2013 - Ultimate Ascent

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Season Overview

2013 Robots & Game Animation

Team 3847

Gamma Ray

• 3events
• 22-8-2quals
• #4/54best rank
• 4awards

Season Hardware

• Regional Finalists×2
• Entrepreneurship Award×2

• CAD→
• Code→
• Photos→
• Events & records→
• Design review→
• Award essay→

How Ultimate Ascent worked

FIRST's official game animation for the 2013 season.

January 6, 2013

Spectrum 3847 - 2013 FRC Build Log: It's finally here

The game for 2013 was released this morning. We will be back nightly to build and will post updates from here on out.

And here's the game FRC 2013 Ultimate Ascent

When it was released our entire team thought this was very funny because we had developed a game similar to it during the off season. We did it to sort of practice strategy and brainstorming and were hoping to build prototypes for it but never got around to it. You can view the rules for this mock FRC game here.

Day 1:

We started dark and early this morning at 7:45am when we left for the Houston Area kickoff at University of Houston Clear Lake. There we got to see some old friends and watch the kick off video. We also helped with kit distribution as well.

From there we came back to St. Agnes Academy for our strategy session. We had several family members and alumni come and sit in with us to get a feel for this year's game. The strategy session started by first having the entire team read over the rules. This way, everyone has a very good grasp of all the rules and field dimensions. We then covered the different aspects of the game and ways we thought they could be played. This is an extremely challenging game since there is very little prior art for this type of game. The most similar robot game we can think of is the 2010 VEX game RoundUp. The pyramid structure is similar to the VEX ladder and the game objects are circular. 

Our brain storming session ended up with us producing this document. It's not extremely detailed but we are still learning the game.

We also wanted to get a feel for some of the game objects. At around 5pm we broke to do some initial prototyping of the game devices. We really just don't know how difficult some tasks in this game are going to be. We played around with pushing discs, collecting discs, and shooting discs. We tried to collect discs using last year's collector; it actually worked alright.

Our shooter prototypes aren't having too much success. So far we know it's mostly a traction problem between the wheel and the disc as you can see in this pictures.

Tomorrow

Tomorrow the plan is to get into the gym and play a little human Ultimate Ascent.

We'll see how well we can throw the discs into target size cut outs and also play with strategy a bit.

We might get Violet driving again and see what some of the sprint times are for certain distances.

We'll also keep working on the prototypes.

We have a bunch of work to do and never enough time to do it.

Interesting Rule Changes

More motor power: With the 2 added CIMs allowed and the addition of the mini-CIMs and BAG motors. FRC is again increasing the maximum allowed motor wattage. Teams are going to need to be careful and have lots of charged batteries. We're predicting a huge increase in the number of six motor drive trains this year.

Size Restriction Changing: No more sizing box. 112 inch total frame perimeter. We're interested to see what teams do with this.

Simple Bumper Rules: For the first time in a few years it looks like we might not have to fight with the bumper rules.

No Co-Op Scoring: The number 1 seed at each event will be the team with the best record (and a few tie-breakers that you can control without scoring for the other team). This is a welcome change.

44 Day to go

Six of us put in over 15 hour days today. It looks like it's going to be a very intense build season.

- Spectrum

"Success is dependent upon the glands - sweat glands." - Zig Ziglar

January 7, 2013

2013 Build Season Day 2

We were back at it this morning. Several of us spent well over 24 hours in the lab this weekend. We have done more prototyping in 2 days than we did all of last build season. School starts back up for St. Agnes tomorrow so we are going to have to back down our meeting times at least a bit.
We had an extremely productive day. After lunch we went down to our gym and played a game of Human Ultimate Ascent. We cut out a few mock goals and hung them up and had our team members act like robots. This gave us a bit of a feel for the game even though it’s just an exercise.
Shooter
We know that shooting discs is hard. Getting them accurate is even harder. We are currently looking at way to reduce how accurate our shooter has to be and how much time it takes us to aim the shooter. Below is one of the shooter prototypes from today. One of the things we learned is that traction on the disc is probably the most important factor when shooting.

Collector

We had several variations of a collector prototype; floor collection seems extremely useful in this game, since we think a lot of people are going to miss a lot of shots. Why go back and pick up discs if we can just get them from the floor? Our leading idea is that our shooter and collector will be one and the same.

End Game We're also working on climbing the tower. This is probably the most complicated game challenge FRC has ever had. We're pretty sure a 10 point hang is easy and every robot should do at least this. From there the task gets far more complicated. 20 and 30 point hangs are much more difficult. 30 point hangs are going to be rare and fast 30 point hangs are going to win competitions.
To help us solve this incredibly hard challenge we built a 1/2.5 scale model of the pyramid. The idea is that we will have VEX robots climb the pyramid until we have a solution from our FRC robot. We have a few plans in the works that are looking promising. Hopefully we will have working prototypes by the end of the week.

Drive Train
After discussing drive train ideas it seems like we will go with the new Kit Bot that VEXpro is producing.

It has every feature we could have asked for in a drive train. It even uses our standard fastening system 3/16" rivets and #10 bolts. We know they didn't design it special for our team, but they could have fooled us. We still aren't sure of our chassis dimensions but the last discussion of the night is leading us to something around 28" x 28". We're planning to do a 6 motor single speed drive. We're planning to do some stuff to the drive to give us some more room in the middle of the robot. The new size requirements are making this year's design phase more like a jig saw puzzle. You know what you want to include you just don't really know how to make everything fit together.

Up next

We need to figure out our disc storage system.

Robot Geometry - How do we fit everything in a clean and elegant package?

Parts ordering - We need to get parts ordered so they start shipping. Waiting on parts is the worst part of build season.

- Spectrum

“Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash.” - George Patton

January 8, 2013

Ultimate Ascent Day #3: First prototype video

We keep moving. We have had several versions of shooters, but this is the first one worth posting about.

It uses an R/C dune buggy wheel to fire the disk. We purchased a set of these wheels from a local hobby store. The non moving side of the shooter is the top of a sanding block. Both of these materials were chosen because they have very high coefficients of friction with the discs. We have learned that since the discs don't compress well, it helps if your wheel does so that you can generate force from the compression. Those two values multiplied together give the frictional force that we want so we can impart momentum and rotation to the disc.

We are very happy with this prototype. Since we aren't planning to shoot from a great distance away, we won't need more speed than this. We are looking into getting a smaller wheel (1/10 scale instead of 1/8) so that we can further reduce our shooter foot print. We know that the new volume limitations are going to be a big factor in all our designs, so we are reducing size wherever we can.

We mocked up our first VEX climbing robot. The solution to the 30 point climbing problem is coming we just have to keep working at it.

We also worked on our indexer/storage system and it looks very promising. We're planning to stack the discs like those little foam disc shooters you see in stores. From there we will fire them into our wheel one by one from the bottom of the stack.

Several prototyping parts have been ordered, including our first large order to VEXpro. It's going to be very fun when everything arrives this week.

We've had a great start to the build season. We would like to thank all of the parents who have brought meals and snacks so far it helps us keep up with the late nights.

- Spectrum

“Everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it.” - Andy Rooney

January 9, 2013

Build Season Day 4: Things are looking good

So far everything has been going very smoothly this season. We have had parents bringing very delicious meals to the team, which we are very grateful for. One of our sponsors, Solarcraft, is going to be building us a real version of the pyramid. (Once it’s together, it will be available to all other teams to use at our school.) We can’t thank them enough for being so generous.
We’ve also been given permission to host the Houston area scrimmage in our school’s practice gym, so mark your calendar for the last weekend of build season. We should be able to have it February 16th, 17th, and 18th since we don’t have school on that Monday for President’s day. We would appreciate it if any local teams that have wooden versions of the goals bring them so we can have a full field.
As for the robot, the design is progressing extremely fast, possibly a bit too fast. We’ve identified a few problems with the design but we also keep finding solutions. We didn’t have any new shooter prototypes today; we are waiting for the smaller dune buggy wheels for that. We did make several versions of our collector and we think we are narrowing in on a workable solution. Tomorrow we should have a working prototype collector/indexer system that we can mount to the shooter and test together.
We did a lot of geometry today as well. Our shooter heights and angles are all looking promising for very accurate shooting. The packaging problem is still an issue. We’re planning for under-bumper collection of the discs so our collection/indexing system has to fit between our wheel wells. This is a hard challenge with the new dimensions but the smaller buggy wheels should help.
Our climbing/lift system has had some improvements. The new plan involves a 2 stage continuous lift. We’re hoping we can get a 30 point climb out of this but this is a reach. We’re very confident in the 20 point climb, though.
Size and weight are big concerns. Hopefully we will start getting things CADed and we can get a solid weight approximation soon.
- Spectrum
“Don’t tell me the sky’s the limit when there are footprints on the moon.” - Paul Brandt

January 10, 2013

2013 Day 5: prototyping everything

The mad race to get working prototypes continued for day 5. We made some new discoveries that we have to deal with in our designs but nothing seems to be setting us back too far.
Our climbing prototype is a VEX robot. It’s not yet functional but we’re getting much closer.

It's a two stage lift design and hopefully it will be climbing our mock pyramid before Friday. We are now planning to climb from the front of our robot. It makes a lot of the packaging problems a little bit easier. We are still going to be cramped for space and weight, but at least we think the robot will be sturdy even during the climb. We also think this can get us to the 30 point level.

The disc portion of our robot is coming along as well. We're hoping to have another quality video over the weekend. 

A lot of our work has been playing with the numbers. Luckily we have some people who are good with geometry. Here's an idea of some of things we have been working on. If a robot is at the autonomous discs in front of the pyramid (78" from the driver station) and fires the discs at the top goal from a height of 30" they can only error about +-2 degrees in their launch angle to be able to make the shot.

Teams are going to need to be very accurate to make these discs. Trying to find ways to decrease our need for accuracy is one of our main goals.

On the non-robot portion of the team, we have a full draft of our Chairman's essay complete and from here on out it's just a lot of revisions. We have to get the executive summary, essay, presentation, and video all together by the end of build season so we have time to practice everything before we go in front of the judges. We finished our business plan during the fall so that is ready to go besides for some few additions from this build season. You can read it here, www.Spectrum3847.org/BusinessPlan. This year we are also putting together an engineering inspiration packet for the judges at both of the regionals we are attending. One of our team goals was to get better at documenting our efforts and presenting them to the judges.

- Spectrum

"Success comes through rapidly fixing our mistakes rather than getting things right the first time." ~ Tim Harford, author of Adapt: Why Success Always Starts with Failure

January 11, 2013

Day 6: It finally happened

Our design was going along a little too well. We knew something wasn’t right and we finally figured it out.

Using this mess on the white board and a very detailed CAD sketch, we finally realized that our current design crashes into the 54 inch cylinder very quickly once we start climbing. We spent several hours at the drawing board trying to solve this dilemma but we're just not sure how we can climb and still function as the robot we want.

In better news, our collector system had its first fully functional prototype test and it worked like a charm. It's amazing what the addition of two well placed pool noodles can do for a system.

We tested several more wheels for our shooter. These BaneBots wheels worked very well. We're going to try the other colors as well and see if we can get an even better CoF (coefficient of friction). The 1/2" hex shaft mounts directly to the new VEXpro Versaplanetary gearboxes. Since these wheels are so small we are spinning them really fast, like 19000RPM fast. We found that the 10:1 Versaplanetary can easily be modified into a 1:1 gearbox, with the removal of the planets, sun, and ring gear stage. These gearboxes have been great, we can very quickly swap out motors and wheel mounts to test different configurations.

During prototyping one of our discs ("Tiger Lily") had to be sacrificed for a prototype indexer mechanism. We needed the rim of a disc to act as the pusher, so she had to be destroyed. (Yes, all 19 of our discs have names).

Hopefully tomorrow we can get back on a common path. Right now we think we have a shooter and collector that will do what we want but the climbing mechanism is very much up in the air again. We're reevaluating our entire game strategy.

- Spectrum

"The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing." - Henry Ford

January 12, 2013

Day 7: It's been a week

It’s strange how fast you can go from feeling way ahead to feeling behind.  After far too much talking, math, CAD, and VEX prototypes we have decided to pay less attention to the climbing aspect of this game and just build an awesome shooter and collector. The goal is going to be to keep these weights as low as possible, so if inspiration does strike we will have room and weight for a climbing device on the back of our robot, assuming we can make it fit in the 54“ cylinder.

One of our VEX climbing prototypes
 This plan may change seeing as we haven't had a consistent vision for the robot for over a day lately.
Our shooter isn't going as far as we would like with our smaller wheels. We need to get some more kinetic energy into the disc. We're thinking about  possibly going to more wheels along the linear path.
There are a lot of question marks right now in our design. Do we go under the pyramid? What's the fastest 10 point hang? How far should our max shot be? Hopefully we can clear some of them up tomorrow so we can start doing production CAD and get things sent to the laser cutter.
We'll have our VEXpro chassis on Monday so we should be rolling (no electronics) early next week.
- Spectrum
I have learned an important principle: simple things work, often to our dumbfounded surprise, for we tend to distrust the simple and strive for the complex. - Richard Cracroft, “Our Trek Through the Wilderness”

January 13, 2013

Day 8: Coming back around

We had another long day but we made some good progress. We were even able to mount a prototype of the collector to Violet (our 2012 robot) and drive around a bit to test the collector. It still isn’t perfect but we think that’s our best subsystem so far.

The shooter is still under heavy development. We had to put a CIM back on our shooter to get the mass and acceleration we need into the disc. We are going to test a two wheel (in a row) shooter tomorrow, after the kit bot build day, and see if that solves are distance problem.
We’ve begun the initial CAD development of the robot. The chassis is going to be VEXpro chassis and it’s an ideal base for the robot we want to build. We’re still getting a little creative with the wheel wells to give us room for collection.
Climbing is on the back burner but we still seem to be talking about it all the time. We’re hoping to find a way to climb (more than 10 points) with the real estate we have left on the robot but that is proving very challenging. We built the prototype of the motorless/actuatorless 10 point hang today.

