November 2012
1 post
2 tags
November 2nd, 2012
Today, the Robolancers’ mechanical teams started to combine their subgroups to start planning the nuances of the robot. Previously, Gold and Crimson mechanical had been split into Chassis, Manipulator, and Lifting groups. These subgroups brainstormed, prototyped, and finally chose which mechanisms they thought were the best for each part of the robot. Now, they all used graph paper to sketch out...
October 2012
10 posts
Ciao Robopeople!
Yesterday, after weeks of preparations and planning, we finally held our annual FTC Workshop and Scrimmage. Teams from every corner of the city came to expand their knowledge of robotics. Teams from as far as Lancaster came to assist us in mentoring teams. During the day, the teams learned about Mechanical, Electrical, Programming, and Video Judging pertaining to FTC. Many teams...
2 tags
Happy Friday!
Today, the Robolancers neared completion of their chassis for both of their teams. They main focus of today was to prep for the annual FTC Workshop and Scrimmage at Central High School. We had all hands on deck, preparing signs, schedules, and rules so that our event would run smoothly. The event is hosting 150 people, so we need to be precise to achieve success. This event is very...
3 tags
Happy Friday!
Today, the Robolancers delved farther into prototyping their designs. Using VEX and FTC parts, they took their designs from just being on a piece of paper, to being a real thing. The Robolancers are also prepping for their 2nd Annual FTC Workshop and Scrimmage, held at Central High School. The members started to make signs and floor plans so that our visitors can navigate our halls...
Hello Robopeople!
Today we started to prototype our manipulators for FTC. The prototypes were created using VEX parts, which were very useful for some of the designs our members had pondered over. Some of these systems include a rack and pinion, arms, and lifts. We also held our first ever Flapjack Fundraiser on Saturday; it was a success, pulling in over 100 people to come eat to help the...
3 tags
Hey, robopeople!
Today the Robolancers delved even deeper into the depths of brainstorming for their robots. Both teams broke into subgroups and discussed their ideas for manipulators and lifting mechanisms. Many of our alumni came back today to teach the new students about the fields they had mastered during their time with the Robolancers, such as programming and electrical. The Marketing...
Hey, robopeople!
Earlier today, a small group from Robolancers went to Martin Luther King High School to mentor their team! They met students who are completely knew to robotics. There, both teams shared ideas, information on various robotic competitions (BEST, FTC, FRC). Robolancers plan to make weekly trips to MLK High School, as students will be staying in contact. Students from Central and...
3 tags
Hello everybody!
Today. our FTC teams discussed the manipulators of their respective robots. In the FTC game this year, teams will have to be able to pick up and hang rings (reminiscent of Logomotion) and to lift up other robots. Gold talked about using a rack and pinion to make an elevator for lifting robots, and also brainstormed about possible manipulator designs. Crimson, because they want to...
3 tags
Hello robopeople of the world!
Yesterday we had out first mechanical design meeting. Team Gold has decided to use a rack and pinion to be able to lift other robots in the endgame, and to design an arm that can reach all of the scoring pegs. Team Crimson has decided to make an arm that can reach the lowest and middle pegs, and not to lift, but to be light enough that if another robot will be able...
2 tags
Hello, robopeople of the world!
Today we had our first strategy meeting for the Crimson and Gold teams. They are both situated at Central High School, and meet in 2 different rooms. Crimson decided on a a number of strategy elements, such as having a light robot that could be lifted easily, and going exclusively for the middle pegs. Gold was the complete opposite, as they have a heavy robot that...
2 tags
Hello, robopeople of the world!
Today, the Robolancers finally split our new members into the team’s subgroups: Mechanical, Electrical, Programming, and Marketing. Surprising to many, the Marketing subgroup had substantially more members than last year, equaling the Electrical group. Just as they settled into their new roles, our coach unveiled a new plot twist:There was going to be not...
September 2012
4 posts
3 tags
Hello, robopeople of the world!
The Robolancers attended the FTC(First Tech Challenge) kick off in Philadelphia today. Hosted at West Philadelphia HS, team members saw live demos of the field in action, the kickoff videos, and were given information on FTC as a whole. For this year, the Robolancers are splitting up into two separate teams for FTC, to accommodate for the team being over 300%...
2 tags
Hello, robopeople of the world!
The Robolancers continued their tool training sessions today. Every member has to complete tool training, even if they’re on a non-robot role on the team. Again, our returning members taught classes on the various tools and resources we use in robotics, from explaining the use of PVC, to live demonstrations of power tools, such as the miter saw and rotary...
2 tags
Greetings everybody! Yesterday we kicked off our first new-members meeting with a Tool Training session! The new members were split up into fourteen small groups led by returning members so that individuals could familiarize themselves with proper use of equipment and safety procedures.
Hello everyone! It’s been a while since our last update, and we apologize for that! The school year is just getting started.
The Robolancers had their first new-member meeting last Friday, September 21st. To our delight, over 150 enthusiastic students attended the meeting. The team is starting off strong, and we’re looking forward to a great year with everyone!
Stay tuned for more...
March 2012
24 posts
5 tags
Hey everyone, Head Programmer Eric here. As requested by rookiefirsts, I will be sharing some of my own advice which I have learned over time about implementing and using sensors.
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1. Design and planning
Make sure you’re absolutely involved in the design process so that your team knows where you put your sensors at so they can build around it and know how to incorporate it. You...
We didn’t get into an alliance. Probably our best competition with our best robot. Very tough loss. We are all so proud of our work though.
First two rounds today were not so good. Dropped us down to 25th place. Our last round was better. We wound up finishing 21st place. Not a great day.
