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The moment the entire team has been waiting for - the 2010 FIRST Robotics Competition KICKOFF! The Hawaii teams woke up really early to gather at McKinley High School's Auditorium. The members of Team 359 met at Waialua High and Intermediate School at 3:15 am and drove to McKinley High School.
Upon arrival, the teams gathered in the auditorium and anxiously waited for the Kickoff to begin. Students, mentors, and teachers all watched the FIRST Robotics Competition Kickoff live from Manchester, New Hampshire. Teams from all over the world were watching the Kickoff at different locations. There were many speakers including President Barack Obama, Dean Kamen, the FIRST founder; Woody Flowers; Governor Linda Lingle of Hawaii; Governor John Lynch of New Hampshire; and Governor Perry of Texas. Dean Kamen introduced this year's homework to all the FRC teams, which is to ge more people to watch the FRC competitions. He gave an example of how people attend sports events to watch people compete and he feels that it should be the same for a robotics regional competition.
Now for the moment that everyone worldwide was waiting for - the revealing of this year's game. The name of the game is introduced as "Breakaway" and the concept of the game is like the soccer game. The game is played with two alliances of three teams. Each match is two minutes and fifteen seconds. In "Breakaway" the robots, like in soccer, attempt to earn points by getting the ball to go into their own colored goal. The alliances can get bonus points if they are able to get their robots off the floor by grabbing the top pole of the tower in the last 20 seconds of the match. Like soccer, there are penalties given when a robot or alliance does something they are not supposed to do. The competition will definitely be very exciting.
It's the first real day of work for Team 359. Each member was given an assignment to do at Saturday's Kick Off event. The team members brought that assignment with them today. The members assembled and discussed the game - making sure that everyone understood how the game is played and what the rules and penalties are. The group was then divided into three teams. Each team allowed their members to state their ideas and opinions - brainstorming session. Each team then presented their ideas, their design of the robot, and the mechanics of their robot. After each team presented their ideas and robot design, Mr. Lee, the lead teacher of the robotics program, commented on each design and presented the ideas that were developed by the mentors and him. After a long discussion and deliberation, Team 359 came to a unanimous decision on the robot design.
From the morning, the documentation team was tasked with filming and photographing the team as they conducted their brainstorming session, working in their groups, and during their presentations. After the morning session was completed, the construction team got to work on building the playing field. The video team filmed the different groups doing their work, they uploaded what was filmed, and edited the videos. The graphics team worked on the sponsor banner, charts for the video team, the Open House program, and the VIP Open House button design. The documentation team worked on updating the web site, photographing the different groups doing their work, and uploading their photos onto their computer. Although this was the first official work day for the team, tremendous progress was made.
Students began working on their projects during OP - Opportunities Program - which begins at 1:30 pm. The construction crew invaded the autoshop and wood shop, completed the building of the bumps for the playing field. Taking the dimensions provided, the wood was cut and assembled using the necessary machines and tools. After the bumps were put together, two pieces of carpet - 4' x 4' - were used to cover the bumps. The next project for the construction team was to cut the poles for the tower. While the playing field was being constructed, the prototype was being built. They installed the wheels to the kit bot. Mr. Randy Wood, one of the few mentors of Team 359, worked on the software and prototype mechanism. He also held a discussion with a few of the students to develop strategies on how we would be able to get the robot to score points. The video team spent the day accumulating and editing footage of the construction team. They also worked on interviewing a few of the construction team members - asking them what they were working on. The first year students were asked if they enjoyed being part of the Waialua Robotics program.
As the Open House date gets closer, the visual media team is also working on the video for that event. To put the video together, they will need to come up with an outline and story board on what the video should contain. They spent some time reviewing videos from previous Open Houses in hopes of getting some ideas. They are also viewing and editing all the video footage they have taken thus far.
Speaking of Open House - the Graphics team has been occupying themselves with making the program and the VIP button design for the event. The program contained photographs of the different teams at work, the basic schedule for the night, the list of team members, the list of mentors, and the list sponsors. This program was completed and sent to all invited VIPs and guests.
In the mean time, the documentation team was occupied with taking photographs of each sub-team as they worked on their projects. After they were done taking the photographs, they uploaded them on their computer. The web site member would then view them and select the ones that would be placed on the site. One of the documentation team member was designated at the person who would observe what was being done and write the daily web site articles.
It's the middle of the week and all students were ready to work right after school. Before they could complete the playing field, they needed to purchase the necessary supplies at the North Shore's Ace Hardware store. The needed supplies included carpet cement and a pipe flange. While the supplies were being purchased, the construction team began building the tunnel while the video crew captured them on film. The video crew uploaded their videos and began creating their week one video.
Once the necessary supplies were purchased, the construction team immediately got to work - gluing the carpet to the bump. They were able to complete one of the two bumps. The graphics team was busy printing out the target for the goal. The programming team created the design of the wheel using the CAD program and built the transmission for the prototype.
In the documentation room, the Chairman's Award team worked on their binder. Some of the team members were busy taking photographs of the different work stations as each sub-team did their work.
The video crew worked on finishing week one's video as the week was quickly coming to an end. They continued to do their regular routine of capturing footage of the construction crew at work. Today, the students in the video crew, programming team, documentation team, and graphics team continued to work on their assignments while the construction team worked on completing the playing field. Using the required tools, the construction team built the tunnel and finished covering the second bump with carpet. They measured the wood, cut the wood, and applied carpet cement to successfully complete the bumps for the playing field. The programming team installed and updated the software for the lab view and driver station and tested it with last year's prototype. In the mean time, they deliberated on the ground clearance of the prototype that was tested using the bump that was constructed. The documentation team continued to work on the Chairman's Award binder, took photos of the different sub-teams, and updated the Waialua Robotics' web site.
Week one is quickly coming to an end - there are many tasks that still need to be completed. Today, the graphics sub-team got to work on the sponsor's banner. The construction team - busy as usual - was occupied with the many projects that needed to be completed. They worked on constructing the wheels, making the key stock for the transmission, cutting the wood for the tower, building the tower, and dropping the axel to enable the prototype to go over the bump. The programming sub-team was also hard at work. They inventoried all of the wires by sorting them into neat piles. They also installed the software onto the team's computer and work on a 3D CAD design of the kicker.
During the week, the video and documentation teams were busy filming and photographing all of the sub-teams while they worked on their various projects. The video crew was also kept busy editing their week one video which will be posted on the web site real soon. Today, walkie-talkies were introduced. Each location was given a walkie making communication between groups a lot easier.
As the construction team worked on finishing the playing field, Team 359 completed week one of the "building season". They continued to construct the tower and chains for the goals. The programming team spent a very busy day working on the prototype robot. They transferred the electronics from last year's prototype onto the new one. They made sure that all the wiring was up to date and secure on the board. They also had to create the program for the wheels of the robot. Once all of this was done they were able to test the prototype. The first thing they checked was to see if the robot could go over the bump. The results of the test showed the team that the robot could not go over the bump without some adjustments to the design. The wheel transmissions prevented the robot from going over the bump. The mentors and students met to discuss what changes could be done that would enable to robot to successfully go over the "bump". The team deliberated for a while, coming to a conclusion that would hopefully work.
The video crew continued to shoot footages of the various activities that occurred in construction and programming. The crew was able to complete the video for week one which will be uploaded onto the web site very shortly. All the while, the graphics team worked diligently setting up the target for the playing field, making the pit crew booklet, open house buttons, and tags for the leis.