The hang works because the small downward wedge is above the height of the 30 inch bar. The robot drives into the bar and wedges upwards till the bar falls into the dip portion. As long as that dip is nearly in line with your center of gravity, the robot won't be touching the ground. We don't have a full pyramid yet, so we don't have any video. However we did test it with a small test pole and pushing the robot and it hung perfectly. So if anyone is looking for a simple way to get 10 points in this game, please fill free to use this design. We think it shouldn't take more than 3 or 4 seconds to just drive into the pyramid as fast as you can.
We still have a lot of work to do and need to get parts to the laser cutter soon if we want to have the needed amount of driver practice for a game like this.
- Spectrum
“We don’t even have all the questions, yet, let alone all the answers.” - Michael Laine

January 13, 2013

Day 9: First Kit Bot Build Day

Today was the first of two Houston Area Kit Bot Build Days. Spectrum brought 15 people to the event to help teams, put together their kit chassis, and assemble their electronics. We were happy to see many of the teams that participated in our Mock Kickoff back in December. We love being able to help teams get their first taste of FRC. We’ll have another kit bot build day on the 27th, and if needed we might do a bumper build the morning of Feb 3rd.

We still have a lot of little details to work out with our design but overall things look promising. This week will mostly be dedicated to CAD and putting together our drive train. We should have our VEXpro chassis tomorrow.
- Spectrum
“Competition is very rarely as useful as cooperation. Our society is geared toward competition — rip each other’s throats out, survival of the fittest, yada yada. But humans are meant to work together for the survival of the tribe, and cooperation pools our resources and allows everyone to contribute what they can. It requires a whole other set of people skills to work cooperatively, but it’s well worth the effort.” - Leo Babauta

January 15, 2013

Day 10: Chassis Construction

We received our VEXpro chassis today and various other parts from VEX Robotics. This new line of off-the-shelf parts has been extremely useful this year.

We should have sprockets and wheels tomorrow and be able to do our first test drive. We are modifying the design pretty heavily to give us more room between the wheel wells. With the new size restrictions we have to be much more conscious about space.

Shooter development made huge progress today. We got in more Banebots wheels and now we have a very effective and compact two wheel shooter. This setup was able to shoot discs about 25 feet and this is by no means optimized. We're hoping to have a 40+ foot max distance in case we need to feed another shooter. We're using two Versaplanetary gearboxes. One is setup 10:1 with the BB550 motor and the orange wheels. The other is a BAG motor at 1:1 with the green wheels. We think the bag motor is still slipping so we may reduce it to 3:1. Hopefully we will be testing a bunch of motor/wheel/gear ratio combinations till we find the best solution. We really like how compact this shooter is.

We still have a few systems that really need development but the overall plan for the robot is coming together very nicely. Hopefully will have our first parts sent off to the laser cutter this week.

We constructed PVC goals today in the small space we have for field elements in our school. Soon we'll have a full pyramid as well, though, since climbing has been shelved for a bit, we're not in too much of a hurry.

- Spectrum
"When given a choice, choose the thing that scares you a little. If it's 100% safe, it is holding you back." - Jeff Atwood

January 16, 2013

Day 11: Ultimate Ascent Shooter Testing

Our shooter works! After 10 days of prototyping we are making very nice shots from about 15-17 feet away from the goals. We still have a lot of optimization to do but so far we are very happy with the results.
Several team members spent the better part of the last two days making the goals for us and they did a great job.
Full Specs on this implementation:

• Two wheeled linear shooter
• First Wheel 
• Three 2 7/8" diameter, 0.4in thick Orange Banebots wheels with 1/2 hex bores bolted together 
• (We don't think the bolts do much but we still thought to mention them.)
• Versaplanetary Gearbox 10:1 with 1/2" hex output shaft
• Banebots 550 motor
• 2nd wheel
• Two 2 7/8" diameter, 0.8in thick Green Banebots wheels with 1/2 hex bores
• Versaplanetary Gearbox modified to 1:1 with 1/2" hex output shaft
• BAG Motor
• About 2 inches between the two wheels
• Lexan opposite wall
• Plywood base
• We didn't measure the compression but it was around 1/4"

This is running at full speed. We believe that if we play with the motor combinations we can reduce slippage and get much more distance from this two wheeled setup.

The great thing about this shooter is it can fit in to any design because it's so small. You barely need more room than a disc. It's also pretty inexpensive. The versaplanetaries are the most expensive part and you could probably replace one of them with a CIM or MiniCIM to make it cheaper.

We kept putting together the VEX pro chassis, there were a few more things we didn't have that we needed. We will continue working on it till we have it driving. Hopefully it will be tomorrow.

We also noticed the new rule change to G23; this changes everything for a lot of teams. Doing this so late is very frustrating but hopefully the GDC (game design committee) will figure out a way to prevent changes such as this in the future. We think we are in a good place with or without the rule change so we are going to keep on moving with our current design path.

BUMPER BUILD DAY

We're planning a Bumper Build day at our shop for Feb 2nd or 3rd. Email us if you're interested in coming and making bumpers with us. We'll provide the pool noodles and wood, you just bring some fabric and we can have a lot of teams squared away before the regionals.

- Spectrum

“The habit of doing more than is necessary can only be earned through practice. And the habit is priceless.” - Seth Godin

January 17, 2013

Day 12: Drive train is on the ground

We finished the VEXpro drive train, as we were wrapping up for the night. So no video tonight, but we should have some test driving videos tomorrow. We’re pleased with some of the modification decision we made and they seem to be working out so far. We had to do some minor adjustments to fix a few things, like a broken bearing in a gearbox, but other than that it looks good.
Shooter development continued for another day. We moved to two BAG motors and played with a lot of wheel combinations. We don’t think the type of Banebots wheels do that much to distance so we are planning to use the blue ones, hardest of the 3 types, so that they last longer.
We’re still working on our collection system and our feeder mechanism to move discs into the shooter wheels. These will both be critical to the success of our design.
CADing is now our main priority as we need to get drawings to our sponsors, sooner rather than later. Practice time is going to be as important this year as ever and we also want to spend a lot of time on our autonomous development as well.
Here is another shooter prototype video to hold people over.

- Spectrum

"It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed." - Napoleon Hill

January 18, 2013

Day 13: Drive Train Testing

We’re close to two weeks in and we finally have a moving drive train (with test electronics).  We’re using the VEXpro Drive in a Day Chassis. So far we really like this version of a kit chassis. It’s customizable and very well suited for the new size requirements. It was specially designed for Ultimate Ascent and we think it’s going to play the game very nicely.

The current setup is as follows: (This may change as we tweak things)

• VEXpro Chassis Kit
• 8 x VersaWheels
• 2 x VEXpro Single Speed Single Reduction 1:5.33 gearboxes
• 4 x CIM Motors (We will be adding #5 and #6 later)
• 2 x 15 tooth 1/2" hex sprockets
• 8 x 26 tooth VEXpro plate sprockets
• #35 Chain
• 1/2" Tube Axle Stock
• Nylon rollers for chain tensioners (we will be moving to delrin once the tubes come in)
• Bolts and Bearings

The chain is a single loop so that we can compress our wheel wells down to only 2" in width. This gives us back some of the room in the interior of our robot that we lost with the new size restrictions. The electronics board is just a test panel that we have in the shop. The real electronics will be crammed in the chassis and around all the mechanisms. We're trying to find ways to make this robot easier to work on because it's going to be cramped.

We have noticed its very loud but we think a lot of that is due to the tensioners that we are using.

Here's a short clip of our brief test drive.

We still don't have all the features for the systems that go on top of the chassis, but we are getting closer.

- Spectrum

“You'll never get ahead of anyone as long as you try to get even with him.” -  Lou Holtz

January 19, 2013

Day 14: Two weeks down four to go

Our current plan is to build a (mostly) functional prototype robot before we send off parts to the laser cutter. So many of the pieces have a lot of features jammed into them that we will need to work with them physically before we are confident enough to have them laser cut.
The VEXpro drive train is now riveted with 1/4“ steel rivets. We want to be extra sure our chassis won’t come apart. Here are a lot of pictures of our modifications to the chassis. We now have a full 15.5 inches between the wheel wells because we moved to a single loop of chain and the versawheels. We will be mounting CIMs #5 and #6 in the future.

The other systems are coming along, although a bit slowly. We're hoping to have something to mount on top of this in the near future.
- Spectrum
"I am looking for a lot of men who have an infinite capacity to not know what can’t be done." - Henry Ford

January 20, 2013

Day 15: Houston Mini Maker Faire

We took the day off from constructing our 2013 robot to take Violet out to the Houston Mini Maker Faire. It was a fun event that drew a lot interest. We were able to show FRC and VEX to over 2,500 people. It was also the first time we were able to distribute our new Elementary Engineering activity book that we designed for small children.

- Spectrum

“The things you do for yourself are gone when you are gone, but the things you do for others remain as your legacy.” - Kalu Ndukwe Kalu

January 20, 2013

Versaplanetary 1:1 Conversion

1/23/13 Edit: VEX has released the Versaplanetary User Manual please look over this before following these instructions.
We have received a lot of questions about our 1:1 Versaplanetary conversion. It really is a simple process, but we thought we would post some pictures to help teams out.
Disclaimer: We don’t work with and are not sponsored by VEX Robotics. None of this should be taken as official recommendations by VEX or Innovation FIRST Inc. So far this has worked for us; your mileage may vary.
1. Purchase at Versaplanetary 10:1 gearbox (this does work with the other models, please see this post by Paul Copioli for more information).

(Note: A normal 10:1 has a 1/2" Hex output shaft.  We are currently using it on our 3:1 so it's pictured with the 8mm output shaft; they work the same)

2. Unscrew the two 10-32 screws from the front of the gearbox and remove the output stage and the middle stage with the gears.

Break down of a planetary Gearbox.

Sun Gear with male spline on the back

Ring Gear

Planet Gear

Planet Carrier

 3. Note the splines on the output shaft and on the ring gear are the same.

4. The motor input stage has a female spline that matches the output spline and the sun gear.

5. Put away all the middle stage gears. You don't need them for this, but keep it around because you now have a 10:1 stage to add to other Versaplanetary Gearboxes to make them a bigger reduction.
6. Mount the input stage to the output stage. Make sure the small little pins are aligned so all the bolts will align.

7. Now you have a 1:1 reduction. Pictured is a 1:1 reduction with a BB550 motor, so that the output shaft's free speed would be around 19,000RPM.

For instructions on mounting motors to the gearboxes please go to the VEXpro quick start guide.

- Spectrum

"Ideas come from everything” - Alfred Hitchcock

January 21, 2013

Day 16

Into week three and we’re charging ahead.

We briefly tried prototyping a floor pickup mechanism that shot the discs up a ramp to the top of a tall robot. We think the idea has merit but we would need to do a lot more prototyping before it's ready for the field. If any other teams want to take the idea and run with it, feel free. We think it would be a great way to have a really fast pickup mechanism.

This morning we went and picked up a piece of official FIRST carpet from our friends the Discobots. They got it after the 2011 Lone Star Regional and haven't been using all of it so they gave us half. It was quite the adventure getting it to the third floor of the school but we managed.

Over the next week and half we're hoping to have finished CAD models of the robot to send to the laser cutter. We're trying to prototype all of our system completely before make the runs on the CNC machine. That way, we can be more confident about our designs and specifications and make fewer changes to the laser cut pieces.

We did a weight estimate and it looks like we are going to be way underweight with our current systems (< 100lbs). If we get everything done well, we may be going for a 30 point climb before our second event. We are saving room at the back of our robot and with around 20lbs to play with we should be able to come up with something. These smaller chassis dimensions make your whole robot lighter, plus VEXpro aluminum shafts, gears, and sprockets help as well.

- Spectrum

"There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure." - Colin Powell

January 22, 2013

Day 17: Starting to CAD

Nothing spectacular to show yet. We still have some things we haven't published on the blog that are integral to our strategy this year. Hopefully, in the next few weeks we will know for sure that they all work and we can publish them.

We've started the CADing process. Here is the start of a simple belly pan for the robot. It's going to get lots of holes for wires and electronics mounting.
We're working on the CAD for our shooter, collector, and other systems as well.
One of the items we prototyped today were wings that fold out from the side of the robot under the bumpers to push frisbees towards our collector. That way if we hit a disc with any part of the front of our robot, it will hopefully be collected by our intake. The goal right now is for these to be spring actuated and deploy as soon as we move during autonomous mode.
We're also working on a pop up version of the "Can Opener" Hanging device. That way we can still drive under the pyramid during most of the match and then pop it up right before the end and hang quickly for 10 points.
- Spectrum
"Great discoveries and improvements invariably involve the cooperation of many minds. I may be given credit for having blazed the trail, but when I look at the subsequent developments I feel the credit is due to others rather than to myself." - Alexander Graham Bell

January 23, 2013

Day 18: Details

Lately, most of the work has been in CAD, but we are still working on a few systems and details that aren't finished being prototyped yet.

Here is a picture of the prototype wings that we are planning to have fold out from under our bumpers to make sure discs only go under our robot and not under our wheels. We're still looking for an elegant way to do this, but we're confident we can find one in the next few days.

We have to get a lot done over the next three days because this weekend we won't have much time for the robot. On Saturday we are volunteering at the HoustonISD VEX League and on Sunday we are supporting the 2nd day of the Houston Kit Bot Build Days. Both events are important to the Houston robotics community but they also take time out of our build schedule. We just have to work harder during the time we do spend in the lab.

