The Flying Platypi

2012 Build Season So Far

2012-01-21T12:42:00.000-08:00

So we're heading into the third week of build season and how are things going so far? Here's a (very brief) summary of what each department has been up to:
Mechanical: The Mechanical Department has been working hard breaking down the specifics of the game and coming up with creative solutions to the problem presented. A mock-up of this years shooting mechanism has been made out of wood and with a little tweaking, everything seems to be working properly. Also, the fabrication of our base has started this weekend and should be finished within the next couple of days.

Programming: Because of how many new members we have in programming this year (6+!), the Programming Department has been taking time to teach new members. This is a really fun process to watch, as it solidifies what veteran members learned last years and gives them the opportunity to teach.

Marketing/Awards: Essays, essays, essays! The Marketing and Awards Departments have been working together to write essays for the Chairmans, Woodie Flowers, and Dean's List awards. While it's a lot of work, it's definitely a worthwhile process.

Now, back to work!!!

Alumni Interviews: Erin

2011-09-11T13:35:00.000-07:00

During the 2010-2011 season, the Flying Platypi had a grand total of five seniors who later graduated in the spring of 2011. Before some of them left for school, I wanted to ask them about their experience in the FIRST program as well as on The Flying Platypi.
The first interviewee is Erin, the 2010-2011 president of The Flying Platypi. Here's what she said about her FIRST experience:

Could you give me a summary of your time on The Flying Platypi?

I joined Team #2655 in 2009 after participating in FIRST LEGO League for 3 years. On The Flying Platypi, I was the main web designer and was in charge of social networking. Additionally, I participated in team leadership and was a part of the Chairman's Award presentation crew in 2009 and 2010.

What are your plans for the future?

I am currently attending the University of Cincinnati College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP) in order to study Industrial Design.

What was your favorite memory/experience from you time on Team 2655?

I really enjoyed seeing the team come together and individual members grow throughout the years. (Winning the 2011 Website Award at the Peachtree Regional was pretty good too.)

What do you think was the hardest thing about participating in the FIRST program?

Teamwork and time management.

What was your favorite thing about FIRST?

The favorite thing about participating in FIRST was the fact that it gave me so many different opportunities. I was allowed to explore web design, learn about leadership, and go places such as the North Carolina State Legislature or behind the scenes at Analog Devices.

What will you miss about FIRST and do you plan on staying involved with the program?

I will really miss the competitions. Meeting so many different people from other teams was great! Optimistically, I would like to continue with FIRST as a volunteer or Website Award judge.

Any additional comments or something you'd like the share?
I'd like to thank all the mentors and parents that selflessly dedicate their time to The Flying Platypi. They're help and support really does make a difference to everyone on the team.

Regional....er Championships....Recap: St. Louis

2011-05-08T11:37:00.000-07:00

Wednesday:
There were two things running through everyone's head: "It's too early" and "This is kind of exciting". It was just before 4AM on Wednesday, April 27th and all the members of Team 2655, The Flying Platypi were getting on a bus bound for St. Louis, MO for the FRC Championship event. After everyone boarded the bus, we started our very, very, very long bus ride to Missouri. Fifteen hours, at least five movies and seven hundred miles later, we arrived at our final destination. After an afternoon of hanging out in the hotel (the pool was excellent) and making buttons, the team had a quick meeting and went to bed to be ready for all the excitement Thursday would hold.

Thursday:
Early Thursday morning the team rode the bus over to the Edward Jones Dome for the first day of competition. It was really incredible to walk into the pit for the first time and see all the FLL, FTC and FRC teams all in one place ready to compete in their respective fields.
After putting the finishing touches on the pit and setting up Archimedes in the stands, it was time to get in line for robot inspection. We passed Godzilla (our robot) and the minibot without too much trouble but we unfortunately were unable to make to any of our practice matches on Thursday morning.
Unlike FRC regionals, at the Championship Event seeding matches begin on Thursday afternoon, instead of Friday morning, so there will be time for ten matches for every team. So, after a quick lunch, the team went back to the Newton pits/stands to que up for/watch our first match. Although we had connection problems and were unable to move for much of the match, we had some incredible alliance partners who helped win our first match of Championships. The rest of the afternoon was dedicated to trying to fix any problems with the robot and do as much "networking" with other teams as we could. It was really a lot of fun walking around and meeting new teams from all over the United States and the world that were represented in our division as well as others. However, the most exciting part of Thursday came in the evening; RoboProm! The team is proud to announce that with just a little convincing, every single member of The Flying Platypi attended RoboProm 2011 hosted by team 399, Eagle Robotics. All of had a fantastic time at prom, everyone talked and danced and a couple team members even had the opportunity to crowd surf! By the time prom ended and we went back to the hotel, everyone was incredibly happy but really tired and ready to go to bed.

