Blogs

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Westtown Mid-Atlantic District Competition

On Friday, April Fools, the RoboLancers arrived at Westtown for another competitive weekend. During the last competition, the RoboLancers encountered some obstacles such as connectivity issues and belt problems. Luckily, we were able to identify the source of the problems which included a broken radio and too much tension on the belts. The tension in the belts was compounded by a vicious and speedy drive which put a lot of excess force on the belts. To solve this, we purchased a new radio and swapped from belts to chains. However, during our first practice match, our chain popped off! We embarked on another rocky start. But thankfully, with the help of other gracious teams, we were able to try smaller pneumatic wheels which we believed would solve the problem. Little did we know, the wheels actually impeded us from driving over defenses during autonomous and teleop. We quickly switched back to the 10-inch pneumatic wheels but maneuvered less viscously. But at long last, we were left with a working robot!

The event ran really smoothly with the help of other teams and volunteers which we are extremely thankful for. We would like to specifically thank one of the robot inspectors, Brian Lucas, who guided us through our connectivity issues. We were very fortunate to be picked by the third alliance team, competing along side the Gearaffes (5404) and Fightin’ Robotic Owls (5401). The competition exemplified the spirit of FIRST and was extremely fun. The judges was also full of amity. The whole entire atmosphere was amazing, as expected from FIRST!

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Springside Chestnut Hill

On March 18th and 19th, the RoboLancers competed in our first FRC qualifier of the 2016 season at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy. At 8 AM, Team 321 entered the pits and stands. The spectators “conquered” (as we like to say) a portion of the stands, while the pit crew entered our pit to prepare our robot for competition. Our drivers for this season include Cordell Beatty, current senior and robot driver, Brian Matta, senior and manipulator controller, and Jonah Getz, junior and coach.

Our robot and drive team performed reasonably well for the first five matches, receiving a respectable 2-3 win-loss ratio. When our 6th qualifying match (qualifying match #30) came about, our robot failed to connect to the system and the drive team was unable to control the robot. We were given little time to correct this error because, for the next two matches, we were required to queue for our next match right after finishing the earlier. We corrected our robot connection issue by replacing our router before our 9th match (qualifying match #47) and redeemed ourselves by winning two matches, losing one, and tying in our last qualifying match. We were not chosen to take part in the quarterfinals but, in the semi-finals, we were substituted into the game in the place of a malfunctioning robot. We played one last match alongside our close friends, Team 1218, Vulcan Robotics, but lost to the opposing alliance.

After our final match at the Springside Chestnut Hill Qualifier, our team continued to maintain a positive attitude in the stands and cheered on as Team 225, our friends and fellow competitors, and their alliance won their elimination matches and the finals.

The day ended with a trip through the High Five Line for winning the Chairman’s Award, the most prestigious award in FIRST Robotics. This ensures us a place in the FIRST Mid-Atlantic District Championship where we will again compete for the Mid-Atlantic Region’s Chairman’s Award and a chance to compete in the World Championships in St. Louis.

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PA FTC State Championship

On February 27, 2016, the Robolancers of Crimson 6676 participated in the Pennsylvania FTC Championship in York, PA. We were all nervous, as well as relieved when the bus drove up to Dallastown Intermediate School, the host of the competition. We walked to our pit, observing the impressive robots and accessories of other teams. We were immediately worried about how our robot would compare to these teams who were the best of their region. Yet we were still determined to do our best.
The first thing we needed was for the presentation team to perform for the judges. We thought our presentation went very well, yet the presentation of the other teams seemed to have also gone very well. As the day went on, we tested our autonomous, which was later able to perform the scoring of climbers into a bin, and practiced our tele-op, which was having many issues regarding our robot’s connection.

The qualifying games began and we were still not prepared to perform at out highest ability. Fortunately, we were allied with teams who earned us a high ranking of 3rd place after a couple games. On the other hand, as the competition progressed, our ranking went down. At the end of qualifying matches we were ranked 10th place. We were happy that we ranked high in the end, but disappointed that our robot din’t work as desired, due to connection complications.
There was still hope of earning an award that would allow us to move on to the East Super-regionals Championship after ranking tenth place. Unfortunately, we did not earn any, and this competition marked the end of our FTC 2016 season. Exhausted, we got on the bus and drove back do Philadelphia.