- Spectrum

“The great thing about working hard is that you can always work harder, the great thing about being good is that you can always be better.” -- John V-Neun

January 24, 2013

Day 19

We're still working on getting all our systems designed in CAD. We hadn't thought through several of them till today.

Here is the current CAD version of our "Can Opener" Hanging Device. This will see lots of changes before it ever even gets to the laser, but it's a descent start.

The flippers from yesterday are now mouse trap powered. This actually works much better than the surgical tubing.

We're not sure when we'll be able to start sending parts to the laser, but we're excited about how much prototyping we have been able to do. We think this will lead to a better final product.

- Spectrum

“The spirit, the will to win and the will to excel – these are the things that endure and these are the qualities that are so much more important than any of the events that occasion them.” - Vince Lombardi

January 25, 2013

Day 20: 4700+ Views

Week three seems to be slipping away faster than the previous two. CADing takes a lot of time and we have to get parts laser cut very soon. We’ve been trying to work out as many of the details as we can so we won’t have to make many radical changes after they are cut. The first parts should be going out tomorrow.
Today was mostly spent on batteries. We’re going over all our old connections and soldering them and making the wire runs shorter. If you want to learn a lot about FRC electrical systems watch this video presentation by Al Skierkiewicz (Chief Robot Inspector). He goes over some of the techniques he has used on Wildstang (FRC#111) robots over the years, including three World Championship winning robots.
We’re extremely pleased to have helped so many people during their prototyping. The shooter video has over 4,700 views. We have talked to teams from all around the FRC community (Minnesota, Arizona, Michigan, Israel, etc.) who are testing similar systems to the one we published 10 days ago, and they are having very good results. We are still improving our own implementation of the shooter, but we’re excited to see so many others having success as well. Thank you all for the kind words and all the questions; they have helped us learn a lot about the system. Ideally, with smaller shooter packages teams can use the space it opens up to do some other cool things with their robots.
- Spectrum
“Cooperation is the thorough conviction that nobody can get there unless everybody gets there.” ~Virginia Burden

January 25, 2013

Versaplanetary CIM/MiniCIM Mounting

Note: For more on this setup go to this CD thread (starts at about post #61). There might be ways to cut off less of the CIM shaft and still only use parts from a Versaplanetary gearbox.
It looks like the VEXpro Versaplanetary has a few more tricks up its sleeve. We didn’t expect to find this, but it is a pretty simple conversion to install a CIM or a MiniCIM to the Versaplanetary gearboxes. JVN posted a small note that gave us the idea.

Disclaimer: These are not official directions, your mileage may vary. We haven't even put this under load yet, but it does spin up when you put power to the motor.

 Here is the complete assembly.

The Motor shaft has to be cut to just over a 1/4 inch. This leaves a very small amount of key, but it does seem to work. You could probably make a custom mount plate or double up the motor mounting plate to get slightly more key profile, but we were trying to do this with just one Versaplanetary kit.

 We have to cut a very small 2mm key to make this work.

The Versaplanetary motor mounting plate pilots the CIM motor face perfectly (THANK YOU VEX).

The input stage of the Versaplanetary has an 8mm hole with a 2mm keyway already to go (THANK YOU VEX). The hole is normally where the C-collar for the motor would go.
Assemble the motor into the gearbox input stage.
Using the 7/8 inch 8-32 screw mount the output stage of the gearbox to the CIM. You have to have the input stage off to get the bolt into the motor.

Remember to tighten the setscrew on the input stage.

Then mount the output shaft to the gearbox. Everything just sort of works (THANK YOU VEX).

There are probably better ways to do this, but this setup uses parts available solely from a single Versaplanetary kit and a small piece of 2mm keyway.

January 25, 2013

Day 21

That is the current CAD that we are finished with so far. All the electronic mounts have been sent to Solarcraft.

The rest of the robot is coming along; we're still working out the details of our strategy implementation and seeing how well this is going to work for us.

This weekend we will be volunteering around Houston, so no new developments on the robot. During week 4 we should be able to reveal the rest of the robot; some parts won't be 100% and will still need iterations but we will have a full CAD model to show.

- Spectrum

"It's kind of fun to do the impossible." - Walt Disney

January 27, 2013

HISD VEX League Day 2

Spectrum was on hand to help run the 2nd day of the HoustonISD VEX Robotics League. It’s been great working with so many new robotics teams this year. We were the sole volunteer crew doing everything from reffing and queuing to running the scoring table and doing field reset. This is our 6th VEX tournament of the year, the last one will be March 2nd.

- Spectrum

"The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him his own." - Benjamin Disraeli

January 28, 2013

Houston kit bot build day 2 & TX\RX Labs

Today we were on hand at the 2nd kit bot build day of the Ultimate Ascent season. We had a smaller turn out than expected, but we're opening our lab next weekend if teams are interested in more help.

After we wrapped up there, several of us went to TX\RX Labs to talk with them about helping us machine a few of the pieces for our robot. They originally tried to use their laser cutter, but instead will be cutting the parts on a CNC router table. TX\RX Labs is willing to help any Houston area team with their machining needs. We can't thank them enough for being so generous. 

- Spectrum

“There are three ways to ultimate success: The first way is to be kind. The second way is to be kind. The third way is to be kind.” - Fred Rogers

January 29, 2013

Day 24: Batteries are finished

CAD is still progressing, and the first of the machined parts are being made at TX\RX Labs and Solarcraft Inc. We did a few cuts for the extrusion that will make up part of our superstructure, but mostly we’re waiting on the machined pieces to get back.
We finished up our battery maintenance today.
We crimped and soldered every connection to all our batteries. We also labeled them with color names because we can. We shortened all our battery leads so we have less resistance in our electrical system. With a 6 CIM drive we want to keep all the power we can.

We need to find a new purple tape that works better than the duct tape. The duct tape leaves a residue. If anyone knows a good source for violet gaffers tape let us know.

We also had a CBA III donated to us by West Mountain Radio. This lets you easily analyze your batteries to see how they are performing. We're going to tack all of our batteries to better identify when they need to cycled out of competition use.

- Spectrum

“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.” - Dr. Seuss

January 30, 2013

Day 25: Slowing Down

We’re waiting on parts and CADing, so there wasn’t that much going on today. We are still trying to improve our stacking mechanism that will allow us to stack and unstack 4 discs easily. This is going to be very critical to our overall design.
The Chairman’s team is very close to having a complete essay. We still have a lot of work to do on the presentation and the video.
Super Bowl Bumper Build
Spectrum will be hosting a Houston Area Bumper Build this Sunday. We should have several teams on hand to build their bumpers for the season. Send us an email if your team is interested in coming. team@spectrum3847.org
- Spectrum
“You can always amend a big plan, but you can never expand a little one. I don’t believe in little plans. I believe in plans big enough to meet a situation which we can’t possibly foresee now.”
Harry S. Truman

January 31, 2013

Day 26: Still Slow

With our parts delayed at the machine shops, we had another slow day. It looks like we won’t be shooting discs with our practice bot till possibly week 6. We’re behind schedule and it’s starting to get a little scary. We’re going to be cutting it close this year. Parts will be in tomorrow so we should be able to make solid progress on the practice bot tomorrow and Friday.
We started talking about our scouting team for competition that should be in place well before the events this year.
We’ll have rookie team #4689 here from Royal High School to work out some programming issues and then this weekend will have 5 teams here for our Super Bowl Bumper Build. It’s going to be fun having that many teams working at the same time, like a mini regional practice day.
Houston area teams, don’t forget we are hosting the area scrimmage this year, Feb 16th, 17th, and 18th, in our gym. We’re looking for naming suggestions as “the Houston Pre-Bag Scrimmage” is really boring. If you have field elements you are willing to donate to the event, please let us know.
- Spectrum
“Are you bored with life? Then throw yourself into some work you believe in with all your heart, live for it, die for it, and you will find happiness that you had thought could never be yours.” - Dale Carnegie

February 1, 2013

Day 27: Last year we had a working robot now

Last year at this time we had a working (driving and shooting) robot.  This year we don’t even have a superstructure on top of our robot.
We did get our parts back from the CNC router at TX\RX Labs.

They are the white pieces in the picture. The rest of what this goes on should be revealed in the next few days, once the first parts come back from the sheet metal shop.

We are working on designing more of our parts to be less sheet metal since our turnaround times are a lot slower than we expected.

We did have Team 4689 from Royal High School here today to talk about programming challenges. We ended up moving them to Java because they had students that sort of knew Java already and were struggling to learn LabVIEW. It's nice that teams have options so they can find something that works for them. They'll be back this Sunday for the Super Bowl Bumper Build.

- Spectrum
"If it’s a good idea and it gets you excited, try it, and if it bursts into flames, that’s going to be exciting too. People always ask, ‘What is your greatest failure?’ I always have the same answer—We’re working on it right now, it’s gonna be awesome!" - JIM COUDAL

February 2, 2013

Day 28: Picking up the Pace

All our meetings are long, but today’s was extra long, leading into an even longer weekend.
We received our first run of sheet metal form Solarcraft Inc. They have been fantastic about working with us and helping in any way that they can.

We have pieces for the both the real robot and our practice robot + a couple spaces in case we damage something.

With the pieces we received we were able to wire most of the practice robot's drive train. We still need to mount the cRIO and run PWM cables before we can start driving it but that should be taken care of tomorrow afternoon.

We also started putting together a lexan version of our shooter since we just sent the sheet metal parts off to be made and we aren't sure when we will get them back.

Tomorrow we should have a few videos to post and show off more of our robot.

- Spectrum

"Failures are the stepping stones to success. Without failure, we’ll never learn how to succeed. So try to fail, instead of trying to avoid failure through fear." - Leo Babauta

February 3, 2013

Day 29: Actually able to test things

We were able to test the drive train and other key pieces of our robot. They aren’t perfect, but we can make them better.
Not much of an update tonight because we’ll have video in tomorrow’s update.
Tomorrow is our Super Bowl Bumper Build. We’re really excited to have 5 teams joining us at our school to get our robots ready for competition.
- Spectrum
“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.” - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

February 4, 2013

Day 30: Bumper Build + Prototype Videos

Bumper Build
Our 1st annual Super Bowl Bumper Build was very successful. We had 5 teams in attendance (4155, 4280, 4346, 4639, and 4689). It was nice to get to work with so many awesome teams on getting our robots competition ready. We’re looking forward to hosting one of these again next year. Thank you to FRC #4280 (N-gen from Sam Houston MSTC) for providing bumper fabric and pizza to all the teams.

Prototypes
We have been more hush hush this year about our design than last. We have shared a few things, but the actual strategy hasn’t been publicly revealed until now. Watch the video for our prototype tests. You should be able to get an idea of what we are doing.

Here is a recent CAD Model of the robot. It's not complete by any means. A lot of things have and will be changing, but we think we are going down a pretty solid path right now.

The lift raises and lowers the "The Box" (shooter/collector) from the floor to 76+" from the ground. We're planning on shooting from as close to the goals as we can be. The lift is not for climbing (yet) we will have a 10 point "Can Opener" hang somewhere on the robot to begin with.

We're hoping to get the sheet metal shooter parts back early this week. From there it's actual driving floor pickup and raised shots.

We have two weeks till bag day and a little over a month till our first competition (Lone Star 4/7-4/9).

- Spectrum

"As you make a prototype, assume you are right and everyone else is wrong. When you share your prototype, assume you are wrong and everyone else is right." - Diego Rodriguez

February 5, 2013

Day 31

We’re still testing the systems. The lift is a little wobbly going up and we’re also still trying to dial in the right amount of reduction we need on the lift motor.
We got in a couple electronic solenoids from Allied Electronics today that we may be using for pin breaks in our gearboxes and/or to release a few spring based mechanisms like our hanging device.
We did some more shooter testing; the collector works fine with upside down Frisbees, but the current shape of our paddle doesn’t like pushing them into the shooter. We’re confident that most of the discs will be face up during the match. It’s the last 30 seconds we’re worried about, but we are confident we can find a shape that works for both disc orientations.
- Spectrum
“It is in the compelling zest of high adventure and of victory, and in creative action, that man finds his supreme joys.” - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

February 6, 2013

Day 32

Only two weeks left till we stop building. This is going to be a close one for us. We have a mostly working practice robot, but we are still waiting on sheet metal to make it complete. Our goal is to have the real robot parts powder coated by the middle of next week and then it’s a mad dash to the finish line before bag day.
For more discussion about the collector/shooter and lift video from Sunday night look at this CD thread.
We worked on improving the stability of the lift today. There are still some problems but lots of solutions as well.
The collector/shooter is our most critical piece that we will be getting back from Solarcraft Inc. this week.
We still don’t have an elegant design for the 10 point hang yet. We understand the concept and requirements, we just have to package it nicely into our robot.
- Spectrum
“The best way to honor someone who has said something smart and useful is to say something back that is smart and useful. The other way to honor them is to go do something with what you learned.
Good listeners get what they deserve–better speakers.” - Seth Godin

February 7, 2013

Day 33: Last two week

We’re down to the last two weeks of the build season. We still have lot of problems to solve, but that’s what makes this game so much fun.
We’re working on the outer pieces of the robot that will mount the 10 point hang device.
We are replacing the lift chain guides with a better system which should reduce some of the load on the lift.
We don’t have the shooter parts back from the shop yet, so we are at bit of a stand still on this until we get them. We’re also planning to powder coat the competition robot if we can get it done in time.
We’re hosting the Houston Week 0 Practice at our school this year. For more information head over to CD.
- Spectrum
“The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out; the brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. The brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They are there to stop the other people!” - Randy Paush

February 7, 2013

Day 34: Sheet Metal Parts Part 2

We received our 2nd run of sheet metal from Solarcraft Inc. today. They have been fantastic about making parts for us. This included our belly pan, shooter box, and disc guides, so we don’t run over too many.
Here’s a photo of all three versions of the shooter/collector that we have made this season.
We started with hardboard which is very easy to cut and drill. We then moved to a version made of thin sheet metal in house with brackets to hold it together since we don’t have a break. The Lexan and wood version in the back was our final prototype that was build to the sheet metal spec out of 1/16“ Lexan and the wood was there to make it stiff. The version in the front is what came back from Solarcraft today and will actually be on our robot.

