FIRST Robotics

[Oblio]

Someone suggested that I start a thread here regarding Robotics competition.

I've been a FLL and FTC Coach (FIRST) for the past 8 or so years at Elementary, Middle, and High School levels. We just brought home a Robot Performance Award (2nd place out of 24 teams) in the first FLL competition of the season. Does anyone else here participate in, coach, or are a parent of a child in the program(s)?

 

[Fishmanic]

can you show or tell us about your winning entries?

 

[Oblio]

The robot design team (Middle School) developed a robot that has a forklift mechanism with a rack & pinion gear along with upper and lower limit switches to prevent gear stripping. This also allows precise initial positioning of the lift so that they can then position the lift height to pick up blocks that somewhat mimic a pallet (grey blocks to the right) and must be lifted out of a constrained area. Once the blocks are retrieved, they are then pushed to scoring circles throughout the play area. Being able to retrieve additional blocks from the playing field allowed them to reach a higher score that just using the three 'free' grey blocks available at the start of the game. In the pic below, you can see the forklift, upper limit switch, and the pusher mechanism in the up position, held in place by a green lever. This is to reduce the in-game configuration changes that take time. All operation is autonomous and the robot has 2 min 30 sec to complete as many tasks (missions) as possible. Penalties are assessed for touching the robot when on the playing field (anything other than white or off mat).

 

[Oblio]

One of the parents took a video of their high scoring run, once it is posted I'll add it here.

 

[Fishmanic]

How much of the design was due to your input?

 

[Oblio]

How much of the design was due to your input?

Hardware: I suggested they use a forklift mechanism and pointed out weak points in their design. I basically pointed out where it flexed and bent and showed them how to use triangular structures to stiffen the structure.

Software: While they did reuse some existing code functions from previous years, I only looked at the code once to solve a weird bug.

For most of this season, my input was to keep them off their iPads playing games, horsing around, keeping them focused, and answering a few questions.

 

[Fishmanic]

do you have a video of the robotic device in action?

 

[Oblio]

do you have a video of the robotic device in action?

In years past, I would always take videos but after all the prep I prefer to focus on the run. This is similar to watching performances of my own kids, you miss so much while recording. There should be a video someone else took that I will upload. If not, I will shoot one at our next practice session.

 

[Oblio]

Here is a video shot from above (hopefully it is open to the public), unfortunately it is hard to see the forklift in operation from that angle. I don't think this was our winning run but gives an idea of the operation.
Recently found out that my team has advanced to the next level, if we do well there we will go to State.

MDS Legoliers Last Run 121121

This is "MDS Legoliers Last Run 121121" by Larry Najera on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

vimeo.com

 

[Ellie11]

I saw on movie about a bunch of kids who won a robot contest.

 

[Oblio]

Here are a couple of photos. One shows the forklift retrieving a block for use in a later mission. Another shows a nice view where you can see the limit switches to stop the motor once it get to the top or bottom of the travel. I am particular proud of this innovation as I just suggested that they put in sense switches to keep the motor from running too long and stripping the gears, the kids did the rest. It also clearly shows the stored pushing mechanism that moves the blocks after retrieval.