Major Diversion - Robotics Project

[theCoder]

My driving cab project is somewhat on hold for the next 6 weeks.  This is the third year I am volunteering on my son’s high school robotics project.  The organization is called FIRST (www.usfirst.org).  It is a weird cross between battle bots and junk yard warz.  The kids are given 3 boxes filled with controllers, RF transceiver, motors, sensors, relays, joysticks, structural aluminum, a small vision system, various pneumatics parts & fittings, etc. etc. etc.  They are given 6 weeks to design and build a robot to compete in a “sports” like competition.  Last year the game was kind of like basketball combined with soccer.  In the picture below you can see our robot from last year.  The S shape center structure held balls that could be launched high with a baseball throwing type mechanism, and reversing the drive, the balls are shot low to the lower goals.  It is an intense 6 weeks, filled with both technical and people challenges, followed by an intense 3 day road trip to a large regional event.  It is a real rush teaching high school kids in this environment.  At the regional events, approximately 40 teams compete.  In the U.S. there is a regional event in most major cities.  Check the website if you are interested in attending (or participating.)  The build cycle goes from Jan - Feb, and the competitions are usually held in March.   

I help out on the software and controls teams.  See the CP in the lower portion of the picture.  Notice the BYOAC type influence?  Among the many things I did on this project, I helped a student to come up with the fire button; a hacked Staples “Easy” button.  Pressing it drove the center belt system and caused the balls to shoot.

This year, the game is a large “Connect 4” type game where the robots place inner-tube like game pieces on a large 9 foot tall, octagonal game structure.  It’s going to be intense.  I’ll post pictures as the build progresses. 

In the mean time, my driving cab is going to have to wait….

[MaMeNnO]

To bad for the driving cab, but this looks like serious fun!

[javeryh]

Awesome!  I wish I had time to get involved with something like this.... maybe when my kids get older.

[Donkey_Kong]

My driving cab project is somewhat on hold for the next 6 weeks.

What a blow to the byoac community...but it looks like you will be having fun anyway.

 

[GadgetGeek]

Sounds like a lot of fun.  Maybe you will pick up a trick or two that will further wow us on your cabinet.  Or maybe it wouldn't work on your cab, but might give others some ideas.  You know, like maybe a transformers cabinet...that actually transforms.

[Catastrophic]

Heh, these kids today have no idea how cool they have it!  When I was in high school 20 years go, we were lucky to have a few TRS-80s in our "Computer" room...

Although I sometimes do miss those carefree days of clattering daisy wheel printers and BASIC...

[ChadTower]

Sheesh, when I was in high school, we thought it was cool when we had heat.  We didn't have lockers (they had all rusted out and were unusable), the bathrooms were like you'd find in a state park, and there were portions of the building roped off "because we don't need them (i.e. the roof leaks so badly it's not safe there)".

[javeryh]

haha - I know what you guys mean.  When I was in high school (88-92) we didn't have a single computer anywhere on campus... of course that was the least of our concerns as there was no art department, band, music, yearbook, etc. - the only extra activities offered were sports and even those were bare bones i.e. 6 people on the entire varsity basketball team, 11 people on the entire varsity soccer team.... so sad...

[sphetr2]

We have this at my school, and we win a lot of these competitions, including FIRST.

What is your team number? Ours is 312, I think.

[theCoder]

To bad for the driving cab, but this looks like serious fun!

 

What a blow to the byoac community...but it looks like you will be having fun anyway.

Fun, you bet.  Don't worry about the the community.  There is more to life than this forum.  Besides, it's too darn cold for me to paint. 

[theCoder]

...maybe when my kids get older.

It will happen quicker than you think.

[theCoder]

Heh, these kids today have no idea how cool they have it!  When I was in high school 20 years go, we were lucky to have a few TRS-80s in our "Computer" room...

Although I sometimes do miss those carefree days of clattering daisy wheel printers and BASIC...

At least you had a computer room.  We had to carve our own bits from large magnets in caves.  Actually that was a bit before my time.  But I definitely remember those noisy printers.

[theCoder]

haha - I know what you guys mean.  When I was in high school (88-92) we didn't have a single computer anywhere on campus... of course that was the least of our concerns as there was no art department, band, music, yearbook, etc.... so sad...

