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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

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

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

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

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.

This week, the programming team:

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

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!

 

Welcome to the final full week of Build Season, B’east fans! We have “stop build” date next week Tuesday the 21st.

 

 We are mostly done with the sub-systems of the robot and are in the process of getting it to all work together – the major challenge we have this week is to get our weight down to 120lbs.  We are currently at 135!
 

This Sunday 2/19 there will be a Mini-Regional competition at Sussex Hamilton High School from 12-4.  The mini regional is a great way for us to see how the robot will perform on the playing field and we’re looking forward to seeing what the other teams have innovated.  

 

 

After Feb 21st, we will continue to meet to prepare for the Wisconsin Regional March 22-24, but the meeting schedule will be reduced to every Wednesday night (6:30) and Saturdays as needed.

It has been a busy, fun and hectic build season.  Thanks to all the parents who have been helping out.  Wish us luck this week! 

 

This week, the robot has finally started to come together. We have begun the final assembly process, and the countdown to “stop build day,” as well as the competition, is imminent. Although many small problems have arisen, our main road block at the moment is cutting the robot’s weight by about twenty pounds. One of the most important milestones of the week was the final mounting of the sweeper. After about an hour of frustrating adjustments and tweaks, the design has been finalized. Finally, our electrical team has begun to wire up the robot in its final configuration.

 

 

 

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.

 

 This week, the team accomplished the following:

• Created an operational chassis
• Tested the launcher, we currently have 70% accuracy at close range
• Created a debouncer for the xbox controller
• Worked on designs to improve launcher accuracy
• Created a mechanism to traverse the bridges and barrier
• Begun work on a feeder/loading mechanism

 This week, the shooting team continued to make adjustments and has made progress on improving the accuracy of their design. They began by mounting the shooter in order to have a fixed angle. They are currently working on the barrel and experimenting with different combinations of motor speed, angle, and distance from the hoop.

Meanwhile, the team working on the lift has begun the assembly process, and should have a working lift by the end of the week.

The chassis team has continued to work on concepts to navigate the barrier and bridge, preferably with the same mechanism.

 

This is the halfway point in build season, and there is still a lot of work to get done. We anticipate that there will be extra meetings as we approach the ship date. We’ll keep you posted.

 

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.

 

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.

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.

 

 

 

 

It’s finally here!

After a great kick-off this last Saturday and an exciting brain storm session that followed, our first build season meeting it tonight!

What will we come up with this year? You’ll have to wait and see!

This year’s challenge is ……..

REBOUND RUMBLE!

 

Video belongs to US First, embedded from youtube.com