Check The PWM Cables!

Today was the last day of build season. For a lot of the team members it was bittersweet. It is kind of nice to have the time off again so we can all catch up on homework but at the same time, it is sad to say goodbye to our robot for a while. Of course, with Team 3313 Mechatronics, even boxing up a robot cannot be easy...

Final Fixes

While reading this, open up our YouTube page in a new window and let some of the videos load. TONS OF UPDATES!

Today was mostly spent doing some last minute fixes on the robot before we box it up tomorrow. It's incredible to think of where the team was last year (working crazy hard, stressing, sweating, barely making it) and where we are this year (refining, finishing, working on nice but not necessary additions). Our main accomplishments today were autonomous, the new horn, chains, and movies.

Days Like These Are Awesome

Saturday was a GREAT day! The team was able to test their robot in a real environment, they got some awesome help, and they had a ton of fun! Especially after the trouble we had on Friday, Saturday meant a lot. Check out YouTube videos of our performance!

Nothing Ever Goes As Planned

Today was one of the busiest days that Team 3313 has ever had. We had the local TV station come in and video tape us, we performed a halftime show for the public, and we packed up for a competition (until 12:30am). All this after being at school working until about 11:30pm on Thursday night.

Too Excited to Type

OUR ROBOT WORKS! WOW! Check out YouTube (tab above or this link). I wish I was a better writer so I could describe the feeling of accomplishment and pride that the team members felt when they watched the robot shoot and make baskets. So much hard work and dedication went into it. All of the same goes for the mascot. Both huge project that are so close to being done. We still have some work to do though.

 

Pictures Are Worth A Thousand Words

So much excitement to be had today! We finished the practice hoop set up. We refined the gatherer and shooter. We made a bunch of baskets. We totally finished the mascot head. We built supports for the gatherer and electrical board. We got a story posted in the Echo Press Newspaper. Todd (Alex Tech professor) stopped by.  We finished the business plan draft. We got the camera to work. So super awesome. I'm too excited to type. I'll just post pictures instead. Click on any to see them bigger. Also remember to check out YouTube for videos from today.

Moustachioed.

SO AWESOME!

MAKING BASKETS!

We have a messy robot room...

Three Exciting Moments

Another awesome day for Mechatronics. We got a lot accomplished. I realize I say that a lot but it is amazing how much the team accomplishes every day. It is a testament to their dedication and ingenuity. I am continually impressed. The biggest excitement today was that we picked a ball up off the ground, made some baskets with our shooter, started on the hoop apparatus, and made a ton of progress on the mascot head.

The frist big moment of the day was that Brandon, Bydlon, Bryce, and Tyler brought the shooter down to the gym and made 5 (!!!!) baskets in a row. It was a very exciting feeling to actually see the shooter accomplish the goal we set out for it. We tried shooting the ball with the wheel above (opposite of what we planned) and kept missing the hoop. Finally, someone suggested we switch it up and it worked! The whole idea of trying this came from a student in Bydlon's class 7th period. The fact that this never even crossed anyone's mind is slightly embarrassing.

The next super exciting moment was that we picked a ball up off the ground and got it to the top of the gatherer! Two weeks of hard work paid off in about 5 seconds. Super exciting! Damien and Molly brought some parts over to the Tech to get them cut for us. These parts were obstructing the path of the ball. We originally had some issues with the buttons on the drive station and the gatherer but Colin worked his butt off and fixed them. Our next goal is to fully refine the gatherer by having five belts. This will get finished tomorrow. After that, we need to add on the shooter.

The third super exciting moment was seeing the helmet of the mascot come together. Jenna and Jesse worked so hard on the mascot helmet today. The tedious nature of the project cannot be overstated. However, the end product will be well worth it. Great job by Jesse and Jenna on the project today.

Bydlon and Bryce bought and cut all of the wood for the Hoop Apparatus. This will come in helpful when we are testing our shooter on the real game hoop set up. The tests today in the gym were good for our confidence but as far as actually proving we can succeed... We need the real thing to work on. This should be completed tomorrow.

So many exciting things still coming up. We already checked off about 4 or 5 goals for the week which is amazing! More to come tomorrow.

Balancing Act

We finished so many projects yesterday that today was a restarting day. Some of the projects we started on were prototyping ideas for lowering the bridge, prototyping a roller for the front of the robot, making the body for the mascot, and practicing balancing.

The biggest excitement was that we got the robot driving. Colin came and did a really nice job fixing the programming for the robot. It was a very proud moment to see what we have so far driving around the shop. Bryce spent some time getting use to the new tank drive system (last year we had mecanum wheels). He balanced the robot on the bridge a few times too.