Sounds like things haven't changed much.  From what I understand, all of the funding for the robotics project comes from corporate and small business contributions & sponsorship; not out of the school budget.

[leapinlew]

Robotics?!?? I think not. Your obviously building some sort of super arcade game... You want proof? Looky here:

[theCoder]

We have this at my school, and we win a lot of these competitions, including FIRST.

What is your team number? Ours is 312, I think.

If you're not involved at your school I would strongly recommend it.  It is a fantastic learning experience and you get to play with cool high tech toys.  Plus, you get a couple of days off of school during the regional contest and depending where you live, you get a 3-4 day road trip with your friends.  In my case, I get to leave work a couple of hours early 3 days a week to play (er, uh, work) with the students.  Good stuff.

We are Team RockBot - 956

[theCoder]

Robotics?!?? I think not. Your obviously building some sort of super arcade game... You want proof? Looky here:

Does that red knob on the lower right look familiar?

[theCoder]

Control Panel
Last year we built a huge, 4 ft long, 20 pound control panel.  It was way too big and heavy.  Improving on last year, we decided to go with something much smaller and a whole lot cooler…a brief case.  We built a small box, sized to be a tight fit in an old computer bag.  The I/O controller is on the left, with the switches and buttons on the right.  Different from last year, is that we can now use USB based joysticks.  The kids wanted to go with an Xbox controller to control drive motors of the robot.  All other mechanisms on the robot will be controlled from this CP.  The Xbox controller, transformer, and associated cables store conveniently in the front flap compartment of the bag.  I built the box, a couple of kids drilled the holes, I worked with one of the kids on the artwork.  Every unsuspecting kid that passes by me on Saturday will be volunteered to get a quick soldering lesson, and the opportunity to solder some of the dozens of leads that need to be soldered.  The buttons and switches will be soldered to ribbon cable, then to 15 pin d-connectors (old school joystick port).   Next we will mount the radio transceiver and battery back-up on the inside of the box. 

The robot should be drivable and have one or more other mechanisms ready to be controlled by late Saturday.   Hopefully we won’t generate any smoke or fire.  More pictures to come. 

[arcadefever]

wowwwwwwwwwwwwww

that is way to cool ...always dream to build something like that  ..
i saw one time a kit box at radio shack can not remember the name 
was a kit to build robots ...

great stuff, i really wan see the end product now 

[psychotech]

Yeah!

That really looks COOL!

..and that coming from a guy over 3?, well.. Wish we'd had something like that way back then...

Then again, didn't we at least have the arcades

[theCoder]

Yeah!

That really looks COOL!

..and that coming from a guy over 3?, well.. Wish we'd had something like that way back then...

Thanks.  I may be over 3?, but my wife is still waiting for me to get out of my teens.

Then again, didn't we at least have the arcades

And we still do, don't we.

[psychotech]

[dstone]

The high school I attended participated in FIRST the year before I got into the shop program. We got to mess around with one of the 'bots to study the design before building our own miniature bots for an in-school competition (the class I was in was Electricity/Electronics/Robotics). That's some incredible stuff, great job on the control panel.

[theCoder]

We had a great season this year.  We placed 16th out of 56 teams in our regional event.  Along with the expected teachings the kids got (wiring, mechanical advantage, gears, motors, cables, programming, soldering, welding, compressors, etc.) , there was a fair share of learning’s on the political/organizational front (bad decisions, infighting, power struggles, cliques, bad calls by officials, driving mistakes, bad planning, etc, etc, etc.)   The kids (and I) really got our money’s worth.

While this was going on,  I did a major re-model of my master bathroom.  Down to the studs.  I hired my next door neighbor for a week, and dropped a ton of time and money into this. With his labor and all materials, the total job took just over $6k.  My neighbor claims it would have cost me closer to $10k to have a general contractor do the entire job.

My wife is very happy and I now have enough honey-do credits to finish the Xcelerator project.  Look for the posts to start up again.  It’s good to be back.

[GadgetGeek]

Welcome back.  Now on with the driving cab!

[psychotech]

Yeah!

Welcome back! How's the Xcelerator..?

Updates - we need updates !!