Website semi-refurbished
Hello world. We are sorry that the website has been down during the latter half of this most recent summer, and that it has fallen into disrepair. I have taken the liberty of updating most of the links and information, so it should be semi-functional again. Enjoy.
If you have any comments, try directing them to me if you know how to find me, or maybe PB, or Sean who is the actual webmaster, except none of us are actually on the team anymore so someone else should do that.
CNC Milling Machine
Link to progress on CNC Milling Machine: http://xyzzymachine.blogspot.com/
Robot Arrival
The robot successfully arrived back from Atlanta this afternoon. The crate was slightly damaged--it looked as though it had been impaled with a forklift prong, but the contents were all fine. After unloading the crate, we tried to drive the robot, but it apparently has a short, so that'll have to wait. We'll have a meeting on Monday for those not busy with AP prep to do some organization of Robotland, and possibly try and fix the robot.
Atlanta Championship Update: 4/19/08
Our final day at the Championship was an amazing one. we got up early in order to get the best seats for our matches today. Our robot performed quite well, but we lost both our matches to some amazing teams. Our final record, then, was 2 wins and 5 losses, placing us 66th out of 85 teams in the Newton Division.
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After the Newton champions, Teams 968, 233, and 60, had been crowned in an intense set of matches, we proceeded to Einstein Field. There, between the presentation of national awards, the best teams in the world competed. Newton fell to Galileo in the third round of a penalty-ridden matchup. Curie beat Archimedes, for a Curie-Galileo final. Galileo's alliance of 1114, 217, and 148 was ultimately triumphant. Our team didn't win any awards, but all those that did were each exceptional in those particular areas and truly deserved to win.
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To cap off the season, after finishing packing up our pit area and crating our robot for shipping back home, everyone went to Centennial Park for the end-of-season party. It was carnival-style, with inflated obstacle courses and activities, games, karaoke, a climbing wall, rides, prizes and food. And then, at the very end, a spectacular fireworks show. Hooray for FIRST Overdrive 2008!
Atlanta Championship Update: 4/18/08
Today was the first day of qualification matches. The competition officially began with the Opening Ceremonies, which recognized the major sponsors of FIRST and acknowledged several award winners as well as including statements by Dean Kamen, the founder of FIRST, Woodie Flowers, FIRST advisor, and Paul Guidonis, the president of FIRST who'd been with us at our legislative presentation. They were also joined by former President George H. W. Bush, who was one of the major supporters of FIRST at its incenption. Qualifying matches began shortly afterwards. Our robot performed well, but our alliances were not always effective. We lost our first two matches and won the next two, leaving us with a record of 2-2 and a ranking of 51 out of 85 teams in our division. Tomorrow, we have an additional two matches before the elimination rounds begin.
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After matches today, we took a group photo (that we hope to have posted here soon) and visited the Georgia Aquarium, which was a very cool, interactive aquarium. Tomorrow will be the last day of competition and the FIRST Finale party in the evening. We're all looking forward to it.
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EDIT: We also gave our Chairman's Award presentation, which was well-recieved.
Atlanta Championship Update: 4/17/08
Today was the first day of the Championship in Atlanta. We had several practice matches in the Georgia Dome and continued to work on the robot. It was a somewhat glitchy day for us, as a number of small things went wrong that caused us to not do very well; some connections were wrong, the chain came off once. We made some adjustments to the autonomous code--with the encoders on the wheels working, we can now drive based on distance, rather than time interval. It was really cool to watch all of the different robots--the best worldwide--playing the game, and to see some of the really nnovative desgns. There's teams from all around the country here, as well as international teams from such places as Mexico and Israel. Afterwards, we had dinner at the CNN tower food court, then played in the fountain in Centennial Park. Tomorrow, official qualifying matches begin.
Atlanta Championship Update: 3/16/08
The team arrived safely in Atlanta today after several hours of travelling. A small crew went into the pits in the Georgia Dome to uncrate the robot, which looked none the worse for travelling all the way from Tacoma. Afterwards, we all had dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. Tomorrow, we'll be competing in practice rounds and working more on refining our robot's driving. It's going to be a very exciting competition!
Atlanta Championship Update
Hello from Phoenix! The first leg of our journey is complete. In about an hour we'll be on a plane to Atlanta, where we'll get ready to compete in the FRC Championship. Our team is in the Newton division (out of four, Newton, Curie, Galileo, and Archimedes) and will be competing there with over eighty other teams. Streaming video of the competition is available here: http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/robotics/first/atlanta-finals-2008/
Microsoft Regional Update: 3/22/08
Apologies about the lateness of this update!
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The final day of the Microsoft Regional was a very exciting one. Our team did very well in our remaining qualifying matches, and by the end of those rounds was seeded second, with a record of 8 wins, 2 losses, and 1 tie and an average score of 25.5 points per round we competed in. As one of the top eight teams, we led a three-team alliance in the elimination rounds. We invited teams 488 and 1696 to join us on our alliance. After strategizing during the lunch break, our alliance won our first two quarterfinal matches to progress to the semifinals. There, we were defeated by the 3rd seeded alliance that went on the win the competition.
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The final matches, between the 1st and 3rd seeded alliances were intense, and it was a lot of fun to watch the robots compete even from the stands. We’re quite pleased with our performance at this competition. By the latter half of the matches, we were consistently making about eight laps around the track each match (16 points) and had the capability to cross four lines in the hybrid period, reliably crossing at least two (8-20 points).
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After all the matches had ended, we packed up our robot and tools in our crate for shipping to Atlanta, GA, where we will attend the national championship April 17-19. We’ll be sending updates from there as well.
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P.S. Congratulations to Team 488 (Team XBot) on winning the Microsoft Seattle Regional Chairman’s Award!
Microsoft Regional Update: 3/21/08
Today was our second day of the Microsoft Regional. The day got off to a slow start as we were disabled in our first match. After a frantic hour in the pits repairing connections to the motors as matches progressed without us, we rushed back to the playing field with the robot and some more drive code modifications. The remainder of our matches were very successful, as we refined the robot and developed strategies. One match in particular was exceptionally good, as we scored an incredible thirty-four points out of our team’s total thirty-six. Things only got better as the day went on, and by the end of matches for today, we were fifth out of thirty-one teams, and are in a good position going into the final qualifying matches to be one of the alliance leaders for the finals—an accomplishment unmatched in the last four years of our team. At the Friday awards ceremony, we received another piece of exciting news, as our team was the recipient of the Judges’ Award, for the “Three S’s” of our team strategy—small, speedy, and simple.