Just won an early robotics competition

[Chi Meson]

I don't win that often. I'm not saying I'm a loser, either, just the kinda guy that keeps coming in 2nd, or 3rd and such. I'm used to it.

So my team won the Suffield Shakedown, a pre-season scrimmage of the FIRST Robotics Competition. 30 teams were there, including some heavy New England favorites. Here's a video of our winning alliance in the semis.

2168 is my team (Aluminum Falcons). Our alliance partners are 176 (Aces High) and 716 (Whos-C'techs).

That's me walking along the back (with stiff elbows) at 0:20

 

[Evo]

Congratulations!

 

[zoobyshoe]

Are these remote controlled or are they sensing and calculating everything themselves?

 

[rootX]

Congrats!

 

[drizzle]

Congrats :)

 

[Astronuc]

Congratulations, Chi.

Reminds me of a term I heard recently - 'geeking out'. In that case it was a technical discussion.

 

[Chi Meson]

Are these remote controlled or are they sensing and calculating everything themselves?

Both:
The first 15 seconds is an "autonomous" period. Then you can hear the "clang, clang, clang" which indicates the beginning of the 2 minute "teleoperated" period. The last 30 seconds are when the robots try to balance on the bridge. More robots mean more bonus points. Theoretically, 3 robots should just be able to balance on that bridge.

 

[edward]

Fantastic Chi

My 10 year old grandson will love this. At this point I have him take things apart and then reassemble them, hopefully with no parts left over.

 

[wuliheron]

Nice crowd. This could be the next big sport with a few sexy robotic cheer leaders.

 

[jhae2.718]

Awesome. I never did FIRST, but I did participate in BEST Robotics in HS.

 

[Integral]

Congrats Chi!

Boy you guys have a very formal scrimmage, ours is MUCH smaller and for the most part only the teams show up. No loudspeakers, no formal matches. With only a half dozen or so teams it is hard to justify much.

 

[micromass]

Wonderful! Looks like an exciting game.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Congrats Chi, and good luck to you and your team this year.

I'm not participating this year.

 

[Borek]

Congrats Chi (and your team)!

 

[Chi Meson]

Congrats Chi!

Boy you guys have a very formal scrimmage, ours is MUCH smaller and for the most part only the teams show up. No loudspeakers, no formal matches. With only a half dozen or so teams it is hard to justify much.

That's big New England Advantage. There are two preseason scrimmages within a 2 hour drive of each other. Each with 24 to 30 teams. This one is one of the oldest, hosted by team 176 (our alliance partners there!) Aces High, a well-established team.

 

[Moonbear]

Very cool! Congrats!

 

[Chi Meson]

Here's the 2nd and final game of our best of 3 finals match. Ironically, perhaps, not the best performace of the afternoon. Luckily balls were stuck under both bridges so neither team could get the bonus points.

The camera pans to our team after the game. That's me in the center back just before the camera pans back to the field. Good times.

 

[ThinkToday]

I don't win that often. I'm not saying I'm a loser, either, just the kinda guy that keeps coming in 2nd, or 3rd and such. I'm used to it.

So my team won the Suffield Shakedown, a pre-season scrimmage of the FIRST Robotics Competition. 30 teams were there, including some heavy New England favorites. Here's a video of our winning alliance in the semis.

My son is on team 3044 (www.team3044.com). This was his first FIRST year and the team's 3rd year. I think they finished 2nd, if it's the one that was at RIT. If your school doesn't have one, they should look into it. http://www.usfirst.org/ Some schools budget the expense, but Team 3044 raises the money. The mentors (usually engineers, scientists, teachers, computer programmers, etc.) are largely parents of students that work in the area/profession they are mentoring. Some parents enjoy it so much they continue mentoring after their child is gone.

The more I heard about the program the more I liked it. For those, like me, that were unaware of it, this is a quote from the FIRST web pages. How can you not like the attitude?

"Special Message from the GDC


The Coopertition Bridge in Rebound Rumble is this year’s method of fostering Coopertition and Gracious Professionalism among students while inspiring an appreciation of science and technology. The white bridge's purpose is to motivate participating players, teams and alliances to collaborate with other players, teams and alliances (even in the heat of competition) by rewarding them for working together. Coopertition and Gracious Professionalism are tenets of FIRST – they are part of what makes FIRST different and wonderful; all FIRST participants, teams and alliances should strive to exercise those principals at every given opportunity. To quote Woodie, “FIRST does not celebrate being an incompetent jerk. FIRST does celebrate high-quality, well-informed work done in a manner that leaves everyone feeling valued.” In other words, bullying, coercion, and unsportsmanlike conduct have no place in FIRST. We expect all teams to always try their best to accomplish the tasks at hand, and always push themselves to achieve even greater successes. Best of luck to all of you as you continue to balance the real-life struggles of competing against each other while cooperating with each other – both on and off the Court."