We fixed several issues with the lift and it's running much nicer now. We also finished mounting our upper frame supports that will support our 10 point hang.
We're dropping off parts to be powder coated tomorrow. The plan is to get them back early next week so we can put together our competition robot.
- Spectrum
"It always seems impossible until its done."  - Nelson Mandela

February 9, 2013

Day 35: Iterating

We had to disassemble most of the robot today to be able iterate several of the systems. The lift came off so we could double the spring force helping it extend. The electrical belly pan was removed so we could swap in the new sheet metal version. We also put the first pieces of a hanging device on the robot. 

By the end of the day tomorrow we should have all the pieces put back to gather so we can do some full systems tests. 

We dropped off most of the pieces for the competition robot to be powder coated today at Royalty Metal Finishing Inc. We should have them back Monday morning, so we can assemble the competition robot during the last week of the season.

- Spectrum
“It's hard to beat a person who never gives up.” ― Babe Ruth

February 10, 2013

Day 36: Hanging

We were able to put on the pop-up can opener hanging device today. It's still in prototype form but we managed to get directly over the center of gravity on the first try. I guess the CADed weights are right after all.

We did some more changes to the lift to get it more stable and faster top to bottom. We still aren't finished working all the bugs out, but we're getting closer. Currently, it actually likes going up way more than going down. This was the opposite problem from yesterday.

The shooter/collector is collecting well; we still will have some more changes once we get on the actual robot. 

Drive train was having an issue where one side would stall while going very slowly in reverse. We think we found the cause and should have a solution implemented tomorrow.

This is our first year doing the prototype/practice robot 1st. We'll only have 8 days to put together our competition robot. We have most of the parts made and they should be back from powder coating on Monday.

Don't forget to come to our Week 0 Practice if you are going to be in the Houston area next weekend. 

- Spectrum

“I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.” - Albert Einstein

February 11, 2013

Day 37

Today was spent mostly making pieces for our competition robot. We also had to swap out some rollers on our drive train. We’re still having a few lift issues and testing more proposed solutions. It works - it just does not work as well as we would like right now. The shooter/collector is collecting much better and the paddle is shooting out upside down and right side up discs.
We should have the parts back and powder coated tomorrow so we can finally begin assembly of the competition robot.
We also have drafts of our Chairman’s essay, executive summary, and presentation put together. We still have to edit them, but they are very close to complete.
- Spectrum
“Passion won’t protect you against setbacks, but it will ensure that no failure is ever final.” - Bill Strickland

February 12, 2013

Day 38: More Problems, More Solutions

All our powder coated parts came back today. That was a huge positive. We have one week to get the robot together.

Our normal lab space was being used for parent-teacher conferences, so we moved up to our practice field area for a few hours. We found a major problem with our intake system that we had to fix. The discs were hitting the bottom of the belly pan when they were trying to enter the collector because it lifts them up a wedge.

This called for another complete disassembly of this robot. We had to modify the belly pan heavily and raise it one inch to allow for disc clearance. This also meant we had to completely rerun the wires as well.

It's back together tonight; we will test collection again tomorrow.
- Spectrum
"The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing." - Henry Ford

February 13, 2013

Day 39: Floor Collection Test

Things are looking up again. The solution from yesterday was tested today and it worked perfectly.
Here’s a video of our floor collection tests.

We made some improvements to the lift. Moving to #25 chain instead of #35 seems to make it run smoother. We're getting some twisting in the cross bars so we may have to find a better way to reinforce them or replace them with a stronger shape. We're limited on space which is why they were made so small to begin with.
The competition robot is still getting pieces and parts made for it and we should be able to start final assembly in the next few days.
Motor Break Down for this year

• 6 CIMs on the drive train
• 2 BAG motors on the shooter/collector wheels
• 1 BAG motor for tilting the shooter
• 1 MiniCIM for the Lift
• 1 VEX 393 for the indexer (Thing that pushes the discs back into the shooter)

- Spectrum
"I never wear a watch, because I always know it's now -- and now is when you should do it." - Steve Mariucci

February 14, 2013

Day 40: Only 6 remain

We hadn’t done much testing of the tilt mechanism until today. It still needs work but it’s at least closer than it was yesterday.

We'll have surgical tubing helping it balanc,e but the 100:1 versaplanetary and BAG motor are working perfectly for this application. We would like to thank FRC#3310 Black Hawk Robotics for making us the 1/2" hex shaft coupler that allows the tilting mechanism to be so simple.
The robot is actually on our scale in that video. As shown we are only 85lbs, we still have about 10-15lbs to add but we're still going to be easily 20lbs underweight.
Here is a view of the robot with the lift fully extended and the shooter box tilted up. This is about our ideal shooting position.

We're working on replacing all of our lift cross bars because the intial sheet metal version were twisting too much. We have 1.5"x1" aluminum rectangular extrusion that will be replacing them tomorrow to make them more rigid.

The competition robot begins assembly tomorrow. We should have him running by Monday for our open house.

- Spectrum

"It was character that got us out of bed, commitment that moved us into action, and discipline that enabled us to follow through." - Zig Ziglar

February 15, 2013

Day 41: Crunch Time

Tomorrow starts are last weekend of  build session. We’ll be building pretty much strait through till bag day to get our competition robot ready to be bagged.

That’s the state of the practice robot right now with the new lift crossbars installed and the box mounted to the lift. It’s going up much straighter now, but we do have an issue with chain tension on the lift that we’ll need to fix. Every gap on this robot is so close this year. We have parts that miss intersecting by an 1/8 or 1/16 of an inch. So many of our systems are having to be combined and mounted together because of the size restraints.
- Spectrum
“Facing it, always facing it, that’s the way to get through. Face it.” - Joseph Conrad

February 16, 2013

Day 42: Long Long Weekend

We’ll be putting in lots of hours over the next the weekend and it started today. A lot of us were here till 2am trying to get the practice bot up and ready to drive by tomorrow. It still has a few problems, but overall it looks like it will be driving and scoring frisbees sometime tomorrow. The competition robot is still just a pile of parts that needs to be assembled.
We have our gym setup for teams to use tomorrow for the Houston Week 0 practice session. We have about 10 teams signed up to come over the next three days.
More pictures and videos as the scrimmage happens tomorrow.
- Spectrum
“Be curious. Read widely. Try new things. What people call intelligence just boils down to curiosity.” - Aaron Swartz

February 17, 2013

Day 43: First Test Shot

We didn't get much driving in today at the Week 0, due to some technical problems we were trying to fix. However we did get the practice robot ready enough to take a few test shots. This is video of the first shot we have taken with the robot nearly complete. This was completely driven from 54ft away and the robot floor collected the disc that it shot.

We had 4 teams at the Week 0 event today. 2587 the Discobots have been helping us run things. 2882, 4589, and 2585 were also here. We are expecting a few more teams as well tomorrow. We have nice goals made by the Discobots and we have a welded pyramid. Any teams in the area welcome to stop by.

- Spectrum

"A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life depend on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving." - Albert Einstein

February 18, 2013

Day 44: Two Days, Two Robots?

18 Hour days and we still have a lot to got on our competition robot.  The competition robot will be wired tomorrow and it will takes it first shoots just hours away from being sealed up on Tuesday night. The practice robot is shooting well, but we need to build in some hard stops for the shooting position. Our collection is super fast which should mean we won't have to make any trips to the feeding station.
Chairman's Essay and Executive Summary are complete. We'll be designing our pictures over the next few days. Our business plan has been updated to include events and changes from this build season. We have drafts of our other award packets prepared and will be editing over the next few weeks.
Good Luck everyone on your last two days of build.
- Spectrum
“Fear will try to stop you. Doubts will try to stop you. You’ll shy away from doing great things, from going on new adventures, from creating something new and putting it out in the world, because of self-doubt and fear. It will happen in the recesses of your mind, where you don’t even know it’s happening. Become aware of these doubts and fears. Shine some light on them. Beat them with a thousand tiny cuts. Do it anyway, because they are wrong.” - Leo Babauta

February 19, 2013

Day 45: Spectrum Showcase

Today was our open house, Spectrum Showcase, for parents and friends to come see the robot that we spent six weeks building. It was fantastic event.

We were building/troubleshooting at show time so some of the parents had the chance to see the team work together to do some problem solving and building on the fly. The first ever power up was at 6:10 for an event that was supposed to start at 6pm. We found a bad PWM cable and a new problem with the Victor 888s that we had to solve. We also had to do a very fast Jaguar swap. All that was happening while The Box was being mounted on the lift. We still have some problems to work, but for a first test Gamma Ray performed well. The drive train is solid and the lift is working well. Collection is still our best system, any disc we drive into gets sucked up into The Box. The lift is working far better now after all the tweaks. We have to move on to small changes on the shooter to make firing faster and more reliable.

We have 2+ weeks with the practice robot to get the wrinkles ironed out before Lone Star on March 7th.

We also want to thank all the teams that came to our Week 0 practice. 57, 441, 2585, 2882, 3335, and 4589. You all were awesome and we can't wait to see on the field at Lone Star. We would especially like to thank 2587, the Discobots, for co-hosting the event with us.

- Spectrum

"Working together works." - Dr. Rob Gilbert

February 20, 2013

BAG DAY

We finished up the official build season today by fixing our bottom hard stop for our shooter tilt and getting in some driver practice. Our drive train is performing very nicely and won’t need too many tweaks. Our collection system is still super fast. The lift seems to be under control now and faster than it was before. Our disc feeder into the shooter is working a little better, but it still misses some discs so we’ll need to keep tuning that over the next weeks.
We have 14 days till Lone Star and a lot of work to do.
Oh yeah, and the real robot did mostly get in the bag (minus the shooter box and a few other parts we will be bringing in with us).

- Spectrum
"Stay hungry. Stay foolish." - Steve Jobs

February 22, 2013

Post Build Day 2

Yesterday was our day off. The only official day off of the entire competition season. There will be a few more, but that is the only one known about ahead of time.
Chairman’s Submission
We posted our Chaimrna’s Submission on Tuesday, but we didn’t link to in the blog.
3847’s Chairman’s Award Submission for 2013 we’ll be entering at Lone Star this year since it’s our first regional. We had a large group of team members working very hard to complete every piece of it and we’re very proud of what they put together. Also attached is our updated business plan which will be judged for the first time this year as we didn’t have one last season.
Practice Robot
We’re getting the practice robot back up and running. We found some build errors with he drive train on the practice robot that we are correcting and we are upgrading it’s cable carrier system for the lift. The shooter/collector box is still getting improved. We are trying different paddle systems to avoid the slight issue we are having with discs not always shooting on the first try.
We have exactly two weeks of driver practice and we are going to need all of it to be competitive at Lone Star. The field is stacked with fantastic teams that will be bringing great machines to the competition. Our friends down in Clear Lake (118) released their robot today and we have to say it’s something very special. https://www.chiefdelphi.com/t/the-robonauts-118-2013-video/127670
- Spectrum
“You have no control over what the other guy does. You only have control over what you do.” -A J Kitt

February 28, 2013

Post Build Day 8

The posts will be less frequent now that build season is over but don’t think that means we haven’t been working. We have been working every day to improve our shooting and doing driving practice. We are also still developing our hanger. We know how it works; we don’t have a graceful implementation that will let us go under the pyramid and still hang for 10. We’ll have something made up for Lone Star but it’ll probably change throughout the season.
A couple things that have happened recently.

1. We were selected to receive a grant from National Instruments to support our team. We’re very happy to have the support of such an awesome organization that supports FIRST in so many ways.
   2. Our mentor Allen Gregory was on Stafford TV for our role at the Houston Mini Maker Faire. You can watch the clip here.
   

This weekend we are very busy.
1. Ultimate Ascent starts tomorrow there are events around the country and one in Lubbock. Many of our friends (3310, 1296, 2848, 2468, 16, etc.) will be competing there. We're very excited to see the game played for the first time and we wish all the teams competing this weekend the best of luck. We'll be watching webcasts and checking results from all the events.
2. Tomorrow we will be at the Houston Society of Materials Engineers conference spreading FIRST to as many people as we can. Our plan is to invite all of these engineers back to George R. Brown next week for the Lone Star Regional.
3. Saturday we are running the last leg of the Houston ISD VEX Robotics League. We'll finally crown a champion. We'll have a lot of students on hand volunteering as always. We ref, MC, score keep, queue, etc, pretty much all of it is handled by Spectrum students.
4. Preparations for Lone Star. We are finalizing our Chairman's presentation and video, working on the practice bot and getting driver practice (floor collection is amazingly fast). We are putting together our gift bags for the other teams. We are organizing tools and preparing the pit stuff, getting our spirit items together, and putting together our scouting system. There is a lot going on and not much time to finish it.
- Spectrum
"Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted. And experience is often the most valuable thing you have to offer." - Randy Pausch

April 23, 2013

Spectrum Off-Season Challenge Game

We are going to be releasing an off-season FRC game for the entire to community to use. The goal of this game is for teams to have something to use for brainstorming sessions and to practice prototyping mechanisms.

We are going to have a full FRC style game manual and CAD of the field. The game is designed to be easy to prototype with the field and game elements easy to build and easy to source.

We will be unveiling the game the week after Championship, but for now here is a hint.