Friday:
It was Friday morning, and the Rebecca Black references were running rampant. All the "early bird" team members headed to the Edward Jones Dome at 6:45, so we could be there as soon as the doors opened.
Because it was the second day of the event, all our matches were held in the actual Dome instead of in the pit area. It was really an awesome feeling walking into the Dome with our robot for our first match on Friday. Everything was incredible: the lights, the field, the crowds of teams in the stands...all of it was amazing and it was really exciting to be apart of it.
We had a mix of good and bad matches on Friday; we just couldn't seem to get rid of our field connection difficulties, no matter how many field techs tried to help us. Still, regardless of our robot problems, everyone on the team was having a really great time at Championships.
The best part of Friday was by far the "staged event" featuring the Black Eyed Peas that had been hinted about by FIRST for so long. Because Team 2655 qualified for Chamionships through winning the Regional Chairman's Award, we were given floor seats to the concert, allowing us to be right next to the stage the entire time. It was a great concert and I think I can safely say that every single FIRST team there would like to thank the Black Eyed Peas for coming, we all had a great time.

Saturday:
Early Saturday morning everyone packed all their luggage and rode the bus to the Edward Jones Dome for the last time. We had two seeding matches left but really the whole team was just trying to enjoy the rest of the event. All of walked around and talked with other teams, collected more buttons and had a fantastic last day. After alliance selections for our division were over, all of us went out to lunch and took another trip to the arch. The Flying Platypi had a really great last day and it was nice to enjoy St. Louis. Later, we walked back to the dome to watch the award ceremony and the final Championship matches. After all the awards had been given out and the last of the confetti had fallen, the team had a quick dinner before getting back on the bus for the last time and starting our ride back home.

Going to the Chamionship event was a really incredible experience for everyone on The Flying Platypi. We had the opportunity to see how for we've come in a season and at the same time get ideas on how to improve ourselves in seasons to come. The Flying Platypi would like to once again thank all of our dedicated coaches, mentors, parents and sponsors for their support, there is no question we couldn't have done it without them.
Now, onto the 2011 off-season!

Regional Recap: North Carolina Regional

2011-04-17T06:38:00.000-07:00

Another long summary of a 2011 FRC regional

Thursday:
As team members arrived at "The House of the Rising Sun" aka Dorton Arena on Thursday, everyone could feel the excitement building for the next 3 days of competition. Everyone from Thy Flying Platypi that was present got in line with our robot cart and pit materials as we waited for the event staff to open the doors at 8:30.
After what seemed like forever, the doors open and the team walked into the arena. Some team members began setting up the pit while others ran up the stairs to reserve seats to watch matches later that day.

Once the pit was set up, the robot was un-crated and everyone in mechanical, electrical and programming went to work. The team's goal for the North Carolina regional was to have a working and consistent minibot and minibot deployment system. While everything had worked perfectly in the machine shop at home, not everything went smoothly once at the competition. Even though everyone worked hard on the robot all day, we only made out to the practice field once, just so we could connect to the field and be ready for seeding matches on Friday. While not everything was going according to plan, everyone was still very optimistic about the next day of competition.

Friday:
Once again, all members of The Flying Platypi arrived at Dorton Arena early in the morning to wait for the doors to open. After opening ceremonies and a really inspirational talk from the great Woodie Flowers, it was time to get to work. As soon as we were allowed into the pit, work began on the minibot and it's launcher. Sooner then we liked, 10:30 arrived and it was time for our first match. Unfortunately, we had trouble with connection and we were unable to control the robot for the entire match. While it was a little sad, everyone was still really motivated to get everything working.
Even more unfortunately, the team was unable to get everything working and we continued to lose matches because of robot malfunctions. It seemed that once our hard-working pit crew got something working, another thing would break without hope of finding a replacement. As we headed to our fifth match, there was definitely a feeling of dread; none of us wanted to watch something else break on the field. And then, after so much work, both the minibot and the launcher worked perfectly and the won our first match of the NC regional. There was a great deal of cheering and high-fiving, we were SO reveled to finally see mechanical, electrical and programming's hard work pay off.
We won the rest of Friday's matches although our win-loss record was not admirable as we would have liked. Regardless, Friday had still been very successful; the minibot and launcher finally worked, our Chairman's Award presentation had gone really well and we had had some really great conversations with judges and referees. At the end of the day, the pre-judged awards ceremony was held to to our great surprise, we were once again awarded the regional Website Award.