 

[Chi Meson]

That message came out in the middle of the competition season. Apparently some teams got in collusion over deliberately preventing coopertition bridge balances. During some qualification matches, a team would bully an alliance partner into causing a non-balance under threat of black-balling that team when it came to the final pick (those not familiar with FIRST competitions must be very lost.) That practice was considered "not in the spirit of FIRST."

Interesting you dragged this thread up. The regular season of competitions is over. Our team is not going to be at the championships in St. Louis this week, even though we were the #1 seeded team in not one, but two regional competitions. In both NYC and Hartford we got knocked out in the semifinals due to communication malfunctions. The loss in Hartford was especially painful.

We are looking for a sweep of competitions in the upcoming "Post-season." Anyone near Worcester, come see the BattleCry@WPI.

 

[Jack21222]

Well done!

I recently read a book on FIRST, and it was a really engaging read. It's called "The New Cool," and it follows a team from California called The D'Penguineers. If anybody is interested in FIRST, I highly recommend it as good summer reading.

(Didn't notice this thread was necro'd, but a belated congrats anyway)

 

[ThinkToday]

That message came out in the middle of the competition season. Apparently some teams got in collusion over deliberately preventing coopertition bridge balances. During some qualification matches, a team would bully an alliance partner into causing a non-balance under threat of black-balling that team when it came to the final pick (those not familiar with FIRST competitions must be very lost.) That practice was considered "not in the spirit of FIRST."

Interesting you dragged this thread up. The regular season of competitions is over. Our team is not going to be at the championships in St. Louis this week, even though we were the #1 seeded team in not one, but two regional competitions. In both NYC and Hartford we got knocked out in the semifinals due to communication malfunctions. The loss in Hartford was especially painful.

We are looking for a sweep of competitions in the upcoming "Post-season." Anyone near Worcester, come see the BattleCry@WPI.

Sorry to hear you got knocked out. I saw the FIRST posting on teams pushing the CPU beyond its limits and having comm. issues. Was that your guys too?

My son couldn’t stop talking about how teams help each other. I think their team had a motor issue once and a tower issue once, and as quick as they could get to their robot, there were other team crews there with parts and helping. That is so cool.

My son's team will be at the BattleCry. I think it’s about 2.5hrs away. My wife and I are hoping to get over to see it. I've not seen this before, but it kind of sounds like a demolition derby and the last hurrah for the robot. We have no idea what to expect or how it works, but it sounds fun.

My son has been doing electrical, but that group didn’t have a lot to do until the end of the build process. Now he wants to switch to programming. They’re not sure if they’ll stay with Java or move to C++, since they have a new programming mentor. The old mentor preferred Java.

 

[Chi Meson]

Dude, it's Java or Labview. Our team spent the summer doing a java beta project, testing java programming for the Kinect; after about 10 weeks of 4 programmers from EB* along with 6 of our students intensely working on Java, they all went back to Labview, shaking their heads. They found it overly cumbersome (though it did have advantages, I really can't say. * EB= General Dynamics-Electric Boat; they make submairnes for the Navy).

Which team is your son on? Or at least which town is his school from?

 

[Chi Meson]

I was knocked back on my arse when I read this thread in Chief Delphi (forum for FIRST Robotics-mainly). Our team is FRC# 2168, and the thread is about the best teams that are not going to the Championships ... um ... tomorrow!
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=105684&highlight=2168
So scan through until you see the posts where 2168 is highlighted in red. That's other people talking about our team. Really, I'm holding back tears!

 

[ThinkToday]

From the sounds of things, you folks are very advanced. I assume your team has been around for awhile. People are very complimentary of your team. Perhaps we’ll see you at BattleCry. Best of luck to you and your team!

My son is on team 3044 (Ballston Spa, NY), website www.team3044.com . It's only their 3rd year in FIRST. We're transplants to the area this school year. FIRST didn't exist where my kids grew up in north TX. The influx of technical types to Global Foundries has helped the team’s technical/mentor support. The fund raising seems to go pretty well with all the parents chipping into help sell stuff and provide meals during build season at school. They also have a good mentor mix of engineering types from GE, Bechtel, college profs, etc. They've gone from a barely working overweight robot to a pretty good robot (Regional Finalists) in those three years. I'm impressed with what the kids are able to do. The mentors teach and the students do the work. It's kind of fun to watch the kids brainstorm and work through problems.

BTW, I searched and found your team webpage. VERY well done! I like everything about it. I'm going to link your webpage to the families on our team. They can learn from the fine way you represent yourselves. As much as I thought there was to FIRST, your team shows there is so much more.

 

[Chi Meson]

Gosh, thanks. Competition for "best website" and "best overall team" (aka "Chairman's Award") is super tough. Our team is 5 years old, and last year was our "breakthrough" thanks to two new mentors who brought with them 8 years of FRC experience each.

There is no substitute for experience here. If everyone is dedicated, the team will achieve. "Win" is another thing. An unofficial poll put us at 28th best robot this year, but please notice, we are not in St. Louis today. 400 robots are, but not ours. ...sniff...