- Spectrum

“For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.” - Aristotle

April 30, 2013

2013.5 Mock FRC Game: PIPEFALL

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The Full Manual and CAD of the field can be found on our website.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nebyK4x-F78U2hytG5Sz5UB87g8TguuD/view?usp=sharing
Pipefall is a robotics game developed by Spectrum FRC#3847. Many of the rules are copied, paraphrased, or referenced from the 2011, 2012, & 2013 FIRST Robotics Competition Game Manuals. This game is meant to simulate a real FRC game and prepare teams for future FRC games. This game is designed to be used as a tool for brainstorming simulations or building off season prototype robots. We believe that the best way to become better at something is to do it many times. Having a mock game for teams to design and build robots for will make teams stronger in future years. We are not planning to hold any competitions for this game or anything like that. However we would like to see other teams come up with solutions to the design challenges. This may include just brainstorming ideas, building prototypes for some of the challenges or building full robots for the game.
PIPEFALL is played by two competing alliances on a flat, 27 x 54 ft field. Each alliance consists of three robots. They compete to score as many of their pipes onto the scoring poles as they can. The longer the pipe, the more points the alliance receives. The match ends with robots attempting to elevate on platforms located near the middle and sides of the field. The robots earn points based on how high they elevate. Scoring for the match is summarized below.

PIPE	POINTS
6"	1
12"	2
24"	4
48"	8

Elevation Level	Elevation Height	Points
0	>= 0"	0
1	> 6"	10
2	> 18"	20
3	> 30"	30

- Spectrum

"Plan for what is difficult while it is easy, do what is great while it is small. The difficult things in this world must be done while they are easy, the greatest things in the world must be done while they are still small. For this reason sages never do what is great, and this is why they achieve greatness." - Sun Tzu, Chinese General

June 13, 2013

Summer Programs

Spectrum is keeping busy during the summer months.
This week we worked with the St. Agnes Academy “Be the Change Camp” to teach engineering and robotics to 50+ rising 7th and 8th grade students from around Houston.

We also will have several demonstrations this summer to different groups to get more of the community involved in FIRST, VEX and STEM education. We spoke at the Houston chapter of the ISA (International Automation Society) last week.

Next week we'll start the Spectrum Summer Workshop Series for teams here in Houston that want to learn more about building FRC robots. Check out this Chiefdelphi post for more information and to RSVP.

We are hard at work on our IRI upgrades for Gamma. We have a few other projects we will be announcing this summer as well, so keep an eye out for those.

We hope everyone else is having a productive summer as well.

- Spectrum

"Quality means doing it right when no one is looking."  - Henry Ford

July 8, 2013

How I Work" Blog Series

For the past few weeks we have been working on a new series for our blog. It’s based off the “How I Work” series by lifehacker.com.
We have been asking several of our favorite mentors from other teams how they work. We asked them about their jobs, their teams, their favorite tools, guilty pleasures, and much more. Some of these people are well known by the community others not so much but we think they are all great role models for their teams. This will allow them to be role models for the whole community. Mentors are one of the big reasons why this community is so special and we think this series will allow their stories to influence more people.
Our plan is to publish one article every week and we’re starting today with Scott Rippetoe from Texas Torque #1477.
If you have a mentor that you want to see on “How I Work”, send us an email with their contact information to team@Spectrum3847.org
- Spectrum
“Being a role model is the most powerful form of educating” - John Wooden

July 8, 2013

Scott Rippetoe - This Is How I Work

We’re kicking off our new blog series “How I work” with the head mentor for the 2013 FRC Champions, FRC#1477 Texas Torque. Scott Rippetoe has been involved in FRC for a long time and has been working to build a strong FRC program in Conroe ISD since 2004. He will be celebrating his thirtieth wedding anniversary with his wife, Suzanne, in December. His son, Michael, and daughter Marta, are both currently in college and both alumni of FRC#1477. He is retiring from Conroe ISD, but will continue working with Texas Torque and in the school district coordinating robotics education at all grade levels.

[Responses from May 25, 2013]

Name: Scott Rippetoe

CD Username: srippetoe

Current Gig/Job: Physics and Electronics Teacher
Alma Mater/Degree: Texas A&M University: Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering and Masters of Education in Education Curriculum and Instruction
Current Team(s): FRC Team 1477
Former Team(s): FRC Team 275
Location: The Woodlands, TX
Hobbies: Electronics, Volleyball, Fishing, Mysteries

What inspired you to do what you do? Tell us a story.
Maybe I should tell you why I am not an aerospace engineer. I did not like to work. That is what it felt like when I was a cooperative education student working at LTV Aerospace. I woke up, made a one hour commute to work, returned home exhausted, and fell asleep on the couch. While I spent time on many interesting projects, such as the updating drawings for the S-3A Viking and Multiple Launch Rocket System, coatings for space shuttle tiles, A-7K eject seat testing, and engineering liaison for the B-1 bomber, I did not enjoy what I was doing. It is a little ironic that I am using many of those skills as a mentor for a FIRST Robotics team.

What is your day job, and how’d you get there?
I teach at the Academy of Science and Technology in Conroe ISD, at least for another two weeks. I am retiring after thirty years in the classroom. My career “crisis” happened during my junior year of college. I met with Robert Chilton, my advisor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering, to see what other options were open to me besides continuing in engineering. Because I enjoyed tutoring other students, he suggested I look into teaching. I had enjoyed physics in high school and after meeting with Dr. Robert Beck Clark in the Department of Physics, I decided to become physics and math teacher. He and I would stayed in contact for nearly twenty years. He was always incredibly supportive, not only of my career but of those of many physics teachers in Texas. I spent three years at Taft High School near Corpus Christi, a year in Bryan ISD, four years at Brenham High School, and the last twenty-two at the Academy. Except for the first graduating class, I have taught nearly every student that has gone through the Academy of Science and Technology. I love the program and leaving it is one of the most difficult decisions I have ever made. It did not come without shedding more than a few tears.

What is your favorite story to tell about robotics?
Probably the one I tell the most. One year, my students and I brought our fire-fighting robots and course to Sci:\\Tech, our local science fair and exposition. I had modified one of the robots so it was radio control and had a camera mounted to give the driver a robot’s eye view. A young kid, maybe eleven or twelve years old, spent the day hanging around our booth, asking questions and driving the robot. It was at that demonstration that he decided to apply to the Academy so he could do something cool like robotics. As an Academy junior, he joins Team 1477 and helps us to our first ever win, at the Lone Star Regional. He still works with the team, though now as the programming and media mentor. Rayne was in St. Louis this past April when we won the FRC World Championship along with Team 1241 and Team 610. The best part of all this is that he and I have become good friends. His brother will be a senior next year and co-captain of the team. His mother and father are two of our biggest supporters, helping as mentors, chaperones, and cooks, even loaning a lake house for our end-of-season party. Now everyone should take a moment to wipe that tear from your eye.

What's your favorite robot that you didn't help build?
Every robot built by FRC Team 118, The Robonauts, since I joined Texas Torque in 2007. Back then, we were known as the Northside Roboteers. It is pretty obvious they all share in the amazing tradition that is NASA. My favorite of all time is Ballacuda from 2008. We were putting the finishing touches on our robot, Chewbotta, when 118 released their six-week build video. It was both terrifying and inspiring at the same time. I am glad I get to see Ballacuda whenever we drive down to practice with 118 at their facility.

What apps/software/tools can't you live without? (Work/Robotics/Home)
SolidWorks, MeshCam, Modela Player, DropBox, Goggle Mail, Google Drive, Google Calendar, Google Documents, Google, Microsoft Word and Excel. I am not sure if this is what you mean, but I also find a hot soldering iron and multi-meter useful.

What's your workspace setup like? (Work/Robotics/Home) We build in what we call Texas Torque World Headquarters, a small room that was converted into a research lab for the Academy of Science and Technology. It has a small machine shop and storage room attached, each about the size of a walk-in closet. There are four lab tables along the walls, one for electronics and programming, another for media and CAD, and a third for building on. There is a Roland CNC table mill on the fourth lab table. We keep our practice field elements in the lab and pull them into the hall when we are working. There isn’t enough space for me to list all the other junk we have in the lab.

What do you listen to while you work?

I like to broaden the musical experience of the team. If I get to the computer first, and I usually do, we listen to The Clash, Talking Heads, The Beatles, Cake, Beck, Big Audio Dynamite, Neil Young, George Harrison, Franz Ferdinand, The Psychedelic Furs, They Might Be Giants, and Johnny Cash. If I need the students to leave the lab, the list expands to include much more.

What’s your schedule like during build season?

From Kickoff to Champs, we meet about thirty hours per week as a team. The meetings start at 3:00 PM and usually go to 8:00 PM. Our parents bring us dinner on the nights we stay late, usually Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. We go from 9:00 AM to at least 4:00 PM on Saturdays. Again, the parents make sure we have lunch so we do not have to waste time going somewhere to eat. We try to take off Sundays and/or Mondays.

What everyday thing are you better at than anyone else?
I will put my dry rubbed, mesquite smoked, baby back ribs up against any in Texas. Yes, that is a challenge.

What's the best advice you've ever received?

Actually, it is the advice my students have benefited from for the past thirty years. I doubt Robert Chilton had any idea that his recommendation to consider a career in teaching would impact so many students. 

What is your favorite guilty pleasure?

Ice cream, almost any flavor that involves chocolate, coffee, or peanut butter.

Fill in the blank. I'd love to see Kris Verdeyen (118) or Lucien Junkin (118) answer these same questions.

Anything else you want people to know about you?
I hold the Guinness Record for building the World’s Largest Playable Electric Guitar. It is now in the collection of the National Guitar Museum.

Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh 

July 15, 2013

Mason Markee - This Is How I Work

In this installment of "How I Work", we're featuring a mentor that has been on competitive robotics teams since he was in middle school. Mason Markee of FRC#118, The Robonauts, was a student leader on the team when he was in High School and came back after college to work at NASA, and became one of the adult leaders of this powerhouse FRC team. This past season he was best known for his iconic mustache that led to a few epic pranks at the FRC World Championship. Now let's hear from him on his job at NASA and his dedicated involvement with educational robotics.

[Responses from May 22, 2013 ]

Name: Mason Myles Markee

CD Username: MasonMM 

Current Gig/Job: Robotics Engineer at The NASA Johnson Space Center

Alma Mater/Degree: The University of Texas at Austin; B.S. Mechanical Engineering

Current Team(s): 118, The Robonauts
Former Team(s): 118, The Robonauts
Location: Houston, TX

Hobbies: Travel, Live Music
What inspired you to do what you do?
As a young kid, I was enamored with creating, building, and taking things apart. I went through phases of LEGOs, Erector Sets, wood working, and RC cars. Before I knew what engineering was, I always wanted to grow up to be an inventor. In middle school I joined a BEST Robotics team which primed me to join a FIRST team when I reached high school. I spent four years working on The Robonauts as a student and really found a calling during those years. I captained the team for a year, coached for two seasons, and presented for the Chairman’s Award three times and twice at Championships. I learned the significance of doing things right. I discovered the rewarding value of mentoring younger students and became a true believer in the importance of robotics education and changing our culture. I think it was those experiences that motivated to become a mentor as an adult bigger kid.

What is your day job, and how’d you get there?
I work in a research and development robotics lab as a mechanical engineer, specifically concentrating on actuator design. Our group focuses on developing new systems for space and terrestrial applications. The Space Exploration Vehicle and Robonaut2 are two of our larger projects, though we have many other products. I started as a co-op at JSC my 3rd year of university and had the opportunity to work in mission control. I transferred to the robotics group the next semester. I ended up taking off three semesters from school and working in the robotics group during those times. After graduating, I was given a full time job offer.

What's your favorite robot that you didn't help build?
In 2008, 1114, Simbotics, built a dominate yet simple machine that I have always had a robot crush on. (http://www.simbotics.org/first/2008) Many of the features that I believe are crucial to a successful and competitive robot are influenced by this machine.

• Use a simple and reliable drive train 
• Keep the manipulators protected behind the bumpers 
• Always pick up the game piece with rollers 
• Maximize the autonomous points scored 
• Minimize the time to score a game piece

What apps/software/tools can't you live without? (Work/Robotics/Home)
I do all my CAD work in Pro/E. Of course it has its quirks, but it’s a limitless and powerful tool for designing robots. I’m a big fan of MATLAB and the flexibility it brings for making programs and crunching numbers. I use Excel or Google Spreadsheet for just about everything else in life. It’s perfect for being my go to calculator, making to-do lists, designing gearboxes, planning travel, and setting up a schedule. Most important to me our my Moleskine notebooks that I always carry - I constantly have to notate and doodle to make up for my extreme forgetfulness.
What's your workspace setup like? (Work/Robotics/Home)
At work I’m in an open lab complete with work benches, scattered tools, robot bones, and a dozen other engineers. It’s noisy, chaotic, and where the magic happens. We do design, testing, and buildup of many of our projects in this lab. There’s also a fleet of Syma S107G RC Helicopters on standby for office chopper duals. My desk remains an array of old data sheets, text books, the machinery’s handbook, notes, tools, parts, and safety glasses. 

The “real work” desk
The Robonauts have an incredible work space located in a high bay next to the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory used to store and construct space station mock ups. I spend my time working at any of the open computers, on the work tables, or in the machine shop. It’s a communal environment so personal space and belongings are limited.

Robonauts worksite, mid build season
I try to disconnect when I’m at home. When I need to work, my preferred method is to use my aging 13” Macbook on the couch.
What do you listen to while you work?
Follow me on Spotify and find out. I constantly need a flow of upbeat music through my headphones to keep on track. I jam mostly to indie/alt rock, but go through phases of hip-hop, country, and classic rock.
What’s your schedule like during build season?
Generally, we have full team meetings from 5-9pm on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and meet 12-9pm on Saturdays from Kickoff to Championships. This ramps up a bit before deadlines and big events. I stay late until at least midnight most nights, and work at least two extra days a week. Between my job and robots it was well into February before I had a full day off this season. It’s an intense schedule, but it’s what it takes to maintain our program and bring life to our team’s vision of a quality machine. The results are well worth it as our students experience the dedication it takes to build an incredible product. During the season I float between a lot of different roles including working with my subsystem on chassis design, machining parts, managing robot integration, and working with the chairman’s group.
What everyday thing are you better at than anyone else?
Growing a mustache…. And consequently shaving a mustache off.
What's the best advice you've ever received?
Find your passion. I’m convinced that with determination and hard work you can accomplish most anything, but it takes a passion for what you’re chasing to keep you ever-motivated and enthusiastic. 