Saturday:
Saturday started with a quick opening ceremony followed by a couple announcements on how the day would run. Then the matches began and the team rushed to put more finishing touches on the robot. The two matches we had that morning went by really quickly and we came out of seeding matches with a 4-6 record. Although out record was below the standard we had set for ourselves, the team was glad to have worked out most of the mechanical problems with the robot.

As usual, alliance selections were held right before lunch; it was time to see if we would be chosen to compete in elimination rounds. Even though we were not expecting to be picked, it was still was a little nerve racking to watch the slots slowly be filled by other, very competitive, teams. Much to our surprise, we were picked by the 7th seed alliance, Team 1225 The Gorillas and Team 527 The Dragons. After a quick lunch and a couple adjustments to the robot, we had our first elimination match. We were paired against the 2nd seed alliance, which was headed by team 2415, The Wiredcats, one of the teams that had one the Peachtree Regional. Our alliance lost to them within the first two matches and we went to pack up the robot and watch the rest of the elimination matches.
We would like to congratulate the winning alliance of the North Carolina Regional; Team 2415, the Wiredcats, Team 3506, YETI (Yay rookie team!!), and Team 2751, SPARK Robotics. You guys are great competitors and really inspiring teams!

After all the rounds were over, it was time for the last awards ceremony of the regional. The Flying Platypi watched some really incredible teams receive awards and it felt great to cheer for them as the accepted the awards they worked so hard for.
As the ceremony wound down, there was only one award left, the Regional Chairman's Awards. As the emcee began to read the description of the award, the crowd grew silent waiting for the winning team to be announced. Then, a brief description of the winning team was read and everyone on our team just stared (and a couple members screamed!). They were describing us! As we walked down the (many) stairs to the arena floor, it was so incredible to hear other teams chanting our name; that really meant a lot to all of us, thank you for your support.
Many high-fives, tears of joy, and congratulatory hugs later, The Flying Platypi (including Archimedes!) posed for our team picture with the Chairman's trophy. We still can't believe that we were chosen for this amazing award and eveyone would like to thank our parents, coaches and mentors who helped us learn and become the team we are. We never could have done it without them.

We would also like to thank/congratulate:
Team 435 The Robodogs for their help not only during the regional but in the off-season as well. And even bigger congratulations to Rebecca for becoming a Dean's List Finalist, you deserve it!
Teams 1225 & 527 For picking us for elimination matches, you were both great alliance partners!
Team 281, EnTech For being great pit-neighbors and offering us help whenever you thought we needed it. Congratulations on the Engineering Inspiration Award and we'll see you in St. Louis!
Many thanks to anyone who wore our buttons, cheered for us or hugged our platypus mascot. We really do appreciate it.

Next up for The Flying Platypi, the Championship Event in St. Louis, MO!

Regional Recap: Peachtree Regional

2011-04-10T08:29:00.000-07:00

A (not-so-quick) summary of The Flying Platypi's first 2011 regional:

Thursday:
On March 17 2011, Team 2655 The Flying Platypi arrived at the Gwinnett Civic Center in Duluth, Georgia to participate in our first competition of the year, the Peachtree regional. It was obvious all the team present were excited to be there and enthusiasm was really high as we waited in line to enter the pits on Thursday.

After everything for pit set-up was brought inside, I went with a few other team members to the stands to save some seats for the team to sit during matches throughout the regional. As I walked into the arena area, I saw the very shiny, brightly lit, full-size Logomotion field for the first time and I got incredibly excited for the upcoming weekend.

As Thursday progressed, Team 2655, along with many others teams, ran into numerous problems with out arm, end effector, and programming. However, after finally making it to the field to run a few practice matches, things really seemed to come together.

Friday:
Friday stared with a very early hair-spraying session as a hand full of team members bravely volunteered to spray their hair for the day. Afterwards, the team headed over to the Gwinnett Center to begin the first day or seeding matches for the Peachtree regional. Not all our matches went well, but we were able to hold a spot in the top twenty-four teams.
At the end of the day, the pre-judged awards ceremony was held and the entire team was there to cheer for the teams who received awards. Much to our surprise, we won the Website Award at Peachtree for our 2011 team website.

