alexo's blog
Getting Ready for the First-Ever State Championship!
Posted by alexo on May 16, 2012
On Saturday May 19, an exciting new competition is added to our regular robot season here in Minnesota. The Minnesota State High School League has recognizedFIRST Robotics, FRC more specifically, as a high school competition worthy of joining the ranks of the other State recognized sports and activities. This sort of "state" competition is the first of its kind in any state, certainly a great step forward for the future of FIRST.
FIRST Robotics 2012 Championships
Posted by alexo on May 4, 2012
The last weekend in April, our FIRST team competed in the FIRST Robotics Championship event in St. Louis. We started off bright and early at 4:30 AM at Perkins for an all team breakfast. It was just the perfect beginning to the long day ahead. This year, we arrived early enough to do some sight-seeing, checking out the Gateway Arch and Washington University. Most of the team then had a chance to go back to the hotel to rest, but a small group of us, including me, went to go unpack our robot. Not only did we release Zephyr, but we got most of the pit ready, added lights to the robot, tested all of the robot’s functions, and even managed to make it through robot inspection.
Ready for Championships!
Posted by alexo on April 23, 2012
The FIRST Championship competition is about to begin, and I'm counting down the minutes until we get to see our robot perform yet again! It’s not that we don’t have a full to-do list. On Saturday, we held a car wash fundraiser to both raise some money to offset our travel expenses to Championships as well as raise the awareness of FIRST Robotics out in the community. It was really fun to chat with drivers as they pulled up to our car wash station. Many not only asked lots of questions about robotics but they often gave us a donation on top of the $5 per car washed. Leading up to our early Wednesday flight to St.
Giving our Robot “The Works”
Posted by alexo on April 15, 2012
It was just a few weeks ago when we showcased one of our robots at the grand opening of the new building devoted to The Works, a community hands-on center focused on science and technology. Tech Fest at the end of February is one of the premier events hosted by The Works. It turns out that day was just a warm-up to coming back to The Works April 14 for Robot Day, an invitation we were happy to accept because it meant we could pack up the trailer once again with ZEEBO in tow to meet and greet the visitors. Joining us for Robot Day were demonstrations staged by the University of Minnesota as well as two other levels of FIRST Robotics, FIRST Tech Challenge and FIRST Lego League.
A Bit of a Break
Posted by alexo on April 10, 2012
With spring break now ended, 1816 is again well-rested and ready to tackle the tasks ahead to prepare for spring competitions! We had a great start to our short break by winning The Chairman's Award at the FIRST Minnesota North Star Regional! Now, it’s two weeks to the Championship Competition in St. Louis. Federal Express already delivered Zephyr to the staging area, now it’s up to us to work on plans to improve our 2012 robot: Plenty of tweaks with our shooter, as well as adjustments to our drive-train. Of course, once the mechanics are in place, it’s up to us programmers to get back into the shop and code away. Improvements continue on our website, with new content from the regional being added.
Our 2012 Tour Continues!
Posted by alexo on April 1, 2012
Our weekend at the Minnesota North Star Regional started bright and early on Thursday morning. We entered Mariucci Arena, ready to start making changes to the robot that we had carefully planned before arriving. The Programmers re-wired the shooter at the top of our robot, while the build team removed our front treads and replaced them with two slick wheels for better turning. We got a time on the practice field, taking a test drive to make sure everything was working. We calibrated autonomous and did a little bit of shooting practice. Meanwhile, the rest of the team was helping many of the 62 other FRC teams at the event with programming, robot build of all sorts and bumpers. After the afternoon practice rounds, we found ourselves with a fully functioning robot!
Regional Competition Up North
Posted by alexo on March 11, 2012
On March 7, our FIRST Robotics team left for our first FIRST regional robotics competition, the Lake Superior Regional, hosted at the DECC in Duluth, MN. After a long and fun bus ride with our friends from FIRST Team 2500-Herobotics, we arrived in Duluth with all things robotics on our minds. Loading in the robot and the pit materials just made us all the more excited about what was to come. Early on Thursday, The Green Machine launched right into competition mode, making tweaks and small adjustments here and there to our robot, getting it ready to perform. We trooped out to a team dinner feeling confident in our robot's abilities. Then, it began.
Competition!
Posted by alexo on March 5, 2012
This last weekend (March 2) commenced the start of the FIRST Regional season! There were regionals stretching from coast to coast, from New Hampshire to California. I watched some live-streamed footage of the San Diego Regional, and it sure is exciting to get shifting into competition mode. It got me thinking about our own upcoming regional, The Lake Superior Regional in Duluth, MN! It's going to be great! For starters, we ride up to the event with our friends from Team 2500-Herobotics of Patrick Henry High School. The Lake Superior Regional has grown in size from last year, with 65 teams and more competition from out of state. It will also be the first real competition for our rookie team members.
FTC MN Competition Day
Posted by alexo on February 27, 2012
For the last two years, I have mentored the FIRST Tech Challenge Team “Piece of Cake” from South View Middle School here in Edina. It always starts out well since FTC gets its challenge in September, months away from the FRC Build. I do try to continue with them for a few weeks after Kickoff, but inevitably, my work with them always gets cut short. But as soon as our robot build ends, it’s back to FTC because their big competition happens almost immediately after FRC is done building, programming, bagging and tagging our robot. Their regional championship competition, FTC Snow Drift, hosted by Team 2169-King Tec in Prior Lake, is a one-day packed event. Four Edina FTC teams competed, and they brought along three 1816 members who are mentors to these teams.
Crating-Up our Build Season!
Posted by alexo on February 20, 2012
At the beginning of this past week, it seemed quite crazy that we would have a working robot by competition on Saturday February 18. We had a frame and not much else. But as the week went on, the tweaks, additions and subtractions slowly continued. By Friday, the robot wasn’t yet complete but all of a sudden, it all clicked into place! All of the mechanical functions fit and played nicely together (for the most part). Then came the electronics, filling a large cavity in the back of the robot. Adding bumpers, our robot was transformed into a competition-ready machine! Well, almost. Early the next day was the scrimmage at Eagan High school hosted by FRC Team 2220-Blue Twilight, and we had yet to test out the whole robot.