Oh! And, in 2011, Team RUSH and Team Pink both recommended going with an 8WD. I thought that was pretty good advice. I’ve been really happy following that tip.
What is your favorite guilty pleasure?

Late night drive thru at Taco Bell.

Fill in the blank. I'd love to see ________ answer these same questions.
Tyler Holtzman from 2056. I’ve got a huge level of respect for the program that guy is running and machines they are building.


“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”  - Leonardo da Vinci

July 16, 2013

There is no Off-Season

A few years ago, going to two or three events with your FRC robot was a long season. We leave tomorrow afternoon for our first event of the four off-season events on our schedule. This is after a full 3 regional season earlier this year. That means seven competitions for our robot and our team. We know of other teams that are playing 8+ events this year. Off-season events are not officially run by FIRST, but most of them use official fields and follow all the official rules. The tournaments are normally smaller (besides IRI) and housed in school gyms. They give a lot more playing times to the teams.
Tomorrow afternoon we will load Gamma and our equipment on a charter bus with 3 other teams, FRC#118 The Robonauts, FRC#624 CRyptonite, and FRC#1477 Texas Torque, heading for Indianapolis. The Indiana Robotics Invitational is taking place this Friday(19th) and Saturday(20th) look for us on the webcast. Here is our tentative schedule.

We’re excited for match #75 where we get to play with two of our friends from Texas 118 and FRC#148 The Robowranglers. We can’t wait to play with and against so many amazing teams that we have looked up to over the last few years.
Gamma is ready for the event.  We’ve upgraded the shooter, made our blocker larger, and made it so our human feed doesn’t ever jam.
Here are some test shots from earlier in this summer.

Immediately after IRI we head to Austin for the 2013 Texas Robot Roundup (TRR). This is going to be one of the best TRRs ever. We have 7 teams who will be at the event fresh out of IRI and a huge selection of other great teams from Texas and even FRC#364 Fusion from Mississippi.

We'll have two more off-season events after these next two weeks: Red Stick Rumble on Aug 30th & 31st in Baton Rouge and finally our local event the Houston Robot Remix on Nov 2nd.

These events allow for a great opportunity for continuous improvement and to train our members to take on new responsibilities. These also have workshops and other ways for teams to grow.

With all these events and everything else we do during the summer and fall there really is no longer an off-season in FRC.

- Spectrum

"I think a lot of our team commitment is a silent understanding that each one of us has poured our life into what we're doing." - Claire Carver-Dias

July 22, 2013

Adam Freeman - This Is How I Work

For our first mentor outside of our home state of Texas, we bring you the coach of one of the most successful FRC teams of all time. Adam Freeman joined the HOT Team (FRC#67) during their Hall of Fame 2005 season. He has been a crucial mentor of the team that has won three World Championships and three Michigan State Championships. Let’s hear from him on some of his favorite designs, what he works on at GM, and how HOT has been so successful for so long.

[Responses from May 31, 2013]

Name: Adam Freeman 

CD Username: Adam Freeman (original, huh?)

Current Gig/Job: General Motors – Technical Problem Solving Supervisor
Alma Mater/Degree: 
BSME – Michigan Technological University, 2002
MSME – University of Michigan, 2010

Current Team(s): Heroes of Tomorrow (HOT) – 67, 2005-Present
Former Team(s): None
Location: Milford, MI
Hobbies: Tons…Robotics, Mountain Biking, Hunting, Motocross, Fast Cars, Sports (anything but golf). 
I’m honored to be selected as one of the first people for this project. I am always interested in learning more about the people in this community. I’m not sure there’s anything that special about me, but we’ll see what happens when I answer the questions.

Some background information that wasn't included in the questions. I started on the HOT team in 2005. From a design perspective I typically work on arms, collectors, and shooters. I have led the design of:- The flip out “pitch fork” on our 2005 robot
- The shooter and ball storage on our 2006 robot
- The arm and roller claw in 2007
- The upper structure and arm in 2008.
- The intake, ball delivery, and shooter in 2009. 
- 2010’s utility shifter that pulled back the kicker and powered the panel that the gas strut hanger was attached too.
- 2011’s second stage of the elevator lift - claw grabber and short arm that hung the tubes. Also worked on part of the mini-bot chassis and developed our window motor shifter.
- Utility arm, gearbox, ball collection, and shifter in 2012.
- 2013’s shooter and shooter rotation mechanism. 
From a competition standpoint: I was assistant coach and lead advanced scout from 2005-2008. I advised our drive coach on upcoming matches (opponents and partners), reviewed previous match strategy and execution, and was responsible for developing our pick list and selecting alliance partners. This job basically consisted of watching every match of a competition and knowing every team better than they know themselves. From a scouting philosophy I usually rely on my “gut” and subjective rating of a team more so than a data driven decision. I used data such as OPR, CCWM, points, and win/loss to bolster my decisions.
In 2009, I was named as drive coach replacing our previous drive coach that retired from GM and the team. I've been privileged enough to keep the drive coach position every year since.
I am very competitive. As a coach, I get nervous before each match…always worrying about what might happen with the robot, drivers, or what we may experience from our partners or the other alliance. As soon as autonomous ends I get very “excitable” out there. I pace, I yell, I point, I jump up and down, I cheer, I tell other teams what to do or don’t do. And, I’m sure I go over the line occasionally (at least a couple times a season).
From a coaching strategy standpoint, I try to keep things as simple as possible. As a 99% offensive team, my strategies usually revolve around figuring out how we score as many points as possible, and I don’t worry much about how to slow down our opponents. Basically, if we are sacrificing our offense to stop theirs, it’s not really a strategy I would choose. Overall I try to figure out the simplest plan for us to maximize our strengths (or the strengths of the best team on our alliance), then fit our other alliance partners in around that, either as secondary offense or as defenders.
On the field coaching is my favorite thing to do in FIRST. Getting the opportunity to work with our most talented students, other team’s most talented students, and all the other great coaches has been incredible. I have been lucky enough to coach with some of the greatest coaches in FIRST; Paul and Mike Copioli (217/3539), Dan Kimura (3393">469), Jim Zondag (33), Amir Abo-Sheer (1717), Raul Olivera, Kyle “Commander” Willick (1114), Tyler Holtzman (2056), Ricky Quinones (148), Jake Fischer (2826), just to name drop a few. I did get the chance to work with Ken Patton and JVN as well, but they have since retired from coaching…
What inspired you to do what you do? 

I moved out to the Milford Proving Grounds (MPG) in 2004. One of my co-workers at the time is the Chief Engineer (Jim Meyer) for the HOT Team. Since I was only recently married and had no kids (at the time), he thought it would be a good idea for me to help him out with the HOT team, starting in 2005. Little did I know what effect it would have on my life, one of the best decisions I have ever made. 

I joined the team not knowing anything about the mission of FIRST. I was just impressed with the robots and the opportunity to design some cool stuff that would actually be made and used on the robot. That first season was interesting. I had no idea what it meant to be a “mentor”. I worked exclusively either by myself or with Jim during the build season. I was almost just like a freshmen student… no clue what to do and figured everyone knew more than I did.
Throughout the season, I observed the students and learned more about them. Getting to know both the students and the mentor during the season, it was just such a great bunch of people to work with. Take the people, combine that with the opportunity to design cool stuff, and add in the competition aspect…I was hooked.
Some times are easier than other, but I still love doing this no matter how hard it gets.
What is your day job, and how’d you get there?

I am a Supervisor for GM’s RedX Problem Solving Team at the MPG. I get to manage 10 of the most elite problem solvers in the world! 

I started at GM directly out of College in 2002. I was lucky enough to hire in to the Air Induction group that I intern with. I was the Design Responsible Engineer for the Air Induction Systems for the 2002 Camaro, 2003 XLR, and 2005 Corvette.

In 2004 I was transferred to the MPG, in to the Product Usage and Measurement Group. This is where I worked with our Chief Engineer. In this group we created the durability tests that GM uses test durability and validate our vehicle designs.
In 2006 I switched groups to the RedX group as a problem solver. This group works on any type of Warranty, Development, Pre-production, Assembly Plant, etc… issue that GM is having an issue with. RedX is a problem solving methodology of root cause convergence based on strategy and contrast. Using this problem solving methodology we work on any part of a vehicle from “Bumper to Bumper”. I worked as a problem solver from 2006 -2009. In 2010 I was promoted to Supervisor. Either as problem solver or supervisor, I have had the opportunity to work on some of GM’s most important issues.
This is a very cool job. We have our own 6 hoist garage, full of tools. We have basically any type of measurement equipment we need (accelerometers, strain gauges, thermo-couples, etc…). We have a lab setup with a high powered microscope….and we have two talented technicians that can basically build any fixture we need. If I had to describe it quickly, we are like a CSI group for automotive issues. We work backwards from a specific customer complaint or forensics of an issue, all the way back to the specific feature or process that caused the issue.
What is your favorite story to tell about robotics?

Hmm… this is a tough one, there are so many to choose from. I don’t really have an inspiring student related story, so I guess I’ll tell the story of what happened after we won the 2010 Championship.

So around 6:45pm the last match ends, scores are announced, confetti falls all over… with our robot and 177’s robot hanging on the tower. We all are celebrating out on the field, just like everyone does each year. We keep hearing that we might have a chance to be on CNN that night, with an interview of the winners.
The on field celebration ends around 7:45pm. During the celebration, we were notified and arrangements were made for students and robots to be on CNN. Students were supposed to be on around 10pm. Awesome!

So we returned to pits for teardown. 294 was arranging with the shipping company about how to get the robots back in the crate after the interview. There was some difficulty with getting the robots back in the crates afterward, since the I believe the convention center was supposed to be closed around 10pm. Someone decided no robots were needed. So, all three robots were crated up.
We arrive at the CNN food court around 9pm with the students. As we are sitting there PR Rep comes to us and tells us the decision from CNN is that robots will be needed around 9:30pm, for a 10pm spot. After a brief discussion with her that it’s virtually impossible to have that accomplished, since the robots are crated up about a mile away… 294 decides they will attempt to get their robot out of the crate. We decide if their robot is going to be on national TV, so is ours! 177 decides the same thing.
67, 294, 177 rush to pits to un-crate robots. If you remember the distance from the CNN center to the pits was at least one mile. Most of us just sprinted that distance to get to the robots as quickly as possible. 294 is the only team with any tools available. They un-crate their robot and hand the tools to us. We arrange for our van to transport our robot and 294’s to the CNN center. Robots are turned sideways and stuffed into the seats of a 12 passenger van. 294 also re-assembles their crate and 177 carts their robot to CNN center.
The robots arrive around 10pm. 294's robot is stacked on top of our robot. The robots are pushed into the CNN center, up one elevator, over and up another, through the CNN offices, and into the studio.
The students and robots appear on the air around 10:30pm.

After that, the process was reversed, robots stuffed in van and carted back to pits, crated up, and we were out of the pits around 11-11:30pm. At the time, getting those robots on TV was almost as incredible as the upset we had over 1114, 469, and 2041. Our three teams really had awesome teamwork! 

What's your favorite robot that you didn't help build?

I really love seeing any of the truly great teams. 254’s style and performance are top of the line. The west coast style with the fully power coated CNC parts and the custom gear boxes are really inspiring to me. 148’s sheet metal designs are incredible. 118, 233, 1538, etc… these guys aren’t just building robots; they are really like works of art. 

But, as a former scout and coach what I really like is seeing the best machines perform on the field. 

Hands down, the 2008 Simbotics – Simbot SS is my favorite robot that I didn't build. With me starting in 2005, I didn't get a chance to see the dominant machines from Beatty or Chief Delphi. Simbot SS was the first really dominant machine that I saw in FIRST. Performance wise, it was basically 2x as good as the next best machine that year. The cool thing about it was that there really wasn't anything special about it. 75% of teams could have built that machine, if they thought of it. The combination of the roller claw and launcher was genius. Between the ingenious design and the incredible driving performance, they were awesome! 

Other than that, 469 – 2010 with the ball re-director was a really amazing machine that would have been cool to say I helped come up with that idea. I’m more of an “in the box” guy, so I doubt I ever would have thought of it. 

What apps/software/tools can't you live without? (Work/Robotics/Home)

Not really much that I couldn’t live without from an apps/software/tools standpoint. I have a laptop and phone for work, there’s nothing really special about either one of them. I don’t have an iPhone or anything like that. We have an internal GM application that I use for project tracking. 

For robotics we use AutoCAD for 95% of our robot designs. I’m sure this still blows peoples mind, but that just the software that we feel comfortable using. Majority of our parts are water-jet sheet metal, so we need a 2D file to send to the water-jet anyways. I will use Solidworks after the parts are designed to see how everything fits together before I send the parts to the machine shop. 

At home or other times, all I need is a TV and a computer with internet access. 99% of my evenings are spent watching TV and playing online for the hour or so of free time I have between when my kids go to bed and when I go to sleep. 

What's your workspace setup like? (Work/Robotics/Home)

Here’s a picture of my workspace at work and our RedX Garage. 

My workspace is nothing really special…a desk, some books, personal items, and about a 20” screen. I basically sit in a back room off the garage with two of my co-workers. We are surrounded by a bunch of shelves filled with measurement equipment and tools. 

For our robotics build workspace, we utilize space all over Building 40 at the MPG for robotics activities. Programming sets up in one conference room, Chairman’s in different conference room. For the design team, we use a small conference room with a projector so we can all review any designs that need to be shown. 