Saturday:
On Saturday morning we finished our last three seeding matches and were able to maintain a 6-4 record for the regional. Just before lunch, I headed out to the field to be the team representative while picking alliance partners for Peachtree's elimination matches. We were very excited to be picked by the 6th seed, team 2967 IronWorks, from Columbus GA. After quickly talking for a couple minutes, we picked team 1848, SOUP, from Atlanta GA, to be our last Alliance partner for elimination matches.
After lunch, elimination matches began and we were scheduled to go against the 3rd seed alliance. After talking over a little strategy, we had our first match, which we won without too much stress. We later went on to lose one match and then win our last match, securing our advancement to the semi-finals. After a quick break, we were set to go against the 2nd seed alliance. Needless to say, it was incredibly intimidating, all the teams present were great, strong teams with some really amazing robots. We eventually lost in the semi-finals but, it's easy to say that all the team members of each alliance partner was happy with our performance during the Peachtree regional.

All in all, everyone on Team 2655 had a great time at Peachtree and it was a good learning experience for the 2011 game. Every member had time to have fun, compete and relax. Even Archimedes had a fantastic time.

A big thank you to Team 2967, IronWorks for picking us and to Team 1848, SOUP for being another great alliance partner.

Also a big congratulations to Teams 2415, 1771 and
2815 for being regional champions
And even bigger congratulations to team 122, The Nasa Knights on winning the Chairman's Award.

Next up, the North Carolina Regional!

Preparing for Peachtree

2011-03-07T16:23:00.000-08:00

There's only eight days until Peachtree and everyone on The Flying Platypi can feel the anticipation building. Although there's still quite a bit left to do, we're all really exited about our first regional of 2011. Both Mechanical and Electrical have been working hard to finish the minibot as well as few "extras" that will help make Peachtree the success we want it to be. A few team members have also been working hard to get last years robot, Windexter, functional for a couple demos that are coming up this week. While part of the team works on robots, the Awards and Marketing Department have been making buttons, designing the 2011 pit layout and putting the finishing touches on a business plan so everything will be ready ahead of schedule.

One exciting new addition to the team this year is our beloved mannequin, Archimedes. The marketing department has chosen him to model both our team shirt and a sponsor shirt from JCPenney. We're all surprisingly happy with Archimedes although some of us are just a little scared of him.

We plan on completely decking out Archimedes and making a place for him either in the pit or the stands. By the time Marketing is done with him, he'll have a shirt, a hat, safety glasses (of course), buttons and maybe even a wig (maybe). Clearly, we're having way to much fun with this.

By far, the people who are the most nervous for Peachtree are our drivers. We have a team full of rookie drivers this year and while they're excited about the opportunity, theres definitely some nerves too.

The Last 5 Weeks...a almost post-build season summary

2011-02-16T15:16:00.000-08:00

So after a short five weeks, everyone on The Flying Platypi is beginning to feel the pressure as the 2011 build season comes to a close. A lot has been accomplished since January eighth; we've come from very rough sketches:

to a sturdy robot with a pretty awesome arm.

And look! Our chassis can drive!

The team held brainstorming session during the first week of meetings so everyone could be involved in the robot design. It was decided that the Team would build a basic kit chassis so we could focus on build a good, sturdy arms. Many sketches were done with specific measurements, making sure that we always "measure twice and cut once". Weeks later, all team members are very pleased with the robot so far and we're really excited for our first regional.

One thing that has worked very well this year is having our different departments meet at separate locations during the week.
This allowed members to focus on their own projects and keep out of each other's way.

Meanwhile, the Awards and Marketing Departments (along with help from the rest of the team) have been working hard on finish submissions for the Chairman's and Website Awards as well as arranging fundraising and networking activities.

You can see our new 2011 website here.

We're proud that both awards submissions were finished early and even went through several rounds of parental "judging". With six days left in build season, every single member of The Flying Platypi is working hard to make sure that the 2011 season is our best yet.

Two weeks into Build Season....now what?

2011-01-22T16:45:00.000-08:00

Wow the first two weeks have gone by so fast!
On January 8th (kick-off!!) most of the team met at an office of one of the team parents to watch the live broadcast of 2011 kick-off in New Hampshire. Meanwhile, a handful of other members drove down to the Kick-Off event in Dorton Arena and then pick up the kit of parts afterwards. As it got closer to the game announcement, excitement built no only at Dorton but also back at the office. And then Logomotion was introduced and the build season began! The rest of the day was spent drawing rough designs, defining the goal of the game and laying out six-week goals for each department.

After several days of unfortunate snow delays, the team became closer and closer to figuring out exactly what type of game position they wanted to play and the best way to construct the robot. Many drawings later we had a rough idea for the chassis and arm.

