Bagged and tagged robot

We did it!

At 11:03 PM we bagged our final robot!

Now it’s time to prepare for the Regional Competition in March. A new meeting schedule will be posted soon and we’ll be doing preparations including making buttons.

We are now looking for button designs!

Buttons are important because we hand them out during the regional competition. At the the regional, people wear buttons collected from various teams, so having catchy buttons is great exposure for FIRST Team 2202.
We want multiple designs and we will be mass-producing them prior to the regional competition.

We will be adding QR codes to the buttons so people can instantly access this website, so that’s another plus.

Team members will come up with designs, but we could use YOUR help. If you have a good idea for a cool button design, please draw it out and send it to info@beastrobotics.com. Thanks!

 Yesterday was the Mini-regional at Sussex-Hamilton High School hosted by FIRST Team 537 (team537.org). Not only did we get a chance to see the other robots, but it was a great opportunity to test our robot on a full-size field, examining its strengths and weaknesses.

Some of the things our robot does well include:

• Shooting lay-ups from close range
• Driving and picking up balls
• Operating on the state machine
• Having great drivers

The pro drivers

Weaknesses that we are now working on with great haste include:

• Inability to traverse barrier and bridges
• Inability to shoot 3-pointers or from the key
• The “puke” state on the robot was malfunctioning
• We did not have a hybrid mode

Debby and Ed taking a nap

Robot in Action

Our robot performed solidly at the mini-regional. Everyone was focused on the task at hand. We were able to score a good 4 or 5 baskets each game, especially after some tweaking by the programming team and modifications by the mechanical team.

We are confident that the robot will be operational when the actual regional comes along, but there are many things we need to get done:

• Cover the robot with protective armor
• Redesign the labels on the bumper
• Modify the robot’s center of gravity
• Change programming code to shoot from the key

Mr. Burbey won the TV! Team picture with the prize

Unfortunately, the rookie FIRST Team 4095 at Pius (roxirobo.org) was unable to make it; but their mentor, Mr. Eggers, came to cheer us on and gather intel. We are sure, however, that they will be at the regional in March.

A pleasant surprise came when Mr. Burbey won the first prize in the Wisconsin mini-regional raffle. He took home a 60” flat screen TV. Fortunately, he had come with an empty mini-van with which to transport it.

• Added supports for the shooter
• Integrated sub-devices into one robot
• Simplified the robot brackets and joints with simpler methods
• Finished the wiring and pneumatic systems
• Reduced the weight of the robot
• Modified the shooter wheels

Finalizing the Robot

It was not easy having so little time, and having only a few people able to work on the robot at the same time. Nevertheless, the team was able to get everything working. It’s now down to the programmers to get the robot up and running.

Even mentors need a break sometimes...

This week, the programming team:

• Finished the deadzone value scaling class
• Completed and debugged the robot
• Created state machine for primary robot functions

Working on the Website

The mini-regional hosted at Sussex by FIRST team 537.

We will soon find out how our robot stacks up against other robots.

You can visit Sussex here: http://team537.org/

Also, Justin and Bryan sold the most raffle tickets to support our team. They both won gift cards for iTunes, and Bryan got some bling. Great job!

Bryan with his Bling

This week the team:

• Created a ball coveyor
• Created bumpers for the robot
• Assembled the robot
• Refined the shooter to mount on the robot
• Got the Kinect to work
• Experimented with acceleration curves
• Tested the sonar devices

Lookin at the robot, it seems like signifigant progress has been made. There are two weeks left in the build season, and we all know that the team will likely be cramming to finish up the robot, but we also know that the hard work we are putting into this will certainly pay off.

Kinect Testing success

Our Robot so far...

This week, the mechanical team created an operating ball-shooting prototype. The shooter required time and precision construction, and we are quite pleased with the results.

Shooter up-close:

Shooter from a distance:

They also created the chassis based on ideas of how to traverse the barrier. A concept for a device to cross the bridges has also been produced.

Building the Chassis

Prototype for traversing the barrier:

The programming team, now generally familiar with robot programming, completed driving code that runs on the lunacy robot using this year’s C-RIO and software, as well as the xbox controller. They created a C++ class to simplify usage of the xbox controller. We have also been assigned the task of creating code to test the shooting prototype.

We are optimistic that all of this will come together and create a robot as effective as we want it to be, and we are working hard to accomplish that goal.

This is the first week of the FIRST Robotics 2012 build season, and the team is hard at work.

So far, the mechanical team has brainstormed and built some promising prototypes for shooting, sweeping, and manipulating the bridge. The team also built replicas of all aspects of the field, like the goals, bridges, and barrier.  We hope to begin actual production and testing of robot sub-devices soon.

Scoring Rig

Bridge

Meanwhile, the programming team has reviewed C++ programming and coded a testing robot for the mechanical team. The team also experimented with using the Microsoft Kinect and discussed goals for computer-facilitated aiming and camera target-tracking.

We are making solid progress, but there is still a lot of work remaining.

Brainstorming