Mentor's Night at the shop. However, the students have homework per their group that they can work on Monday night. The students have also set up a Facebook Chat that is scheduled for Monday nights.

Due to the forcasted weather for Tuesday, please be on the look out for a text from Mrs. George as to whether we will have a meeting on Tuesday. If not, the students are going to have another Facebook Chat and will also have to be searching on Chief Delphi for different things to do with their group.

Thanks to the following people for meals this weekend: Rachel (breakfast on Saturday), Sammy (lunch on Saturday), Ally (breakfast on Sunday) and Mat (lunch on Sunday). As a reminder, Nick is charge of dinner on Tuesday if we do have our meeting.

Hope everyone has a wonderful night! See everyone on Tuesday if we have a meeting!
-Sammy