The big build projects involved scraping the gate concept. Originally, we made a gate that would hopefully stop balls from coming in to our robot and lower the bridge. We got a lot of comments on our youtube page advising us in a different direction and we saw some other ideas so we decided to scrap it. Instead, we are going to have these things we call tusks that bring the bridge down and a pvc pipe with surgical tubing acting as a sweeper pulling balls in. We are half way there on both ideas. These should be finished by Monday or Tuesday.

The PR team started working on the body of the mascot. The other big project for the PR team was making interview videos to put on a member profile page on this blog. These should be very interesting.

After an awesome day like yesterday where we finished so many things and had so much progress, inevitably there will be a little bit of a let down. The team still worked hard and started some big new projects today. We are meeting on Saturday to work some more and then hang out with some Rock Band and pizza.

Don't Worry, It's Just A Prototype

The title for this post is our team's motto so far this year. Whenever we're building anything and someone raises a concern, we jokingly say that line. Then we brainstorm ways to fix it. Today was another really awesome day for the team. So many things started and finished. So many laughs and positive energy. One of those days that makes FIRST Robotics awesome. Everybody was on their game as far as keeping busy but still having fun. Our projects included: mounting the electrical board, mounting the gatherer and shooter, finishing the bridge, starting the mascot helmet and beginning out team member profiles.

Remember to check YouTube for 4 (!!!!) new videos.


We finished the bridge!! That's two out of three game pieces completed. The only one left is the hoop aparatus. Brandon, Molly, Tyler, Connor, and some others really worked hard on getting the bridge done and it looks awesome. We put it through its paces by having some people walk and balance on it. Pretty soon (tomorrow) we will be able to drive our robot over it. We finished the other piece of the middle of the game field, the bump, on Monday. These two elements will be crucial for testing our design next week.

Another huge project for today was completely mounting the prototype robot. We finished the electrical board box by adding a bottom and a side. The box looks great already (go wire management and zip ties!!) but will look even more awesome when we make it out of lexan and put the red and blue LEDs in it. Our first step was putting the gear boxes back on the frame. Then, we mounted the electrical board and battery. Our last step was to mount the gatherer and shooter. Tyler had a great idea for mounting the gatherer and many others on the team helped out with this process. We finished by mounting the gate mechanism and testing it out. SO COOL WITH IT ALL TOGETHER! The feeling you get when a group has an idea and finally sees that idea in a real life way is impossible to describe. So proud of the team so far. This is MILES ahead of where we were last year. Still a lot to accomplish, however.

The PR team started working on the mascot. They first step is creating the helmet. Already looks pretty cool. Jesse and Bryce modeled the helmet throughout the afternoon. Hopefully, the helmet will be finished by tomorrow or Saturday. They also came up with a name for our mascot... Mechatron. PERFECT!

Megan, Jenna, and Allen came up with some questions to ask team members for youtube videos and member profiles for the blog. There are some really funny questions and the profiles should be entertaining. Check back some time in the next week or so for those.

We finished the day with a clean-up/dance party to LMFAO. Great times. 

Having a prototype together makes troubleshooting and brainstorming much easier in the coming weeks. Our big goal for tomorrow or Saturday is to drive the prototype and pick up a ball and shoot it all in one motion. This is ambitious but the team can definitely do it. Fantastic feeling leaving the robot room and seeing all the checks on our weekly goals.

It's Allllive!!

Braaaaaaaains

Another great day of work for Team 3313 Mechatronics. The team worked on a bunch of different projects including: brainstorming the connection of the gatherer and shooter, making the vertical electrical board, putting together the bridge, making the robot drive, and writing the business plan.

The biggest excitement of the day was that we FINALLY got our KitBot to drive. Hard to explain how exciting this development is. As our team tweeted, "I wonder if this is how Dr. Frankenstein felt." Getting the robot to drive was a big undertaking by the programming team (kudos to Colin and Megan) along with the electrical team (among them, Bryce, Spencer, and Jordan). Getting the robot to drive allows the programming team to test out how their code works and also leads the electrical team to fix problems like gear boxes not working or chains being too loose. One funny moment while trying to accomplish this was that we lost a key for a gear box (a very small piece of metal that allows the motor to connect to the sprocket which turns the wheel). The team walked around and dragged their feet like zombies to find it.

Vertical electrical board almost done

Once we got the robot to drive, we were able to take some of it apart. This may seem strange but some of the pieces from the KitBot need to go on our new vertical electrical board so we had to take those off once we knew they worked. Bryce and Bydlon ran power cables to all of the components on the board and all that is left for tomorrow is putting on the walls and running data cables. The layout is very compact and the team did a nice job of wire management (not a strong suit of Mechatronics in the past).