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Gearing Towards States

The Crimson 6676 Robolancers are moving on to the 2016 FTC statewide championship on Saturday, February 27. The team was notified a week before the competition that there was an opening available for one of Central’s teams. Mr. Johnson, the Robolancers’ coach, offered this opportunity of participation to Crimson, due to the team’s high ranking of 1st place in the previously completed Philadelphia FTC Championship. Currently, the team is preparing for the new upcoming challenge by making improvements to the robot.

Preparing for upcoming challenges, the team intends to fix any mistake that is discovered, to improve the robot. The height of the robot was increased to accommodate for debris. It was then decided that an additional manipulator be added, allowing the robot to drop climbers into a bin during the autonomous period of a match. In the meantime, the team is facing new difficulties potentially from the change in code. Other factors include products that don’t always work, connection breaks and phone crashes. When arrives at the states competition, they plan to do their best despite the low resources and possible problems in the phone. When competing, our drive team plans on earning the most points possible by climbing and hanging to the high-bar. The rest of Crimson will cheer them on no matter what happens. Crimson knows that this will be a true challenge unable to be easily overcome.

No matter what, Crimson won’t disappoint while doing their best.

 

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FIRST Stronghold

On January 9, 2016, the RoboLancers went to UPenn to attend the FRC kickoff where they watched Dean Kamen and Woodie Flowers roll through a forest on segways, make Monty Python references, and watch the reveal of the FRC 2016 game: FIRST Stronghold.

In Stronghold, teams must take over the opposing team’s castle by breaking through defenses, weaken the castle by launching boulders, and capturing the tower by challenging and/or scaling to it. Robots will have to navigate through different barriers in order to reach the other side. A unique feature about the game is the audience participation where the spectators are able to choose a defense barrier for each match.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to join my team members at the kickoff, but I was able to watch a live stream of the game at home. It was interesting to see the game’s field and how the game is to be played. In my opinion, Stronghold is much better than Recycle Rush. I love the medieval theme, with the field having giant towers for the alliances and the option of having a team standard over the player stations during matches. It really makes you feel like you’re back in the Middle Ages with knights and epic tournaments. The audience participation ability is going to be interesting. Teams outside the match will be trying to appeal to the audience in a Hunger Games sort of way to win their approval.

I think the game is perfect for us because as a medieval themed team, the possibilities for team spirit becomes endless. My team members were quite excited when they first saw the teaser for the game back in October. Right after watching it they were already theorizing about the game, wondering if it would be like Tower Defense or jousting. Then after attending kickoff they started brainstorming ideas for the robot. They discussed what type of robot it would be and possible strategies to score the most amount of points. 

Robots will be storming the castle in Stronghold.

It’s going to be great.

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FTC Meet #1

On January 10, 2016, we went to Temple University after school. People who were on the inspection team left 1 period before school ended and took all of the materials + the robot to Temple. The mechanical subgroup added a mechanism to press a lever on the field but it ended up passing the 16x16x16 inch size limit. We tried to drive it but only 1 motor worked. We worked with Jim to figure out what was wrong with it again.

It turned out that the wires weren’t crimped properly so we had to fix the 3 wires connected to the 3 motors that didn’t work. At first, we thought it was a programming error but then we noticed a faulty wire connecting the battery to the motor control turning on and off. It would turn off every time someone touched it so we checked if the other wires had the same problem. After we fixed it, we had the majority of the wheels working but it was about time to leave so we had a last minute scrimmage with our counterpart, Crimson. We scored 5 points while they scored 47. Our phone on the robot ran out of power and died 40 seconds into the scrimmage. Blocks also got stuck under the robot.

We packed up and came back the next day at the same time. This time, we fixed all of the wires and the phones were charged. The robot wasn’t driving properly. It was reversed and we couldn’t turn properly because the motors weren’t programmed to the right ports. To reverse the wheels, we just reversed the wires in the ports so that the – wire went into the + port and vis-versa.

We were in 2 scrimmages. In 1 scrimmage, we had to hold the controller upside down because the robot’s controls were reversed. The turning still wasn’t working. We almost got up to mid-zone in that scrimmage. In the second one, we quickly reversed the controls so we would be able to to hold the controller properly but that caused us to not be able to turn at all. We stopped moving for approximately a minute but we couldn’t get onto the climbing zone.

