Regional Recap: North Carolina Regional

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

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

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

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?

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)

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

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: