2016: Lessons Learned - Final Thoughts

Our team’s first year was a terrific success and we couldn’t have hoped for such prestigious accomplishments. However, even before our competitions we were tackling new challenges and overcoming barriers. The First Robotics objective is to inspire kids to get involved in STEM fields by educating them through a wide array of experiences, and the students on the Kalamazoo Central team certainly filled this expectation. Team mates were engaged and active in improving the robot, themselves, and each other. The following is a list of lessons learned:

1. Leadership and Teamwork. Our team was divided in to 3 primary groups: mechanical, electrical,and programming. Each had a student coach who had the most prior experience and could mpart knowledge to their young “grasshoppers.” This knowledge consisted of basic robotics skills but also the importance of working together and having individual responsibility. There are currently several students who are eager to rise to a leadership position for next year’s season, and for many of them this was only their first year on a robotics team. We expect our team to grow significantly next year, so the more enthusiastic leaders we have, the better.

2. Technical Skills (programming, electrical, mechanical). In the process of creating a functional robot, team members (most of whom were first-time participants, including myself) had to learn a variety of skills that came with each job. To give only a few examples, programmers learned to code in Java. Electricians learned how to securely wire the robot and use a soldering iron. Mechanics learned how to weld, assemble hardware and design on CAD.

3. Business/Strategy. Most students also worked in a secondary group outside of the three main ones listed above. These secondary groups were not directly robot-related. Some of these groups included social media, marketing, alliance/team scouting, and safety. Within these groups team members focus on improving the team from strategic and business standpoints. Many fruits have come of these completely student-operated ventures. Some members learned to create and regularly update the Zoobotix webpage (Please visit to see photos and additional observations and notes throughout the robotics season: http://www.kcentralrobotics.blogspot.com/). Scouts researched and evaluated abilities of competing team’s robots to rank alliance choices by complementary features. The Marketing team made a complete list of what money was spent where and a fundraising power point. Safety captains successfully ensured that nobody lost a limb. As our team grows we intend to expand these mini-departments to improve every aspect of

our team.

Thank you for taking an interest in and supporting the Kalamazoo Central Zoobotix team. We hope that you will stay in contact in the years to come as our team grows and our students continue to (as many of them have shared with me) find new passions and learn lifelong skills that will give the next generation

Sincerely, The Kalamazoo Central Zoobotix Team

(written by Kyra Niehus-Staab, ’18)

2016 Season Wrap Up

  What a season! As a rookie team, we have overcome difficult challenges and achieved great success. At tournaments, everyone was proud to see their robot perform so well. A lot of other teams were impressed and came over to our pit to comment on our robot and congratulate us on our accomplishments. We worked hard to build our robot and team so it was great to receive the recognition.
  Everyone was excited at our first tournament in Battle Creek Lakeview. For majority of the team, it was their first tournament and they enjoyed watching other robots along with our robot compete. The first day of the competition was rough. The catapult was shooting inaccurately and the camera was misaligned so our driver couldn't aim his shots. We ended the day with a record of 4 - 4. On the second day, we were able to fix our catapult and camera before our matches and immediately saw great results. We won all of our remaining matches and rose to rank 6 from rank 23 and our record was 8 - 4. For the elimination matches, we were picked by the 4th captain - 4453 The Red Hot Chili Bots along with 1254 Tech Force. Together we beat the 5th alliance in a best 2 out of 3. We moved into the semi-finals where we faced the 1st alliance. We performed very well in the first match and won with a big leading score. However, our catapult broke and we could no longer shoot into the high goals. We unfortunately lost the next two matches and finished in the tournament as semi-finalists.
  Over the course of 2 weeks after the tournament, we worked tirelessly to improve our robot for the next competition. We created new autonomous sequences, implemented vision tracking, and added climbing capabilities to our robot. However, when we got to the tournament, the autonomous codes were not executing correctly and the climbing mechanism was not deploying correctly. In the middle of the day, the catapult's gear snapped and we couldn't use the catapult in two of our matches. Fortunately, a nearby company was able to weld the gear back together and the catapult was now functional. However, that solved only one of our problems. We ended at rank 19 in qualifications and was picked by the 7th alliance: 3572 Wavelength and 904 D Cubed. In the quarterfinals, we faced a very tough alliance who scored the current world record on us. We lost both matches and finished as quarter-finalists.
  In the end, we ranked 120th out of 411 teams in Michigan. Unfortunately, we missed going to the Michigan State Championship by 5 points. While we are all disappointed, we definitely had an exciting and memorable first year competing in FRC. We want to thank our sponsors and parents for their involvements and contributions. We wouldn't have achieve all of our accomplishments without you. We can't wait to compete again next year. GO ZOOBOTIX!

 

Week 6 - Twin Robots

  Six weeks have gone by so quickly and it's time to pack up the robot. This past Saturday, the team worked on the practice robot. The mechanical team assembled the chassis and started building the catapult. The electrical team wired up another set of electronics to be used on the robot. The programming team tuned PID loops and started the autonomous coding.
  It has been such an exciting and fun journey. Everyone was engaged with the building process and have certainly learned a lot. Parents have been a huge help! They prepared lunches and were willing to wake up early on Saturday mornings to drive students to Battle Creek. Parents, you are awesome!

  While it has been a long season, it is not quite over yet! The programming team will continue working hard to make the robot the most efficient with autonomous and vision tracking. Drive practices will start taking place where the drive team will be determined. We invite everyone to come see us at our tournaments(no need to pay!). We will be competing at Battle Creek Lakeview on March 10th - 12th, and at East Kentwood on March 31 - April 2nd. Come see our robot!

Build Week 5 Recap

  The build season is quickly coming to a close and there is still much left to do! The mechanical team have taken apart the shooter robot and worked on reassembling it as a catapult robot. This will serve as a practice/test robot. The tower scaling mechanism have been assembled and the catapult continued being tweaked. 

  The electrical team have worked hard today setting up the electronics on the main robot. They have created a layout and spend the entire day stripping and connecting wires and crimping wire headers. 

  The programming team worked on programming the catapult robot. They implemented code to launch the catapult and to position and use the intake. They continued working on vision processing and started learning how to use a raspberry pi to handle the task. 

Build Week 4 Recap

  Another long Saturday for the team. The mechanical team continued working on CAD drawings and improving the catapult design. A gear was implemented to reload the catapult after launching the ball. In addition, an intake mechanism was put together on the catapult robot.
  The programming team focused on autonomous driving. Throughout the day, they tuned PID loops, encoder readings and conversions, turning and driving forward, and having multiple commands run in sequential order. A dashboard to display values from sensors for debugging purpose is now in the works.
  The business group started working on designing the team's logo and slogan. They practiced giving their presentation and learned many tips and tricks from the helpful mentors.

Build Week 3 Recap

    This past Saturday was once again very productive and exciting! The mechanical team rebuilt the flywheel shooter with modifications and it now shoots the ball much more consistently and accurately. The mechanical team also have built a second robot with a catapult attached. By the end of the day, both robots have been tested and had great results. The shooter was more consistent.
  The programming team worked on implementing sensors onto the robots. They wired up a gyro and an encoder and learned how to read values from them. These values are being used as feedback for positioning. The team also looked into vision processing and began creating algorithms to track the high goals.
  Reaching out for sponsorship is one of our top priorities! The business team created a powerpoint to show businesses our motives and goals and to spread words about the team in the local communities.
  The drive trials have began. Over the next few weeks, students will practice driving the robots and get comfortable operating them in a safe manner. Using fair time-based trials, the team will determine the drive teams for the upcoming competitions.

Build Week 2 Recap

  In the past week, we have yet again accomplished more of our goals. On Wednesday, we discussed about business strategies and brainstormed ways to get sponsorship. Our business mentor walked us through the process of receiving a letter of support, and coming up with unique characteristics and statistics about our team to attract companies. A couple of students learned how to use GIMP and began designing the team's logo.

  On Saturday, we continued working on our robot. The programming team created a class to easily interface with Xbox360 controllers. They also created a subsystem to control the flywheel shooter and implement a driving system using piece wise functions. 

  The electrical team focused on creating a strip of leds to put on the side of the shooter. They learned how to use ICs to control multiple leds with one input. They soldered leds and ICs onto circuit boards and worked on making animations with the leds.

  The mechanical team worked on multiple tasks. One half of the team worked with CAD and continued to design components while the other half assembled the flywheel shooter prototype and more of the barriers. At the end of the day, we were able to test out the flywheel shooter and the results were amazing. 

  While we are certainly taking giant steps in the building process, there is still so much left to do and only four weeks left to do so! Continue following our journey as we post updates and pictures of our progress here at our blog and in the gallery.   

Week 1 Build Day Re-cap

    What a day we have had! Production is up in all respects; the mechanical team has already begun CADing the launching mechanism for the robot, and with some help from the ever helpful mentors, constructed some defenses as well.  The programming team has coded some basic drive features, as well as a distance sensor. And the electrical team has already wired up all of the new electrical devices to the robot chassis.
     After all that, we ended the day by testing the limitations of our 8 wheel robot (4 wheels on each side) against the newly constructed defenses. You, dear reader, can check out those super awesome double mega epic videos in the gallery.
     Keep following our team as we continue to achieve greater accomplishments.

Kick Off Event

  After two months of training and waiting, the 2016 FRC game was finally released today and the build season has begun! This year's game is Stronghold. The objective of the game is to capture the opponents' tower. This is done by shooting boulders(ten inch foam balls) into the towers' windows and "weaken" the tower for capture. During the match, robots must go through game obstacles called "barriers", which include driving across rough terrain, over ramps, opening gates and bringing down draw bridges. The game is explained in more details in the video below, check it out!

  After watching the live stream, students downloaded the game manual and immediately got to work! Students split up into three groups and spent the next five hours analyzing the game rules, arena, game objects, scoring, and coming up with strategies and designs. At the end, the team got a rough idea of what the robot should be able to do and the overall strategy.

  The Kit of Parts came in after the brainstorming session and the team was excited to open up the new shiny components. For the last hour and a half, members got into their work groups and began working on their specialized tasks. The mechanical team started assembling the chassis kit that came with the kit of parts. The electrical student team captain took the electrical team through the tools they will be using and the team prepared two batteries and started preparing the electronic board. The programming team downloaded and updated FRC programs for the 2016 season. They also worked on the website and put up more content.

  As a new team, we are very excited to participate in FRC this year. We hope to have a very fun and memorable experience as we spend the next six weeks building a robot together. We will be competing at Battle Creek Lakeview on March 10th - 12th, and at East Kentwood on March 31 - April 2nd.