Week 2
The big question for week two was how did we want to construct the arm and what kind of chassis will we need to support it. After many discussions, idea submissions, drawings and brainstorming sessions the team has come to its final chassis/arm/ end effector combination. Also, the Chairman's Award department got started on the essay, executive summary and the Chairman's video. And the most exciting news for week 2? The team order 24 dozen beads to hand out at regionals (:

It's been a busy off-season...(Part 1)

2011-01-01T15:35:00.000-08:00

It's just one week before the 2011 FRC game is announced and excitement on the team is definitely building. But before we dive into a new, challenging and possibly sleep deprived build-season, we'd like to offer a short recap of some of the things we've done over this 2010 off-season.

The keyword for The Flying Platypi's summer were demos, demos demos. Last summer the team did only seven demos to share our robot with the public and this off-season we wanted to really try harder to spread the message of FIRST as well as show off our robot. As a result, we've done a grand total of twenty-one demos this past off-season, tripling our number from last year. Here are some of my personal favorite demos and what made them particularly fulfilling.

- The Flying Platypi took the robot to General Greene Elementary's Technology Day in May to tell the next generation of FLL, FTC and FRC members about FIRST and how much fun it can be! The excitement of the students, ranging from kindergarten to fifth grade, really helped feed the enthusiasm of those members presenting. We answered questions from both the students, their parents and teachers about the robot, drive system, programing and even the name of our robot. A great time was had by all!

- Another fun demo the team did was the Chick-Fil-A "spirit" night in June. The first night the team held, all the money raised from food profit percentages was donated to the families of the West Virginia coal miners that experienced a mine tragedy earlier in the year. We drove the robot around in the parking lot, handed our information about the team, and explained about the cause for which we were fundraising. It was a great night and everyone had a fun time. (and great food too!)

- Out of all the demos that I went to this summer, my favorite was as the Palladium movie theater the weekend Toy Story 3 premiered. There were a lot of younger kids (and quite a few teenagers too) going to the theater to watch the final installment of the Toy Story trilogy and many of them were immediately drawn to the interesting robot driving around in front of the building. One particular boy came over to the robot when we had first arrived and was really interested in how it worked. Because we had just gotten there, the robot was not quite ready to drive and we hurried to set up the drive system so we could show this excited individual our robot. In our rush we asked the little boy if he would like to help another team member fasten the bumpers to the front, back and sides of the robot. With unexpected gusto, he gladly accepted our offer and continued to ask very detailed and interesting questions as he aided us. After everything was ready, he drove the robot around the area we were given and seemed to have a great time talking to all the team members that were present. I had a fantastic day and I hope everyone else did too.

- I think the most interesting and different demo I attended this year was the "Amigos y Hermanos" event that was sponsored by the Governor's Crime Prevention Committee. We were asked to demo our robot to a audience of mostly Hispanic children and their parents. It was my first time personally giving the entire presentation about our robot and, needless to say, I was very, very nervous. However, once the robot started to drive around, the interest and excitement of those attending skyrocketed and there were many, many people waiting for their turn to drive the robot (with some help from the other team members attending). My favorite "volunteer driver" was a little boy who was about three. He was too short to reach the controls and had to be lifted up on a chair just so he could press the button for our robot to kick the soccer ball. His genuine joy after pressing the button made all the nervousness over speaking totally worth it.

Team Member Interview

2010-11-11T07:40:00.000-08:00

Recently, one of the members of The Flying Platypi, Ryan Yarbrough, animated a video explaining this years FIRST Lego League challenge, Body Forward. We wanted to interview Ryan so he can tell us all about his project and the work that went into it.

Hi Ryan! how are you?

I'm doing great.

So, you're the one that made the new FLL animation right?

Yes, I am the one who made the FLL animation.

Cool! Can you tell me how an animation like that is made?

The FLL animation was made using a form of animation called stop motion. Stop motion is when you use a camera to take a string of pictures of whatever your trying to animate. You move the object, in this case a lego mini-figure, and take a picture. Than you move the object again and take a picture. You would repeat this process again and again until you have enough to make your animation. On the computer you have to compile the pictures in to a movie making software and then you began the editing. In the end it is a little more complex than this but that is a simple overview.

Wow, that sounds like a lot of work. How many pictures did you have to take for the entire animation?

To make this animation I took 3,854 pictures.

Whoa! How long did it take you to make the animation start to finish?

It took about eleven weeks. Three to six hours a night to make the animation.

You did have some help right?

I had four other team members help me with the animation. Trevor Long helped me write the script. Erin Wenig and Phillip Menesick were the voices of Nina and Dr. Justin Case. Also Phillip, along with Ben Agresti, wrote the original music that you hear during the entire video.