After that, we worked on the program until it was time to leave. Overall, it was a good experience. It taught us to be more prepared and to plan head.image (1)

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Freire Charter School Event

image (1)image (1)At the Freire Charter School event on Saturday, December 12th, the FTC Gold team settled down and set up our program for the robot. The programmer configured the phones to the robots while our mechanical and electrical subgroups unpacked our supplies. There were technical difficulties because the new laptop we bought was not ready. The programmers didn’t download everything they needed the day before and we had to download everything off of google drive during the event. The code didn’t work and the robot still hadn’t moved after a month. While the team programmer was checking the code, the other members went to robot inspection. We passed 2 out of the 3 inspection expectations, but we needed a moving robot for the 3rd inspection.

A guy named Jim, who was doing the 3rd inspection, helped us download our program and he tried to help us figure out what was wrong with the robot (why it wouldn’t move). Another guy came over and looked at the robot. He said it was the wiring; that the wires/cables were not straight. So we straightened them and the robot finally started moving. By that time, our mechanical subgroup had already started working on the new manipulator. The robot finally moved on the field and then a block got stuck under the robot, which messed up a couple of wires and caused it to stop moving again. The robot would stop moving every now and then. All of that took us around 4 hours. The event ended an hour early. It was stressful overall and all the members were on edge, thinking about the electrical problems and future events.

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FTC Scrimmage!

TEAM WORK

On November 21, 2015, the RoboLancers participated in an FTC scrimmage! After an hour and a half long bus ride, we arrived at Oxford High and saw many of the other teams that participated. With their unique manipulators and chassis, we watched in awe. We received the opportunity to take advantage and see what we are standing against in this competition. In the meantime, we, the FTC Crimson team 6676. also worked on perfecting and finishing our manipulator with the help of the mechanical team. We displayed how our manipulator, which was just a modified tape measure, worked to complete tasks of the new game this year.

While testing our manipulator, we came up with some problems, but solved them quickly. One of our mentors, Diego, showed us a very good way to help make our manipulator. He shortened our 16-foot tape measure into a 6-foot tape measure to better fit into our system/robot. With the reduction of length, the circumference of the coiled up tape measure decreased, which stopped it from jamming as much when retracting. This helped us since we didn’t truly have a way of containing the tape measure and its excessive flexibility. When extending upward, it would jam. To further compensate, we started to work on a CAD system to build a case that would fit around the tape measure. Along the way, with everyone working together, we had fun learning new techniques of working, and even communicated with other teams present at the event.

Overall, it was quite a learning experience for all of us. We realized what we should or should not do in order to help our team, and at the same time, had fun with everyone.

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Ramp Riot! Goodbye Recycle Rush!

On Saturday, November 14, 2015, The RoboLancers attended Ramp Riot! It was the last Recycle Rush competition of the year and the highlight of our off season. Ramp Riot! had one the largest RoboLancers attendance rates for any FRC competition this year. Many FTC members, FRC members, teachers and mentors attended this event. While it was a goodbye to another game for the FRC members, it was an introduction for our new FTC members.

As Recycle Rush was going on, an FTC Scrimmage was also taking place at Wissahickon High School. This year’s FTC game, Res-Q, allows teams to think more creatively due to the verticality of the field. The scrimmage allowed exposure of other teams as well as the progression of their robots. “It was interesting to see the other teams’ approaches to the various challenges that this game presents… one of the teams even designed and built the same type of manipulator as us!” Connor McCole, a member of Central’s FTC Crimson team, said.

Experiencing a competition of this magnitude, new FTC member Thomas Swingley comments, “We went between the FTC and FRC areas, looking at how the FTC games went and watching the 321 FRC team during their matches. Our team, as well as others, cheered for each team and alliance.” All our members were exhilarated to watch and cheer for our team’s matches. The pompom wiggling and chants were led by Martis Ravenell and Sabrina Dormer. “Sabrina and I leading and coordinating the members in the stands gave spirit to our drive team as they faced the perils of the drivers’ station. When my fellow first year FRC member, Viwing Zheng, took over as the manipulator controller, the entire stand decided to give her a giant cheer in order to cheer her on,” says Martis Ravenell.