For assembling the robot, GM has given us a small room to work in and keep all our robotics related equipment. As you can see from the pictures, it’s not really that big when we pack all our stuff in. The robot is typically assembled on the table. It gets pretty cramped in there when everyone is trying to get their parts on the machine.

The more impressive space is the machine shop, where we have access to 95% of the machines. We basically have as many lathes and mills as we need. We also have a water-jet that we use for more parts than any other machine in the shop. 

For practice space, we setup a small field to use in the garage attached to the building. It’s about full length, but only about 2/3rd the width of a real field. We have to setup and tear it down every practice day, since we set it up in the drive alley of the garage.

What do you listen to while you work?

I don’t really listen to music while I work. If I do listen to something, I’ll usually listen to a local radio station or XM. I’d say I spend most of my time listening to local sports talk radio or one of the ESPN shows on XM. 

From a music perspective I listen to pretty much any type of music, from alternative rock to Top 20 hits, whatever seems right at the time. 

What’s your schedule like during build season?

As a team, we officially meet Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4:30 – 7:30pm and Saturdays 8am-4pm.

Now, that does not mean that no other FIRST related work is performed outside of those times. I do all my design work on my work computer, so I almost always have my AutoCAD drawing or Solidworks model open anytime my computer is on. I am also always thinking about how to create a design or how to fix an issue we are having throughout the season. 

Typically, I will work on my design stuff every day at lunch time during the build season. I will also spend my evenings playing around on designing parts while watching TV. 

So in the end, I’m not sure how much time is actually spent working on the design. But I know that the time spent thinking about the robot is 24/7. I pretty much spend every spare second working on or thinking about FIRST robotics from Kickoff thru at least our first district event. After that, it really depends on how well we did and what we need to improve on. 

What everyday thing are you better at than anyone else?

Not really sure. I’m usually pretty good as most things, but I doubt I am better than everyone else at any particular everyday task. 

What's the best advice you've ever received?

I don’t think anyone has given me any great advice that was really profound for me specifically. I’d have to say the best advice I have ever heard is to “do what you love”. 

Now I don’t think that means that you only do things that you love to do or that you quit your job immediately and start doing some other thing that you really love to do, that doesn’t pay your bills. But, you should enjoy your work. You should take time to find out what your interests are and determine how you can convert that into a career. If you can’t make what you love to do into a career, make sure you don’t sacrifice it as a hobby. 

What is your favorite guilty pleasure?

Buffalo Wild Wings Boneless Buffalo Wings! Our core group of engineering mentors have a standing lunch date every week at Buffalo Wild Wings. The rest of the guys would probably switch up restaurants every week…and usually do when I’m not available. 

Fill in the blank. I'd love to see Dan Kimura (469) answer these same questions.

Anything else you want people to know about you? Nope.

July 25, 2013

IRI Recap

Spectrum had an amazing time this past weekend at the Indiana Robotics Invitational. We were thrilled to be chosen as one of the 69 teams from around the world to be able to attend this event.

We collaborated with all three other local area teams that were invited to transport our students and equipment up to Indiana. We shared a bus with 118, 624, and 1477.

Our strategy for the event was to play strong defense in all of our matches. We can cycle well but not nearly as well as many of the other teams at the event. We knew our best chance of getting on an elimination alliance was to shut down as many of the Full Court Shooters during qualifying as we could.

Throughout qualifying we played very strong defense against some of the best robots in the world. We held 1310, 148 and 67 to two cycles each during our matches against them. After qualifications we had the honor of being selected to join the 3rd seeded alliance of teams 469, 118, and 2590. We ended up losing in our opening round of eliminations to our good friends 359, 148 and 1477. Below you will find links to all of our matches from the event. (Recorded in HD by team 2337 and the IRI event staff).

Our Match Videos

Qualifying Match #5
Qualifying Match #15 (No video yet)
Qualifying Match #32
Qualifying Match #44
Qualifying Match #54
Qualifying Match #69
Qualifying Match #75
Qualifying Match #81
Qualifying Match #99
Quarter Final Match 4-1
Quarter Final Match 4-2

Our Final Match of the Event

Quarter Final Match 4-3

The trip to Indiana was well worth it for the experience of playing with the best of the best. Hopefully we will find our way back to IRI in the future.
This weekend we will be in Austin for the Texas Robot Roundup (The de facto Texas State Championship). We'll have 7 of the 69 IRI teams at this event.
Webcast URL
- Spectrum
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” - Winston Churchill

July 29, 2013

Andrew Lynch - This Is How I Work

Andrew Lynch is the lead mentor of team 2587 the Discobots and a close friend of Spectrum. Andrew is a true journeyman of Texas robotics teams. He has been on four different teams in his time in FRC, helping to start two of them. He also is one of the key players in the Texas VEX Robotics community from it’s inception in 2008. Just this past weekend he was the MC at Texas Robot Roundup. We asked him about his favorite team memory, his robotics experience, his education, and much more.

[Responses from July 2, 2013]

Name: Andrew Lynch
CD Username: lynca
Current Gig/Job: Research & Development at Sparx Engineering

Alma Mater/Degree: BS Electrical Eng. from UT-Austin, MS Comp Sci & MS Mech Eng from Rice University Current Team(s): 2587

Former Team(s): 624, 118, 2158
Location: Houston, Texas
Hobbies: Playing Music, Flying Airplanes

What inspired you to do what you do? Tell us a story.

I started my FIRST career in high school in 2001 for Team 624 CRyptonite in Katy, Texas. I was more interested in playing music and working on cars more than robots through most of high school. My senior year,  the 2003 Stack Attack season ignited my passion for robotics and ultimately to study electrical engineering.

What is your day job, and how’d you get there?

Before I started Electrical Engineering at UT-Austin in 2003, I started working on robotics projects with the Robotics club at UT-Austin. I was enamored with the idea of designing PCB boards and 3D parts. By my sophomore year, I assumed a leadership role of the robotics club at UT. I started the original club paperwork and re-branded into its current form, RAS. I was also fortunate to be accepted into the NASA-JSC Co-op program.  Through this experience I was able to mentor with the Robonauts in 2005, Chainzilla.

After getting another dose of FRC, I was ready to start a FIRST team in Austin. I decided to channel the power of college mentors from the UT-Austin RAS club. I randomly met a Chemistry teacher named John Sperry and we decided to form a FIRST team called the AusTin Cans 2158. Fortunately, RAS had a few great young college mentors Richard McClellan and David Yanoshak to help start the team.

I went straight into graduate school at Rice University to do research on pipe inspection robots. I founded the Rice Robotics Club (RRC) and then received an interesting phone call from Lucia Sevcik about starting up a new FRC team at Lamar High School.  After two quick meetings at the school, the DiscoBots, Team 2587 began their rookie year in 2008. After that, I got another phone call from Jason Morrella (I should probably stop answering my phone), and then the DiscoBots established the 1st VEX event in Texas called Houston VEX.

Around 2011, I finished graduate school at Rice with two masters, one in computer science on swarm robots and another in mechanical engineering on pipe inspection robots. I now have joined a startup company called Sparx Engineering doing rapid prototyping for the petroleum & medical industries. Its been more than 10 years of FIRST and I'm still having fun.

What is your favorite story to tell about robotics?

I would have to say the story I tell my kids over and over again is the DiscoBots 2009 Lone Star Regional. This was our 2nd year and we had a solid robot.  The robot didn't look elegant but it worked well and the kids really understood the Lunacy strategy.  Our student coach, Lalo Torres posted up a 20 page strategy guide to Lunacy on Chief Delphi.  We seeded 5th in the rankings and urged the 4th ranked Robonauts to pick our team.  Team 118 ended up picking 1801 and the DiscoBots picked 1421 and 704.  The quarter-final match between the Robonauts and DiscoBots was fierce and ultimately that was our biggest hurdle to winning the event.  From the quarter-finals, we went on to win the regional and performed well at championship.  

I tell this story to remind the kids every year when the Robonauts release an awesome video, that robustness & strategy can sometimes defeat elegance & beauty!  

What's your favorite robot that you didn't help build?

Encore - Wildstang 2004, that robot really inspired me and it has a great video!  

What apps/software/tools can't you live without? (Work/Robotics/Home)

Desktop Apps: Eclipse, Solidworks, Altium, Python, Matlab, Inkscape, MikTex

Web Apps: Trello, Harvest, Google Apps

Web Tools: Drupal, Wordpress, AWS,

Physical Tools: Calipers, Multimeters, Breadboards, Diag. cutters

What's your workspace setup like? (Work/Robotics/Home)

I work out of the Southfork House from the TV Show Dallas. It was built as a large model home for the Southfork community in Houston... quite odd...  However, it came on the market and Sparx Engineering now operates out of the Southfork ranch. We have a powder printer, machine shop, & circuit board build-up tools.

As a graduate student I worked in Ryon Lab at Rice University. The DiscoBots were fortunate to obtain a section of the floorspace for FRC activities.  Ryon Lab is a 5 story building with a 20 ton crane and a huge opening in the middle of the building for all sorts of experiments. I’ve seen people fly aerial vehicles, launch mini-bots, and do interesting drop tests from 3-stories.  

What do you listen to while you work?

Grooveshark: Usually making a playlist for every music show or festival I’ve attended.

What’s your schedule like during build season?

We shifted to doing Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday as a full team schedule in 2013.  That schedule worked well for the majority of the team.  We still had a sub-team of CAD & designers that would be discussing online everyday throughout build season.  

What everyday thing are you better at than anyone else?

Filtering and consuming timely information!  My multiple RSS readers, email filters, alert messages, and web productivity apps.  Allen Gregory is probably the only person who can information challenge me!  

 

What's the best advice you've ever received?

I think the most misunderstood and best advice is about failure

NASA mission controller Gene Kranz’s “Failure is not an option”  which I think of often in a six-week build season and projects with tight schedules.  However, in some cases, failure is definitely an option and it will be a learning experience.  

What is your favorite guilty pleasure?

Playing racing games on a tablet.  I don’t really play any other types of games, but if I do, I’m racing!   

Fill in the blank. I'd love to see ________ answer these same questions.

Dr. Rob Ambrose from the Robonauts and the original creator of the Robonaut!  

Anything else you want people to know about you?

I re-built an engine/interior/panels for 1984 camaro in high school. I bought the car for $500 at a junkyard!  Sold it for $2500 when I graduated high school.  

"Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement." - C.S. Lewis

July 31, 2013

2013 Spectrum Challenges

I imagine a lot of teams set goals for themselves each year. This year I wanted to challenge my team to push beyond what we did in 2011/2012. Last November I wrote up these challenges (in a similar vein to what Barry Bonzack did in 2006).

Most of these challenges were extremely big reaches and though we didn't achieve many of the challenges, we did earn two regional finalists awards, two entrepreneurship awards, and an invitation to IRI. Overall not a bad year and we still have two more FRC off-season events to go before the season is over.
2013 Spectrum 3847 Challenges
- Build as close to real field elements as possible (economical)

We did end up with a full pyramid, but not building full goal boxes hurt us more than I originally thought. Discs bouncing out of the goals turned out to be a pretty big problem for our original design.

- Make one incremental working prototype each day for the first two weeks on all game specific systems (i.e. collector or end game)

We did a very good job of this. Our prototype shooter video inspired a whole lot of other teams' shooters and we are still working to improve everything to this day.

- Fully CADed drive train and main structure by Jan 20th/ Fully CADed robot by Jan 27th

We me the drive train and main structure deadline for the most part, but we were a bit behind on the shooter CAD.

- Fully operational robot by Feb 8th

Since this was our first time doing sheet metal, we definitely did not meet this deadline. The robot also turned out far more complex than we originally thought.

- Improve robot performance by 25% before each event

We did a good job here. We pulled the shooter off the lift and completely redesigned it's functionally after our first event. We then increased the speed of our robot for Razorback. We drastically improved our shooter for IRI and made our blocker faster and more effective. We even reengineered our hanging mechanism during the few days between IRI and TRR. 

- #1 seed or 1st pick at a regional

We didn't do either of these, but Texas Torque did tell us that we were on their short list at Razorback for the #1 selection. This was closer than we ever have been before. We also captained our alliance to the finals, so overall pretty close.

- Get on a Championship Eliminations Alliance

We didn't qualify for Championship this year, but we did get on an alliance at IRI which is arguably a much harder accomplishment.

- .750+ winning percentage 

Not quite there, but we're getting better.

- Markedly improve 10+ other robots/teams throughout the season

It's hard to measure this, but I'm sure we succeeded. From just the kit bot build days and bumper build days alone I think we impacted a large number of teams, plus all the assistance and mentoring we did at events.

- Get 100+ people to attend the 2013 Lone Star Regional

Not quite 100, but we had more people attend the event in support of Spectrum than ever before.

- Get on TV talking about robotics

We actually did this twice. Once it was just me talking about our appearance at the Houston Mini Maker Faire and a second time with two of our students at the Lone Star Regional.

- Have our robot pictured in a non-school publication

We did this one, it was a small Houston area paper, but it still counts.

- Have one elected government official drive our robot or attend a competition because of us
Not yet, if anyone knows anyone that can help us out with this, let us know.
AWARDS
- REGIONAL TECHNICAL AWARD
- ENGINEERING INSPIRATION AWARD
- REGIONAL CHAIRMAN’S AWARD
- REGIONAL CHAMPION
- ANY CHAMPIONSHIP AWARD

None of the above, but we did earn two Entrepreneurship Awards and two Regional Finalists Awards.