And the most important, did you have fun?

At times it felt like I would never finish, but in the end it was one the funnest and most fulfilling projects I have ever worked on!

The entire team would like to thank Ryan (and everyone that helped him) for his hard work in making this animation such a great success. You can watch the video here:

2010 Regionals: Peachtree

2010-05-28T15:56:00.000-07:00

Oh wow. It has been quite a while since I updated this blog! As I type the off-season is underway and the team is bringing around the robot to demonstrate at various places. But that is another post. To start off, I'll try and recall the Peachtree Regional...

Going to Peachtree for the second year as the Flying Platypi was much different than the first because of one big factor: teams knew about us. Getting our team's name out there was not an uphill battle and even in the first few minutes I was in the competition building, I saw other teams point us out and make comments about my team. (Hopefully good comments!) But, even better than knowing that our team was recognized was the feeling of walking into the stands to see the field for the first time.

Back in our pit, the team was busy. The pit needed to be assembled and the robot needed to be completed:

The next two days went by in a blur. Talking to teams, scouting, getting the robot through inspection, and dealing with disappointment as our robot ran into problems again, and again. But, despite the problems, my team had a blast helped, in part, by the debut of our mascot. Yesiree, Gary the platypus certainly made an impression.

By the the end of qualifiers, our robot was ranked in the upper thirties and the chances were that we would not be picked for the elimination rounds. Standing in the line, I just about screamed in excitement when team #281 EntTech picked us to be a part of the 8th seed alliance. The group was completed by the wonderfully designed robot from the Gear Devils. In spite of the fact we were knocked out in the quarterfinals, we were proud of our performance. But, the biggest surprise of the tournament came at the end. During the competition, a lot of judges came to talk to our team, and many of them returned to check up on how our robot was doing. (One of the coolest judges was a guy named Morrison who had a scottish(?) accent!) The number of judges talking to us made one wonder...

Later, our team was sitting during the award ceremony when the Judges Award was announced. As the announcer was reading about the team who won, he dropped several hints which made all of us look at each other in shock. He that the team used lego models to help develop the robot concept and the articulated drive system made climbing the bumps as "easy as pi". The team was us! We came home from Peachtree with a shiny, but pointy, Judges Award!

Amazing first regional.

Week Six/Seven - Shipped Robot

2010-02-28T12:22:00.000-08:00

Well, the build season is officially over, our robot is on its way to Duluth for Peachtree, and team members are as busy as ever. So much has to be finished before we even run the robot on the field. But before I talk about that there is the robot to discuss. After a little more than six weeks of hard work, my team can be proud in saying that we have a working robot. It drives, climbs over bumps (albeit not very gracefully), and can kick pretty well. The drive train, our gamble of the season, is a thing of beauty. It articulates well and can turn on a dime without much scrub. I was able to see it drive for the first time on the day before ship date and was very impressed.

Here's a video of a driver's test that day:

After boxing it up and shipping it, the team returned to work on Thursday working out the materials that are needed for the tournament and finishing up some fabricated parts. It's been a good build season and can't wait to see other teams at Peachtree!

(Four Days Until Peachtree! I'll see if I can blog on the road. Expect more pictures before then!)

Week Six - A Random Interview

2010-02-22T15:26:00.000-08:00

Right now I'm listening to the noise of what is the last day we have our robot with us. People laughing, the beloved pneumatic stapler going off in the background, organized chaos. Since I'll be going out to take a few pictures soon I thought it would be nice to conduct an interview with one of the many (many, many) freshmen on the team this year...

Hello Will!
How is it going?

Hi. Its going pretty good. We finally got the robot to kick. :)

Your sitting across from me right now. Do you know who's computer you're on?

This is true. Yes, I do. Daniel's computer, I believe.

What made you want to join an FRC team?

I thought it was going to be fun, and a good leaning opportunity. And robots are just cool.

So what part do you play on the team?

I am one of the programmers. I am also safety captain.

What have you learned?

I have learned a lot about LabView. And how to safely separate velcro.

Are you excited about Peachtree?

I am, although unfortunately I might not be able to come. :(

Aww too bad. Hopefully things work out!

Watch out! Soon there'll be some new post with the final robot!

Week Five - FLL and Fundraisers

2010-02-15T14:44:00.000-08:00

Saturday was a big day for our team. The majority of the team was at an FLL regional selling lunches for a fundraiser, mentoring, or participating in FLL teams. Sold at wholesale, thanks to Apple Spice Junction, the lunches did well. Much better than the previous regional which we sold them at. Along with sandwiches, my team vended soda, water, chips, candy, and, a best seller aided by the cold, coffee. As soon as the competition began, people started coming to buy items, some returning throughout the day.

