FIRST Vex challenge, what should we study?

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SUMMARY

The discussion centers on preparing for the FIRST Vex competition, emphasizing the importance of programming skills, particularly in C, and mechanical design. Participants should divide roles among team members, including programming, building, and operating the robot. Pneumatics play a crucial role in robot movement, and having a mentor, especially in mechanical engineering, is highly recommended. The conversation highlights the need for a solid understanding of both mechanical and programming aspects to succeed in the competition.

PREREQUISITES
  • Understanding of C programming language
  • Familiarity with pneumatics in robotics
  • Basic knowledge of mechanical engineering principles
  • Experience in team collaboration and role assignment
NEXT STEPS
  • Study C programming through the official FIRST C programming tutorial
  • Research pneumatic systems and their applications in robotics
  • Learn about mechanical design principles relevant to robotics
  • Explore team dynamics and effective role distribution in engineering projects
USEFUL FOR

High school students participating in robotics competitions, mentors in engineering fields, and anyone interested in enhancing their skills in programming and mechanical design for robotics.

Ki Man
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My friends and I are planning on attempting the http://www.usfirst.org/what/fvc/default.aspx?id=380" next season, and we've created a tea of about 5 people. We are all high school freshmen headed for sophmore year and I wanted to get some advice on what each of us should study over the summer to get better prepared for the competition.
 
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robotics??
 
Hey, I was in the FIRST competition when I was in high school. At the time we were phasing out from using qbasic to a C microcontroller. So work on your programming skills.
Also draw up rough ideas of what your robot should do and how to accomplish it. I remembered that we controlled movements of arms using pneumatics.

Have your team members do specific tasks - example one for programming, two for building. Have those guys read up programming and pneumatics for example. Have one of the guys dedicate himself to controlling/operating the robot (controlling is not as easy as it sounds). He can give the programmer teaks and hints to improve the code; so he should also be familiar with the programming language that you guys will use.

If I recall correctly, our team had one programmer and a mentor, two structural builders, one operator and one team leader that's makes sure all aspects runs in sync. We had a couple more, but I don't recall what their exact roles were.

Good luck!
 
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Do you think we will need an "electrical engineer" role? or is it mostly mechanical/programming that we need to worry about
 
Well the two "structural builders" that we had were given the title of Engineers. They both took care of the electrical side (mostly wiring) and mechanical side. It wasn't that much electrical oriented as you would think; I would say that the mechanical side [along with programming] are the most important. Well at least this was what the situation was like 3.5 - 4 yrs ago. I don't know how much has changed in terms of structure and programming languages used since then.

But a good idea is to have a mentor. Our high school provided one from a local college. He was more programming based because the experience of switching to C programming at the time came as a shock.

You guys have more than enough time to learn the programming language, so I would recommend that you request a mentor in the [mechanical] engineering field.

What programming language are you guys required to use?
 
ranger said:
What programming language are you guys required to use?

I have no idea. We're still planning how we're going to make the competition work. If we were given the option of choosing any language, which would you recommend?
 
Well, their http://www.usfirst.org/community/frc/content.aspx?id=452 n parts states that you should have received a C programming manual. So I guess when they made the switch over to C programming when I was in the competition, it wasn't anything specific for that competition, but the plans were general.

But if you were given a choice, I would still recommend C as qbasic won't get you far in the long run.

But If you're really serious about this stuff man, read the documentation on the FIRST website. I found http://www.usfirst.org/community/frc/content.aspx?id=482 . Its a C programming tutorial.
 
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