A lot of people expressed excitement for the end of off season, and for the start of the incoming build season. With the end of Ramp Riot, the 321 RoboLancers bid adieu to Recycle Rush. Below, are some thoughts from our senior and junior members: Jeechieu Ta, Evan Aretz, Brian Mata, Jonah Getz, Ahmed Amin, and Cordell Beatty. These are all members of the RoboLancers’ Executive Committee, and lead certain factions in the team. Our President, Caspar Nguyen, personally interviewed FRC members who experienced the 2015 FRC game Recycle Rush!

– How do you feel about Ramp Riot being the last game of Recycle Rush?

JC: I’m happy that it’s over. There was excitement that this was the final game.

EA: I’m ready for this new robot. While Recycle Rush was the best robot that I (helped (a lot)) build so far, I was juggling with mechanical and Chairman’s.

BM: Happy.

JG: Relieved. No more mechanums!

AA: No more cangrabbers.

CB: It feels great to end Ramp Riot and be done with Recycle Rush forever. I wasn’t a fan of the free for all aspect. That being said, it was an amazing year, being able to go to World’s for the first time and winning 2 blue banners.

– What are your expectations for the next game “FRC Stronghold”?

JC: I hope that it can be a game that we could be comfortable going to World’s about. Last year’s seniors were a little uncomfortable that Recycle Rush was going to their last game. Hopefully, FRC Stronghold will be a bumpers kind of game.

CK: I know that Cordell would be excited about it if it does become that way. He was a sophomore when he was on the drive team for the FRC offseason of Aerial Assist, and was a very good defensive driver for our defensive robot.

EA: I hope that it’s not going to be bad. I want it to be more high-paced. It was only high-paced when you had a really good robot. The scoring system wasn’t very fun. I want more high tension situations where I could be more nervous and anxious about the game but Recycle Rush was more of Recycle Mellow.

BM: A lot of defense. I hope it was a more technical/challenging game than what Recycle Rush was.

JG: It sounds cool. I look forward to having defense again.

CB:  I’m hoping stronghold game is the total opposite of this year’s game. I’m expecting heavy defence and some type of shooters. It’ll make for a better game to watch as a spectator.

– How was it like to be cheering in the stands?

JC: [On cheering in the stands] it wasn’t very exhilarating, but for the freshman, I’m sure that it was much more fun.

CB:  I tried to be in the stands as much as I could so I could watch and enjoy the last competition.

CK: Lots of pom-poms. So many pom-poms. I wish that there were more dancing. From us, not so much about the other teams, but it’s always cringe-worthy to see kids do the Whip/Nae Nae from the spectating view of a Philadelphian. Otherwise, it was an FRC event, as it usually is.

One of the better things being in the stands (now that I’m no longer Safety Captain, and therefore, am not as needed in the pits), helping coordinate spirit and doing match scouting, is hearing things from the drive team (when they come up to rest in between matches). I was talking with Cordell, who told me that when they were behind the driver’s station, he looked up (at where the team was), turned to Jonah, and said, “look at all of the people cheering for us.” He said it with such a big smile, and we’re a pretty big team, mind you. *laughs* I plan on getting some Drive Team cheers together for the upcoming season so our Drive Team knows just how much we truly do appreciate them.

– What was it like in the pit at Ramp Riot?

EA: Crowded. Tried my best to keep everything moving. “Aggressively coordinate.” Our team is pretty solid so I didn’t have to do anything.

BM: It was exciting. It was nice to be working as the technical lead, especially after having been working as the lead’s assistant.

JG: It was good. Being able to tinker with the robot.. *thumbs up*

CB: The Ramp Riot drive team experience was really good. All of the teams were excited that this was the last competition of the year. It wasn’t nearly as intense as during the normal season. This being our last competition we didn’t have much to work on in the pit.

– What was it like being Head Scout and really getting into the game and the competition?

AA: It gave me some experience. I feel that I will be very ready come 2016. We’ll be working further on our scouting techniques, and I will be completely revamping our scouting system.

Our team has plenty of time on our hands until 2016’s FRC game Stronghold is released. The RoboLancers have been tinkering away on a similar robot from a past game. Updates soon to come!