On the other side of the tables were twenty-eight FLL teams and of those two were mentored by us and of those three were members of our team. However, two of our three mentors were not present since they are a part of our mechanical team. Instead the remaining mentor did his best to cover for both teams. The competition was enjoyable to watch, although it definitely was stressful for those on teams. By the end, both of "our" FLL teams made it through to the State Championship Competition taking place this coming Saturday.

Week Five - Final Stretch

2010-02-12T15:22:00.000-08:00

Right now I'm sitting in the lunch room of Blue Ridge Tool. Electrical components are scattered across the table, the mill is on full swing, and voices of mentors and team members mingle as they discuss last minute robot design, joking with each other, and handing out tasks. Programming sits next to me first overjoyed that the latest National Instruments Labview update is out and then miffed when they know they cannot test the update out since the electrical board is currently scattered in pieces everywhere. Tomorrow marks the fifth week of build and the team is working hard to ensure we will be done on the 23rd. Even though we were able to get our drive train completed earlier in the week, there was a hitch. The gears that directed the chains for the wheels scrubbed the top of our newly carpeted bump leaving oils stains and creating aggravation. Back to the mill and lathe for the quick but time eating fix. On the bright side, our robot design will work and smoothly rolls over obstacles. Right now, mechanical is split into two parts: one reconstructing the drive train and the other formulating the shooting mechanism. The drive train looks great and works! It forms and fits the ridges of the hill nicely.

Week Four - Slowly Closing In

2010-02-07T19:56:00.000-08:00

As the leftover snow slowly melted away, our team began the charge into the last three weeks of the build. At this point I can make out the finished product of members efforts. The robot is starting to sprout wheels in a number of which an octopus would be proud. (Come to think of it our robot shares some similarities with an octopus. A Space Octopus. hmm...) Gears are being aligned, spacers manufactured, and metal being sanded. The robot is coming alive. I can't wait to see it drive.

At this point in the year all the robot-centric departments are having to step up communication between each other. Electrical needs to know from mechanical how much space it has for the electrical board, mechanical has to relay design aspects to programming so they'd know what features to add, and programming tells electrical what parts they need wired in order to check how their programs function. It goes on in this circle and will begin to pick up more speed as the days that remain, dwindle.

Week Three - Cold Robots

2010-01-30T14:01:00.000-08:00

Because I neglected to have a proper week two blog, I decided to write one for the meeting today. Except for the fact there isn't one.

Winter weather was expected for this weekend and the forecasters were right. Starting on Friday evening (our day off from FRC) and continuing through the night the skies poured down snow and sleet. When I woke up this mourning I found the message I was dreading in my inbox:

"There will be no meeting today (Jan 30, 2010) at BRT.

If Monday's meeting will need to be canceled the announcement will be

sent via email by 1:00 PM on Monday. Please check your email before you

come to BRT."

Although I can still work on the website from the warmth of my house, mechanical is not so lucky.

While I watch the white stuff outside, here are some more pictures I took during the week:

Week Two and Three 1/2 -Design to Building

2010-01-28T18:50:00.000-08:00

It has been more than a week since my previous blog post and a lot has happened! All the departments are gearing up for the intense last few weeks:

Marketing

Even though marketing works behind the scenes, it has a big impact on the team. Responsible for team promotion, fundraising, and scouting, a lot rides on a successful marketing team.

One of the most enjoyable fund raising events our team has is selling concessions at FLL regionals. Part volunteering, our team arrives at 6:30 in the morning to direct teams and volunteers to parking spots. The rest of the day is spent vending soda, snacks, and lunches to spectators, coaches, and team members. Throughout the competition, we see all sorts of people. Little kids, grandparents, parents, and volunteers all turning out to watch and help make the competition a rewarding event. To be a spectator to this a great experience.

Electrical

This year, the space for the electrical board is cut in two so department members have to really watch their space. In addition to the normal components, they also have to deal with an air compressor and related parts.

Website

The website is coming along marvelously and should be ready before the deadline. (A change for the better. I was up past midnight last year fixing up the remaining pages. A move I would not want to repeat.) Actually, I have a test page up on the old website that is a teaser for the new one.

See if you can try to find it!

