http://www2.usfirst.org/2012comp/Events/WI/rankings.html

Not the best final rank number FIRST Team 2202 has seen BUT we accomplished so much to become a more well rounded team this year and this season was a huge success!

Regional Competition Field

FIRST Team 2202 is featured in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel after the Regional Competition at the U.S. Cellular Arena, among other teams competing that day.

Check out the pictures and captions here

Fine tuning the kinect - Picture courtesy of JSOnline

FIRST Team 2202 is very excited to see what our little brother rookie team Pius’s Team 4095 has come up with. Judging from their teaser video above, we’ve got some great rookie competition to look forward to at the Regional!

Don’t worry, FIRST Team 2202 is represented on the map, go B’East!

Check it out here

and check out FIRST Team 1649 (who have mentors from Walt Disney World!) here: http://team1649.com/

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!

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.

 Marquette Hilltoppers – Milwaukee, Wisconsin

A team from the heart of Milwaukee, the Hilltoppers are consistently a great team at the Wisconsin Regional Competition. They recently designed their website, also.

Check them out here.

Charger Robotics – Sussex, Wisconsin

One of the older teams in the region, FIRST Team 537 from Sussex Hamilton helped us gain traction our first year and provided invaluable help. They also offer a mini-regional practice event the week of stop-build each year, providing a chance to utilize a full size practice field. We thank them for the efforts and continued gracious professionalism!

Check them out here.

C.O.R.E. 2062 – Waukesha, Wisconsin

FIRST Robotics is about more than the robot. It’s also about networking and friendships. Our team has friends on C.O.R.E. 2062 from Waukesha and we admire their hardwork. We took inspiration from their award winning website while starting our redesign this year.

Check them out here.

Pius XI – Milwaukee, Wisconsin

A proud moment for any veteran team is when they can offer help to a FIRST rookie. One of our mentors, Eric Eggers, left to launch a team at his Alma Mater Pius XI High School in Milwaukee. We showed the team around our shop, invited them to attend a pre-build season meeting, and have been following their progress all season. We’re excited to see how far they’ve come at the Regional.

Check them out here.

Windermere Prepartory School - Windermere, Florida

FIRST Team 1649 down in Sunny Florida has put together a fantastic map titled “Where in the world is FIRST?” and pinpoints each location of every FIRST Team!

Follow the link to see their map http://team1649.com/witwif/ and please link back to it for them!

• 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

 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!