We’re now waiting for alliance selection.
Day 2: Three rounds to go. We are currently in 10th place. The way it works is that after the qualification rounds the top 8 teams get to select two other teams to ally with them on a team. But if one of those teams choose one of the top 8, every one shifts up. So we could wind up choosing other teams. That’s what we are hoping for. Our ability to balance has been gaining recognition as has...
FRC Lenape Regional Live Stream →
View the live stream of today’s matches here. Cross your fingers for us today!
Last round of the day: we lost the round but we balanced on the coopertition bridge again! So nice. Finished the day in 9th place out of 38. A very good day.
Match #8: we won 20-12. Scored 2 baskets and balanced on the coopertition bridge with team #293! So sweet!
Match #7: won 35 -27 after cobalancing with our alliance. That’s our first time doing that. No shots though. Currently ranked 8th.
Match #6: lost 42-35. Made 4 points. Failed to partner balance but didn’t fall.
4th round: won 35-18. Scored a 4 pointer during autonomous but jammed a ball after that. Tried to balance with 2559 on coopertition but they backed off and almost fell over. We’re in 7th right now.
3rd round : lost 28-11. Scored a 6 pointer in autonomous! So awesome! But we couldn’t balance because of a jammed ball under the ramp.
3rd round: won 40-27 though we fell over at the end of the round. Scored three baskets including one in autonomous
2nd round: won 42-14. Had a good round even though we didn’t score any points. We had agreed to cooperatition with another team but instead a different team blocked them. After two rounds, we are ranked 9th out of 38. Currently wiring decorative LEDs.
First round results: our alliance won 25-9 but more importantly, we scored in hybrid mode by using the Kinect to control our robot. We scored a total of 6 points before having a problem with our ramp finger. Fixed after the round though. Thanks Gabe Carryon for making a replacement piece at Drexel.
Live blogging from the Lenape FRC Regional robotics competition today.
rookiefirsts asked: Hi! I just read your most recent post and I'd love to use some of what you were saying in some Rookie FIRSTs posts! Your reason for the post was the EXACT reason I created the RF site - I wished that I had known some things before I made mistakes. And I figured, maybe I could help other teams avoid the same mistakes that our team had made. Would you be willing to let me use some of the...
Hey guys. Coming out of Chestnut Hill and going through this build season, I learned a great deal from how to use various hardware to the several programming techniques I’m able to use. However, there were a few things I could have planned better this season. The number one thing I probably found that I could have done better was planning and design.
Be involved with design, talk with your...
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After three very long days, the results are in.
The RoboLancers, team 321 took the Engineering Inspiration Award! This is recognition of our work in mentoring, teaching, and spreading robotics in Philadelphia. This took a lot of work and we are really, really proud of it. Thank you to everyone for working so hard to spread STEM throughout the city, especially Meghan Ho, who has worked tirelessly...
Day 2. We have 4 more rounds to go. Going to try and focus on our balancing ability and shooting balls from the other side.
Live Blogging Fail
It turns out there will be no live blogging of the FRC competition because there is absolutely no signal in the competition building. Here’s a summary of today’s events:
Took over two hours to see an inspector and was then informed that our lack of voltage reading to our driver station would prevent us from competing. That problem took about an hour to fix. So we did not get any...
http://www.theredalliance.com/chestnut_hill →
View the live web stream of today’s event here.
RoboLancers Team #321 at Chestnut Hill Regional
The RoboLancers will be competing at the Chestnut Hill regional this weekend at the FRC regional competition. Here is the information about the event:
What: The Chestnut Hill regional is a qualifier for the Mid-Atlantic Robotics FRC championship. The Robolancers will be competing with 29 other teams at this competition and will also be competing for the Chairman’s Award, the most coveted...
We will be live blogging the FRC Chestnut Hill Regional competition this weekend. Thursday was an afternoon of getting our pit set up and getting our robot inspected. We had to do a considerable amount of wiring because of our 360 rotating shooter. At inspection, we found out we were 4 pounds overweight and had to shave a few. After removing a couple things that were extra in the bot, we made...
To do list
Here is a list of things we have to finish on the shooter by 3pm Monday. Can we get volunteers to sign up for these tasks? I can give out notes if need be. 1. Move vertical shooter supports out 1” each 2. Attach hinges to the vertical supports and the shooter arms (I just got new ones from Lowes) 3. Fix the encoder on the second motor (Steve) 4. Mount the shooter motor on the arms 5....
February 2012
27 posts
Hey everyone. The actual FRC competition is right around the corner. This is where programming really kicks in. I’m currently testing our shooter and having our sensors implemented onto it, however, there always seem to be technical difficulties whether a victor/jaguar stops working or there needs to be mechanical adjustments.
However a severe error popped up relating to software where our...
Wasn’t the best day for our robot but our team held its head high. We ran some pretty good defense throughout the competition. We are heading back to Philly on the bus. Congrats to Edison High School and the Gear Up program for taking home the Judges Award. Definitely a quality award for Philly.
2nd round: we mostly played defense and laid a good pick for our alliance partner to be able to push a crate of balls into the goal. We lost 63 - 51. Good match though.
1st round : lost connection with the robot
Passed both inspections without a problem. Now in the presentation.
We left 440 North Broad Street this morning at 4:30 am with Edison, Carver, and Frankford High Schools. Had some breakfast and watched some movie about stealing time. Fell asleep. When we woke up, there was a blizzard. We closed our eyes again.
FTC state championships
Live blogging from the FIRST Tech Challenge Pennsylvania state championship in Williamsport today. The Robolancers are competing in their first ever FTC season.
3 tags
The robot is in the bag. Literally.