The other big project for today was putting together the bridge that we can practice on. Brandon and Tyler did an awesome job of getting started. All of the wood was cut last night but they still had to organize it and figure out where each piece fits. It should be finished tomorrow which will be a great asset to use once we have our actual robot together in a week or so.

Tyler and Brandon working on bridge

We started to think about how the shooter and gatherer will connect. We facilitated the brainstorming by shortening the shooter and gatherer so they actually fit together. We had to bring a couple parts over to Alex Tech to get shortened. Not much progress on this other than putting them on top of each other and staring at it. Still good to get started.

Lastly, Jenna kept up her work on the team Business Plan for the Entrepreneurship Award. Her perseverance on such an arduous and tedious piece is amazing.

More excitement tomorrow when we have a vertical electrical board and a bridge to stand on. Thank for reading!

I Love It When A Plan Comes Together

We can launch basketballs!

That's a quote from the A-Team but it might as well be the motto of our build season so far. Prototype week ended on a very high note! We finished both the gate prototype and the shooter prototype today! What an awesome end to a fantastic week. Be sure to check out our youtube page to see videos of both prototypes in action.

We started the day by having a leadership meeting where we discussed where the team's at and other policies we started this year. Overall, things have been going really well but once a week we are planning a leadership check in just to see where things are at and how the team can improve its performance.

Finishing Gate Prototype

The PR team worked more on the mascot costume they are going to make. It is going to be sooo cool!!! Claire worked on making a step by step instruction manual for them to use when they start making it on Monday.The PR team also worked on starting the process for awards. The team has to submit applications for Regional Awards by February 16.

The main excitement today was in shop. We finished the gate prototype that we started yesterday. We found a skateboard wheel that had been grooved out from last year and used that as our pulley system. That switch made the whole system work much better. Check out yesterday's post or youtube for an explanation for why we made the gate.

Our Mascot Design

Molly and Tyler brought the shooter mount over to Alex Tech to get the bearing and mount machined. Unfortunately, that took a while so everyone had left except Bydlon, Bryce, Brandon, and Jimmy when the part was finished. Luckily the part worked great. We threw the part on and started testing. IT WORKED!!! It's hard to explain how satisfying it is to see an idea start as just an idea and then somehow come to life and do EXACTLY what you wanted it to. Just amazing. Brandon worked his butt off making sure the shooter prototype was solid and well built so kudos to him.

Right before we all left, we put the other chain on the KitBot so that is all finished. Colin is taking it home for the weekend to fix the cRio so we should (keyword: should) be able to drive it on Monday. 

KitBot is all ready to go

This was mentioned yesterday but it is unbelievable that only a week ago we did not even know what the game was going to be. There has been so much collaboration and hard work already. We cannot wait to get back to work. Speaking of which, the blog is taking a two day break until work begins again on Monday. We need to "recharge our batteries". As always, thanks for reading.

As the team always says, "Don't worry. It's just a prototype."

The Gate Keeper

Stupid chain...

Today was yet another prototyping day. We kept working on the prototype robot base and built a prototype gate. There were a lot of things going on for people so we did not have the full team today. Jenna and Megan were not there and, luckily, the sky did not come crashing down. The joke(?) around the shop is that they, not Bydlon, are the brains behind the operation. Todd, an instructor from Alex Tech, stopped by to check on our progress. It was great to see him and the Tech College's continued support and help with the team. Speaking of which, we brought the motor mount for the shooter prototype over to the Tech and they are machining a bracket for us. When that is finished, we will be able to test our shooter (finally!).

Claire, Jesse, and Steph kept working on researching items to give away at competition. They researched buttons and wristbands. They also researched more items to commemorate the season for the team which included headbands, wristbands, and dog tags. The big development is that we found an AWESOME mascot costume. Like completely and utterly cool. So excited to see it come together.

Almost there!!

One of our big goals today was completing the KitBot. Tyler and Ryan worked on getting the electrical board mounted to the frame. He also got the motors mounted on to the frame. This is where we hit a snag. We bought the wrong chain breaker so getting the chains on the motors was a long and, ultimately, unsuccessful endeavor. We got one of the chains on the bot but still have one to go. Bryce borrowed a chain breaker from his dad which helped a little. We have one more to go then we should be able to drive tomorrow (this was said yesterday too but this time it will happen). Colin also worked hard to get all the computer aspects ready to drive. We had to format our drive computer, re-image the cRio, and upload all the programming. 

Only need to add the pulley.