Mecanical

After moving out of the designing phase, the mechanical department is now in the process of constructing the robot. Parts are coming in and are being fabricated by team members. On part, a hub for a wheel, was going to be ordered but the part was back logged. So instead, mechanical team members are using a lathe to reconstruct the part. After watching for more than a half hour, I was pretty impressed. Those working the lathe had to have the part down to one tenth of an inch and had to calculate how many turns of the lathe it would take to get it there. (1 turn is 4/10 of an inch) Patience and precision are key.

Programming

Gyroscopes, Booleans, and Jaguars. The programming team is responsible for the software of all these things and more. They have to make everything talk to each other. This year, the programming team is attempting to have a live-feed camera. This feature would be a plus for the drive team, especially for the secondary driver. It would allow for a first-person view of what the robot is facing, making it easier to score.

The last thing I want to do is thank our mentors. They come in every day to help us lending their time and knowledge in order to help us learn. Being able to see this is inspiring and about the best part of being on a FIRST team.

Week One - Robot Design

2010-01-17T16:47:00.000-08:00

This first week of build season has gone by very fast. After meeting for six days starting the Monday after kickoff, we have our chassis design finalized. (I can't saw what it is but it is very space-like.)

Here is a quick breakdown of how what we discussed and decided this week:

MONDAY

All team members worked on defining what we wanted our 2010 robot to do.

We came up with two lists; scoring options and strategics options. After compiling the list, we took the scoring options list and discussed methods to score

TUESDAY

I'll use pictures to illustrate this second day of design:

WEDNESDAY

This meeting was split up into three parts; chassis, control mechanism, and scoring mechanism.

"Chassis" was led by the head of mechanical. After asking the team if they had any new robot frame ideas, two were offered in addition to the "space" chassis. One was a triangle, and the other, a eight wheeled monster. Our team then went on to list pros and cons of each and, in the end, the "space" chassis prevailed.

For the second section, control mechanism, the team split of into groups to design one based off of the decisions that were made the previous day. All the groups designed different version of the same mechanism. The vacuum won.

In the last part of the assembly, scoring mechanism, the team broke down onto groups again. and two design emerged from the fire of pros and cons. A kicker/puncher hybrid and a pure puncher.

THURSDAY

Taking where we left off the previous day, the discussion leader (Justin, team president) asked if there were any more designs for the scoring mechanism. The room was quiet. Finally reaching a consensus about the robot, the team split off into their own subteams to discuss their build season goals.

SATURDAY

Saturday meetings are the longest of the week being nine hours long. This particular meeting the team broke off into departments to work on their individual projects. During the course of the

day you could hear interjections from all the subteams, often mixing and covering the discussions of others. Ideas were being thrown around like, well, moon rocks. Some of them made their goal, while others fell short. Take for instance the octopus idea offered by a member of the mechanical crew. This idea basically was finding an octopus in our area and using it to capture soccer balls for our team during a match. Entertaining to think about, but not practical in the least.

Besides coming up with strange ways of scoring, the entire team made great progress. By the time we had to leave, the trailer we met at smelled like pizza and we were ready to be finshed with robotics.

Until Monday anyways.

Kickoff!

2010-01-09T17:33:00.001-08:00

So the season begins! This morning several team members and I started out for the first North Carolina FRC Kickoff at 7am. It was cold, it was early, yet because of the excitement staying awake wasn't a factor. After an exciting 2009 season, we were wondering what FIRST would throw at us this time. (Water game?) Arriving at Penske Racing around 9, we were able to take a tour and have a behind-the-scenes look at how race cars are manufactured. Just being able to view the bare bones of a vehicle was really neat, especially since they weld the body of the car on location.

Finally we filed into a conference room to watch the broadcast. Waiting was hard. After each speaker, the excitement built. We all wanted to see the game! During Dean Kamen's speech, he dropped a big hint. "...kicking soccer balls..." A soccer game? Next we were shown a clip of a camera on a robot tracking a target. A soccer game with a target??! Last came Dave Lavery. After teasing teams on ChiefDelphi.com, I was looking forward to what he would have to say.

And the 2010 game is...Breakaway!

We were not expecting that at all. Driving back to our team, ideas were brought up and many questions were asked.

Once we got to our meeting we opened our Kit Of Parts (KOP) and checked to see if all the parts were present. After that came brainstorming and reading.

We have a long, fun, crazy six weeks ahead of us.

-Webmaster

New Blog

2009-12-18T07:45:00.000-08:00

Hello,

This is a new blog for FRC (FIRST Robotics Competition) team #2655 The Flying Flatypi. In the following weeks this blog will feature updates as we build our robot.

Until then,

-Webmaster

P.S. 22 days until kickoff.