T-Minus 5 Days Until FTC Detroit World Championships!

This season has been one to remember! So far this season we have accomplished a lot, and we made it to the World Championship for the second year in a row! As a late blog post about State, long-story-short, we were a part of the winning alliance. We want to thank team 11316 Weapons of Mass Construction for picking us for their winning alliance, and team 5143 Xavier Robotics for being a great partner. At State we also won the Control Award, an award given to team's whose control feature enhance robot performance with the use of sensors and other algorithms both in Tele-Op and the Autonomous Period. 

For State, the most minerals we put in the lander during a match was 31. But since then we have made many changes to speed everything up. We replace Core HEX Motors with REV HD HEX Motors, changed our box so it has a lid, and implemented a quad-intake with spindles every 90 degrees) Last week we were able to put in 41 with 4 miss-drops! Once we clean up those miss-drops and get used to the new parts, we should be in the 44-48 mineral range for Worlds. (The link for that practice run: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cp3Qc6Fuccw) 

We can't wait to see all the amazing teams there at Detroit!!!   

Our Presentation at the Science Center of Iowa!

On the 27th of December we were able to present to both campers and the general public at the Science Center. The campers, who were in grades two through four, got to go through three stations. One was learning how to program through the Hour of Code platform. The next station was learning how to build with Tetrix parts, bolts, and nuts.  It was really cool to see the creative structures they made. Lastly we let the kids drive our robot on a mini field that we set up.

Then on to our public demonstration. We had tables set up with awards, match replays, and general robotics information. We also set up a field so people of all ages could drive the robot while we walked around the area and answered any questions about FIRST, FTC, and anything robotics.

World Record at First Meet!

We had an amazing first meet. Our autonomous always hit the goal mineral at the start and we were able to deploy and latch most of the time. Also, we got a high score of 221 with team 5340 Waukee Taukees which according to team 11115 Gluten Free is the best score in the world.

First Meeting of the Year (In a New Area!)

Like the other 7 robotics teams in our school, we will all be meeting in the Waukee Innovation and Learning Center, the building that houses APEX, one of our districts unique programs to encourage more applied and higher end learning. The wide space will allow us to actually interact with the other teams in our district. This will allow us to help younger teams without having to go to their school or plan times ahead! The space includes meeting rooms, machinery to produce custom parts, and well... space! In the first meeting of the year we discussed our major goals for the year and brainstormed how to achieve them. We can't wait for the game reveal in a week!

We Won the Rockwell Collins Innovate Award at Worlds!!!

Whoa, what a week. The FTC World Championship was a four day event of awesome robotics. After three days of qualification matches, we finished fourteenth out of 64 teams in the Edison division. Unfortunately we were not selected by any of the alliance captains to play in the divisional semi-finals. Then came the awards ceremony. The awards for the Worlds Championship are contested for by the amazing 128 teams at the event. Therefore, winning an award is very prestigious. The Rockwell Collins award is given to the team whose robot/robot component displays 'out of the box' thinking in solving the challenges associated with the game. We were overjoyed for just getting nominated of this award at such a high level of competition. But that's nothing compared to the feelings we got when we were announced the winners of the award. Winning that award was a big deal for us, and ended the season with a high note. Thank you to all of the judges and volunteers who made this possible, as well as our mentors and sponsors for giving us this opportunity.

1st match at World Championships - Cipher in 1 min 8 secs, 3 Glyph Auto, 2 Relics

Presenting to Our Teachers

We were able to get 10 minutes before a teachers meeting to present to all of our school's teachers. The presentation was about FIRST and how robotics isn't just for builders. Above: Us presenting to the teachers. Right: Us practicing before the presentation.

We Are Going to Worlds!

Wow, was Super-Regionals fun! Our robot did really well, and we placed 3rd in the Ortberg Division! We saw some really cool robots from all of the 11 states who participated. There were some great booths as well. We advanced to the divisional finals, and then lost some really close matches. We  became one of the 34 teams advancing to Worlds in Detroit, because we were 3rd in our division. Good luck to all the teams at Worlds.  We hope to see you there.

Wifi Channels Not Switching Solution Video

The FTC State Championships were awesome but it was hard too. We were the second seeded team in the gold division but lost to an alliance of the 1st and 3rd seeded teams in our divisional finals. We were pretty bummed out that we couldn't play against the Black division. When the awards ceremony came, we found out that we were nominated for the Control Award at State! However, competition was stiff and without any awards, we were slim on advancement chances. 13 teams from Iowa would advance to the North Super Regional, and if it was 14 teams, we would have gone too. Even so, a couple of days later, our coach got a call saying that another team had to drop out, so we would fill in their place. So our whole team says thank you to the team who dropped out, a team that we don't even know.

Circuit Breakers Montage!!

Mecanum Chassis Test!!

2 Relics Placed in 3rd Zone at League Championships

The team working well together

Click here for a video of the team working well together

Relic Arm Has Been Constructed!

In order to get the relic in the recovery zone, we needed a way to extend 32 inches past the wall, so we developed a scissor arm. A problem we encountered while building the relic arm was that it wasn't strong enough when partially extended, making the arm extremely flimsy. First we tried adding washers to make it stronger, but then we figured it would be better to position the arm vertically, not horizontally, for added strength. Then we powered it using fishing line and a motor that when it rotated in one direction, it pulled the ends of the arm closer, and when rotated in the other direction, it would push the ends apart, thus allowing us to extend and retract the arm.

Sir Circuit Has Been Deconstructed!

Today our team deconstructed our 2016-2017 robot Sir Circuit.  While he might be gone now his remains will be used to construct a new better robot for Relic Recovery, whose name has not been determined yet.  But Sir Circuit will live on in our hearts forever.

New Integrated Gyro in REV Expansion Hub

The new IMU gyro within the REV Expansion Hub is waaaaaaaay better then the old Modern Robotics gyro.  With accuracy to a tenth of a degree, this new gyro is very precise.  Plus our old code was very easy to adapt to the new gyro.  Here is an example video to demonstrate how accurate this gyro is.

First Official Circuit Breakers Meeting

Today we got our new teammates accustomed to the expectations for our team and we found what roles they can fill.  Other than that we went over the essentials for every team like communication, future meeting times, and our goals for this year.

Watch out FTC because here comes Circuit Breakers!

REV Expansion Hub

Nice!  We got a test robot running with the new Expansion Hub by REV

These tabs are awesome...  No strings coming off!