Brandon worked on the other big project today which was a gate prototype. There's a video of our idea on YouTube. We have three reasons for making a gate. One: rules say we can only hold 3 basketballs so we need a way to stop extras from coming into our bot. Two: We want to force the basketballs into our gatherer so we want to keep them in the bot once we collect them. Three: We need a mechanism to bring the bridge in the middle of the field down. The idea is a spring on the front of the gate keeps it up whenever we need it. A window motor connected to a pulley will close the gate or bring the bridge down with our gate. Smart idea and the prototype will be finished tomorrow. All we need to do is add the pulley and we are done.

Chandler and students.

A shout-out is required for the presence of Jimmy (Bryce's brother-in-law) and Chandler (Alex Tech Student) for their continued assistance with the team. That's one of the biggest parts about FIRST Robotics, people with expertise working with and teaching the younger students. Really great to see.



Overall, a good day of work for the team. So many exciting things should (key word: should) come together tomorrow. The shooter and gate prototypes will be finished, we will have a moving practice bot and we will get the materials for the practice bump and bridge. That's a lot of goals but the team has shown so far how many things can get done they set their mind to it.

Hunting and Gathering

*To see a bigger version of any picture on the right, just click on it.

Today was the first day of "officially" meeting. It was a really productive day. Right when the meeting started today, everyone gathered around the smart board in Bydlon's room and watched some more YouTube videos as a refresher for people at the Kick-Off and as new information for people who had not seen the game videos before. The energy in the room was extremely contagious. The team made some decisions on mechanisms to try and prototype. Build/Electrical teams split up to start on the shooter and gathering mechanisms.

Our shooting mechanism will be similar to a ball going up a vent but there will be a wheel spinning underneath the ball to provide the lift. We need more parts to continue working on it and that will start tomorrow (picture 1).

The big project for build/electrical was the gathering mechanism. The best way to see what we did is watch the first four videos posted on our YouTube page at this link. Basically, we have an alley on three sides. On the front side will be two motors and a set of belts that will propel the balls up from the floor to our shooter at the top. It is just a prototype at the moment and hopefully we will finish it. tomorrow.

Programming worked more on getting the Kinect to recognize and target each of the rectangular areas behind the hoops (picture 2). Justifiably so, they are itching for a test robot to work on. That will be the build/electrical team's priority at the end of this week.

PR team worked on numerous projects. They sent a summary of the Kick-Off to the Echo Press (local newspaper) to hopefully publish next week. They also worked on a grant from Pete's County Market for addition funding. The team also used their FIRST Choice credits to fill up our Kit of Parts. FRC does not want to give everything to every team because that's not cost effective. Instead, they give every team some things, then give you credits to go online and pick what other items you want. Really great idea. 

Have to say, it was our first official meeting day and we already had our first pizza and late work night. A group of people stayed until 9:30pm... Great start to build season!!

Our new robot design. Haha.

If you didn't see the link above, make sure you check out our YouTube feed which has new videos.

YouTube is Our Friend

Research

We went to the GO FIRST post kick-off event yesterday. During the presentation, they told us that the best way to design is five steps:

1. Make a requirement/objective list. We did this at the post kick-off. This is a list of what we need our robot to do and then what we want it to do. 
2. Do historical research. This is what we focused on today. 
3. Conceptualizing. This is what we will focus on tomorrow. Each team member will use the information we learned today and then create a design.
4. Critical Design Review. We take all the designs we created and then pick one or two that will like based on the R/O list we created at post kick-off.
5. Prototype. We build pieces of the final design(s) and make sure they work. 

Programming Team in Robot Room

This seems like a long process and it is. However, this part of the build season is probably more important than any other part. If we start building and some part of the robot just CANNOT work, then we are out a lot of time and effort. It is much better to focus on getting it right first, then building it.

So, like the title says, today was spent looking up previous games and robots that worked really well at those games on YouTube.

• 2001 had a speed bump sort of thing and a bridge so we looked at robots that could go over the bump and how robots got the bridge to come down. 
• 2006 had a shooting game but the hole was vertical and 30" as opposed to our 18" wide horizontal basketball hoops. Still some good shooter designs.
• 2009 had ball collection from the ground, storing of balls and then dispensing them. The big difference here is that we can only 3 balls, in 2009 there was no limit. 

While the electrical and mechanical teams were working on YouTube, the programming team started setting up the programming. Apparently, if we actually had a robot to drive, the programming is all done for driving. That's awesome.They also started setting up the Kinect to be our eyes on the field.

Colin says "Hi"

Last but not least, the PR team focused on the Kit of Parts. They got it all out, inventoried it and then organized it back in the robot room. They also did more research on getting a video camera for the team to use. That way we can also post more videos on YouTube and create a video blog as well.