Winter 2006-2007 News
Edina Robotics Welcomes Ecolab as Newest Team Sponsor
February 25, 2007 -- The Green Machine proudly welcomes St. Paul, Minn.-based Ecolab Inc. as its newest corporate sponsor. The company this year will donate $5,000 toward the team’s FIRST competition expenses. “As a company, we are interested in learning how we can best support Robotics in the Twin Cities on an ongoing basis,” Douglas M. Baker Jr., Ecolab’s chairman, president and chief executive officer, wrote in an email announcing the donation. “This gives us a chance to get some firsthand experience!” In 2006, Ecolab Inc. posted sales of $5 billion. The company is a global leader in cleaning, sanitizing, food safety and infection control products and services.
Read about The Green Machine in the Edina Sun Current!
The Green Machine has made a splash in this week's issue of our community paper. Sun Current Reporter Mike Schoemer came to visit the Green Machine recently and filed an article that you can read here.
Edina Robotics to Appear on “Whatever” Show February 24
Tune in to KARE-11 TV on Saturday morning, February 24 at 10 AM. for a segment on Edina Robotics, The Green Machine. Team members were interviewed at their Honeywell build site on January 29th, the half-way point of FIRST Robotic’s 6-week build period. Interviewed for the segment were Edina High School seniors Chris M., team captain, and Lauren L., business captain and leader of the team’s pilot project with hydrogen fuel cells. The segment intends to convey what a FIRST team does to prepare for competitions.
Green Machine is awarded $5000 2007 Innovation Grant by Edina Education Fund
February 2, 2007 -- The Edina Education Fund surprised Edina High School Principal Mary Manderfeld and student grant writers Emily R., Greg B. and Ross N. during third-hour class. All three students were called out of class to "report to the Principal’s Office" but, since only Emily was in school today, she had to face the top brass alone! Shaking in her boots and fearing a reprimand, Emily instead accepted with relief and excitement a ceremonial check for $5000, as well as the Grant Committee's congratulations on behalf of the Green Machine. This year, Edina Robotics FIRST Team 1816 - Green Machine was one of only 30 FIRST teams selected to participate in the “Green Machine Fuel Cell Pilot Project.” As such, Edina Robotics was invited to present its results during the FIRST Robotics National Championships in Atlanta, Georgia, April 12-14, 2007. The Edina Education Fund’s grant will cover the team’s registration fees for this event.
Edina Schools VIPs get a peek at the 2007 Robot By Alex G.
Monday, January 29, 2007 -- Edina Robotics FIRST Team 1816 had the opportunity to entertain a few very important guests and show off what they had accomplished so far. Dr. Ric Dressen, Edina Superintendent of Schools; Jenni Norlin-Weaver, of the Department of Teaching and Learning; Mary Manderfeld, Edina High School principal, and Bert Ledder, of the Edina Board of Education, were given a private tour of the team’s Honeywell build facility, located in a warehouse in Minnetonka. Read More.....
Edina Robotics Hosts Education Day
January 27, 2007 -- Edina Robotics FIRST Team 1816 - The Green Machine, played host to approximately 60 guests on Saturday, January 27 at their Honeywell-provided build site in Minnetonka. Education Day attendees included team corporate sponsors, representatives of the Edina Board of Education, Edina High School Site and Parent Councils, teachers, school and district administrators, and parents. Most of the team’s 34 students were on hand to demonstrate and explain how a FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics team prepares for competition and to show their progress to date on their 2007 robot.
The team is midway through the six-week intensive build period. Every FIRST team has just six weeks from the time the challenge game is announced in early January until the FedEx truck comes to take the robot to regional competition. Education Day attendees were able to see the team’s machine vision system operate. Using a pan-tilt camera, a gyroscope, and programming code, the team is able to have its robot recognize and head for the game target autonomously. The robot chassis and four-wheel drive train were also in working order for the event. One of the challenges in this year’s game is for one robot in the alliance to be able to lift its two alliance partners’ robots at least 4 inches off the ground at the end of the game for bonus points. The Green Machine’s robot will attempt to perform this lifting maneuver by lowering ramps for its alliance partners to board and then lifting the ramps off the ground using pneumatics. A ramp prototype was available for display. Also on display was the team’s fuel cell pilot project. Edina Robotics was selected to be among the 30 teams (out of 1,300 FIRST teams) to test the use of hydrogen fuel cells. Attendees also watched team members work with design software on the three Computer Aided Design (CAD) computers that the team built.
Edina Robotics Hosts Robotics Education Day on January 27, 2006
January 13, 2006 -- How can we communicate the excitement our team feels as we design a robot that will compete well in the FIRST competitions this spring? How can we thank our teachers and administrators for giving us a solid classroom education that we are putting to good use in this fast-paced, hands-on, problem-solving endeavor? How can we show our sponsors that their funding is going to a worthy effort? We've decided that a Robotics Education Day open house is the answer to all those questions. On January 27 from 1:00-3:00 PM, we'll be giving up a few hours of productive build time mid-way through our 6-week intensive build period to share our progress with our educators, administrators, sponsors, and other community representatives.
Edina Robotics Hosts Kickoff on January 6
January 3, 2006 -- The FIRST Kickoff is the event where FIRST reveals the challenge game the robots will play during the spring competitions. Last year, the two Minnesota teams trekked to a Milwaukee suburb to attend the simulcast event. This year, due to the growth of the FIRST program in Minnesota, Edina Robotics has the privilege of hosting the first-ever FIRST kickoff event in Minnesota. The kick-off will be at the University of Minnesota’s Coffman Union on January 6, beginning at 8:00 a.m. Friday evening January 5, the team will be presenting workshops for rookie teams. Twenty-three teams will be participating from Minnesota, North and South Dakota, and Iowa. The kickoff marks the beginning of FIRST’s infamous six-week build period, during which teams design and build the robots that will compete at regional events beginning in March 2007.
Getting Ready for "The Build" by Lizzy M.
December 17, 2006 -- With the official FIRST robotics build season only a few weeks away, Edina Robotics Team 1816 – The Green Machine members are working at a frantic pace to get ready. Not only are pre-build preparations for the mechanics of the robot necessary, but corporate funding needs to be secured, giveaways and t-shirts need to be designed, and members are being asked to help mentor rookie teams throughout the state. To prepare for the upcoming fast-paced, six-week build season, build team members are experimenting with new tactics, plans, and most of all, new hand and power tools. For the last consecutive four Saturday afternoons, veteran members, novice members, and mentors have worked together to innovate and devise. Since there are too many aspects of the engineering project to tackle at once, team members are divided into specific groups, or subteams, each with specific tasks that require their interest and skills.