We'll revise the list for next year, but overall I think it's pretty good starting point for FRC event/robot goals. We have a lot of other goals when it comes to our entire engineering program and STEM outreach.
- Allen Gregory
"Attempt the impossible in order to improve your work."  - Bette Davis

August 5, 2013

Jon Jack - This Is How I Work

The Chairman’s Award is FIRST’s highest honor. It’s given to a single team each year at Championship and that team is inducted into the FIRST Hall of Fame. The award celebrates a team that exemplifies FIRST’s ideals and is a role model for other teams. This year FRC#1538, The Holy Cows, was the 21st team to receive this honor. Over the years, The Holy Cows have had a huge impact in southern California and beyond. You can read their Chairman’s Award entry here. In our latest edition of “How I Work” we bring you the lead mentor of this Hall of Fame team, Jon Jack. Jon has been one of the key people in building The Holy Cows into the world class team they are today. In this interview he talks about the middle school teachers that ignited his passion in technology, The Holy Cows’ facilities, and his favorite FRC robots of all time.


[Responses from July 22, 2013]

Name: Jon Jack

CD Username: Jon Jack

Current Gig/Job: Lead Mentor for Team 1538 - The Holy Cows / Mechanical Designer @ SeaBotix

Current Team(s): Team 1538 (2005-Present)

Former Team(s): None

Location: San Diego, CA

What inspired you to do what you do? Tell us a story.

A lot of events have inspired me over the years.

One of the biggest things happened in middle school. We had two teachers at my middle school that ran the yearbook and did classes on technology and electronic journalism. In the 7th grade I took their technology class which was pretty basic (how to type, how to use MS Word, how to design a basic website). They noticed that I picked this stuff up pretty quick and they recruited me to join their yearbook class the next year, so I did. The yearbook class was not only responsible for producing the yearbook, but also producing an electronic version called a ‘yeardisk’. Myself and two classmates did all of the scripting and graphics for the ‘yeardisk’. Over the course of the year we ended up doing a lot of work, but had an absolute blast doing it. Looking back I think that class is what really inspired me to pursue a career in technology.

I steal a lot of my mentoring style from those two teachers. Until that point in my life I had never really connected with my teachers the way I connected with them. They weren't the stereotypical teacher that just stands at the front of the class and teaches stuff from a book. They were funny and energetic and enthusiastic about what they were doing. They went out of their way to connect with us personally. They pushed us outside of our comfort zones and challenged us to try new things. I try to do a lot of the same things with the kids on my team.

What is your favorite story to tell about robotics?

I have many, but I think I’ll share this one since it’s one I’ve told a few times.

One day in the fall of 2009, we were discussing who should be our operator at the Fall Classic that upcoming weekend. No one really stood out as a strong candidate. I remember seeing this freshman that hadn’t said much during his 3 weeks on the team. I figured why not roll the dice, it’s an off-season competition so there’s not a ton to lose. Since it was already mid-week when we made the call I didn’t have much time to train him how to operate. I think his training consisted of me giving him a 10 minute explanation of the game and our typical strategies and a 5 minute lesson on how to operate. We ended up winning the event (#2 alliance captain, undefeated in elims) and our freshman operator did a fantastic job.

That freshman was Jeremy Howe and after the Fall Classic that year, he quickly became one of the best students the team has ever had. He would go on to be our operator for the next three seasons. He was always one of the most professional students on the team and treated all the teams he came across with equal respect. Even though he lived in Alpine, CA (about 40 minutes from our high school/practice field) he was always at weekend events and always at practice. He eventually became someone that all the students on the team looked up to with many of them saying things  like “hero” and “role model” to describe him. When he lost his spot as operator this past season he ended up becoming one of our Chairman’s Award presenters and presented at the Championship this past year. After winning the Chairman’s Award this year at the Championship, Jeremy was named as one of our team’s two Allaire Medalists.

What's your favorite robot that you didn't help build?

I think my favorite robot would have to be 1114’s 2008 robot only because they were so dominate at running a conventional strategy that they could single-handedly win most of their matches. It’s very hard to be that dominant in modern day FIRST.

Some of the other robots that have inspired me are (in not paticular order):

Team 254 - 2006-Present: Great looking robots with a ton of attention to detail.

Team 469 - 2010: An out of the box strategy that only a few teams attempted, but they did it the best.

Team 1717 -  2008: This was the robot that made me realize that active manipulation of a game piece is important.

Team 330 - 2005: The best example of the KISS approach.

What apps/software/tools can't you live without? (Work/Robotics/Home)

Work: Soldiworks, Excel, NotePad++, Parker O-Ring Handbook, Calculator, Calipers

Robotics: Solidworks, Google Docs, SolidWorks PDMWorkgroup, Wordpress, Illustrator

What's your workspace setup like? (Work/Robotics/Home)

Robotics: My workspace is constantly changing depending on what phase of the season we’re 

in.

Prototyping:

We work out of a very small classroom at the Gary and Jeri-Ann Jacobs High Tech High. The classroom has a garage door so we end up opening up the garage door and doing most of our prototyping behind the classroom. The picture above is an early version of our conveyor system.

Design:

I use a MacBook Pro and use BootCamp to dual boot MacOS X and Windows. During build season I pretty much live in Windows on my laptop. We take over one of the high school’s conference rooms after school and on the weekends and design the robot. The conference room has a projector in it so we can hook a computer up to it and have design reviews with the team. During the NFL playoffs we usually have the games on during the afternoon/evening. In the picture above you can see Daisy Thunder on my computer screen. That model is pretty close to finished, with the exception of the pocketing we do on our waterjet parts.

Fabrication:

During the fabrication phase of build season the team splits in two groups. Part of the team continues meeting back at the high school while 5 or 6 students and myself work at a shop down the street from the high school. At this point I’m sort of a designer/shop foreman/QA person. I let our sponsor know how much material we need and I queue up jobs for the kids running the different machines. For example, if the kid on the lathe is almost done with spacers, I need to make sure the kid on the chop saw is almost done cutting shaft blanks out of hex stock. The shop is small and from time to time I need to update drawings so I usually find some open bench space and work from there. When it comes time to weld parts together, I work with our welder to make sure parts are put together correctly. The picture above I took while a couple of students were cleaning up our waterjet parts.

Assembly:

Once thing start dying down at the shop, we move back to High Tech High and start putting parts together. The picture above is of our practice robot early in the assembly phase around late week 3/early week 4.

Testing / Practice:

In the fall of 2012 we worked with another local team to renovate an unused woodshop at their high school into a practice space. The last few days of build season we moved everything over to our practice field and started working out of there. After stop build we met 6 days a week. During the week we set up a carpool to shuttle kids to the practice field. The shop is about halfway renovated. We have a small closet we use to keep tools and supplies and store stuff we need when we go to competitions. There’s also a smaller classroom/office that our Chairman’s Award presenters used to practice.

What do you listen to while you work?

I listen to a lot of different types of music. I’m a huge fan of Spotify since I can listen to just about whatever I want whenever I want. When we’re designing the robot, I’m almost always listening to music. This year I think I was mostly listening to stuff like Santigold, The Aikiu, N.W.A, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Metric, Joy Division, Buzzcocks, Jay Z, Metallica, Hargo, Public Enemy, The Soft Pack, Wavves and Best Coast. One tradition we have on the team is to listen to 80’s hip hop while we’re working late at night.

What’s your schedule like during build season?

4 months of craziness. During build season we meet from 4pm to 9pm or later and on the weekends we meet from 10am to 9pm or later. Needless to say between work, school, and robotics I’m rarely at home. It gets so bad that when I get home at night I've caught myself trying to unlock the front door of my house with my keys to the high school or practice field.

We usually take the day after stop build off and then start our practice schedule that Thursday. We practice Monday-Saturday at a facility away from the high school so during the weekdays a bunch of us mentors carpool students over to the robotics center. Practice usually starts around 4:30pm and then officially ends around 7:30pm, but usually we’re staying later trying to improve the robot.

We try to break up the monotony of build/competition season by playing games. During build season we have Saturday football games where we’ll take a break in the afternoon and play football for an hour or so. This year during competition season we would play basketball while waiting for the robot’s motors to cool down. In addition to being a way to relieve stress during build season, it’s great for team building.

What everyday thing are you better at than anyone else?

Remembering random facts.

What's the best advice you've ever received? "Learn from the past, don't live in it."
This can be applied to both life and competitive robotics. In life you don't live in the past, otherwise your failures will consume you and your accomplishments will make you complacent. This was also an important lesson I learned as a drive coach from 2008-2012. Early on when I lost a match, I wouldn't let it go and then it affected my performance in the next match and the match after and so on. After a while I learned to spend a couple of minutes on what went wrong, figure out how to make sure it doesn't happen again and move on to the next match with a clear head.

What is your favorite guilty pleasure?

I live in San Diego, which is a city with many great taco shops (many of which are open until 2am or later). I've lived here all my life and I’m still finding new (killer) taco shops. However, during build season nothing beats running through a Taco Bell drive-thru on my way home late at night.

Fill in the blank. I'd love to see Travis Covington (254) answer these same questions.

"It's the little details that are vital. The little things make the big things happen." - John Wooden

August 8, 2013

Fall Schedule

We’re preparing for a very full fall schedule. Here are our tentative commitments. This doesn’t include our regular after school and weekend meetings. These are just our volunteer and event commitments. We will definitely have more added to the calendar. The full calendar of events can be found at Calendar.Spectrum3847.org

Title	Start	End
First Day of School	08/19/2013
*FIRST Pitch (Astro's game with Robot Demo)	08/25/2013
*Red Stick Rumble	08/30/2013	08/31/2013
*Houston VEX Skills Challenge Day	09/28/2013
Sally Ride Festival (Volunteer)	10/12/2013
North Houston BEST (Volunteer)	10/19/2013
*Houston VEX	10/26/2013
*FRC Fall Remix	11/01/2013	11/02/2013
*Spectrum Birthday Party	11/07/2013
HISD VEX 1 (Volunteer)	11/09/2013
YAP Fest (ISA Demo)	11/14/2013
CANstruction Build Day	11/16/2013
*Tech Street Houston (Volunteer)	11/19/2013	11/20/2013
CANstruction Public Event and Awards Ceremony	11/23/2013
*Houston VEX Regional	11/23/2013
DeCANstruction (Volunteer)	11/24/2013
Tentative CANstruction Food Bank Day (Volunteer)	12/05/2013
*FRC Mock Kickoff	12/07/2013
HISD VEX Event 2 (Volunteer)	12/14/2013
PREBUILD MEETING	01/02/2014
*PREBUILD MEETING	01/03/2014
*FRC KICKOFF	01/04/2014

* = Large team event, other events are volunteer opportunities and small group events.
- Spectrum

“Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.” - Stephen A. Brennan

August 12, 2013

Jess Jankowitsch - This Is How I Work

Jess Jankowitsch has been around the FIRST program since her early days as an FLL student. She has performed nearly every job you can think of in FRC. She has been an FRC team president, mentor, emcee, judge, senior mentor, championship volunteer coordinator, assistant regional director, and she even finds time to run one of the best off-season events in FIRST, Texas Robot Roundup. Jess’s contributions to FIRST are substantial and Texas FRC teams are lucky that she moved down here from Pennsylvania for graduate school. Jess is one of our 1st non-engineering mentors that we have featured on this blog. The FIRST program wouldn’t be the same without the hard work of dedicated volunteers like Jess. Continue reading to hear from Jess about why she is studying psychology, her favorite music, some great advice, and even a recipe. 
[Responses from Jul 16, 2013]

Name: Jess Jankowitsch
CD Username: jessjank.
Current Gig/Job: Graduate Student; Assistant Regional Director – Alamo Regional
Alma Mater/Degree: Carnegie Mellon University - B.S. in Psychology; The University of Texas at Austin – working towards an M.A. and Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology (neuroscience focus)
Current Team: FRC 2158 -  ausTIN CANs
Former Team: FRC 103 - Cybersonics
Location: Austin, TX
Hobbies: Ultimate Frisbee, Board Games, Hula Hooping, Arts and Crafts

What inspired you to do what you do? Tell us a story.
I suppose I do two main things… psychology and robotics.

Perhaps surprisingly, I was inspired to study psychology because of my involvement in FIRST. Back in high school, I thought I wanted to become a medical doctor, and more specifically a Pediatric Oncologist. Because of my participation in FIRST and my involvement with 103’s 2003 Championship Chairman’s Award recognition, I was fortunate enough to get to shadow Dr. Bart Kamen for a day at the Cancer Institute of New Jersey. That experience was life changing. It was actually Bart’s recommendation that I pursue Psychology as a major because as a doctor you aren’t simply treating a disease; you are treating people. While I later realized a career in medicine was not for me, that experience inspired and influenced many of my academic decisions and guided me to my current graduate studies in Developmental Psychology.

On the robotics end of the spectrum I, like many FIRSTers, grew up playing with LEGOS, k-nex, and making/creating/building things. My dad taught me to use power tools starting at a very young age. In general, I love technology and was always a nerdy kid, so robotics easily became an interest. My earliest exposure to FIRST happened to be in late elementary school during a Girl Scout lock-in at the high school. I was fascinated with 103’s practice field for “Ladder Logic” and became determined to find out more about robotics. In middle school, I had the opportunity to play with Mindstorms during the early days of FLL. In 8th grade was invited to visit the Philadelphia Regional. I was instantly sucked in by the energy and excitement and joined 103 in high school. My Chairman’s Award involvement and eventual role as team president expanded my understanding of and interest in FIRST. It became my goal to ensure that students get to have all the amazing opportunities I was so fortunate to have as a FIRST participant and a member of 103. After graduating, I didn’t really know what I wanted in terms of my FIRST journey, but I definitely knew that I wanted to stay involved.
What is your day job, and how’d you get there?

EEG Net

Developmental Psychology: As an undergrad at CMU, took on opportunities as a research assistant and laboratory manager at the Infant Cognition Lab. Combined with my love of learning and teaching, my research experience helped me realize that pursuing a Ph.D. and eventually becoming a professor would fulfill those two passions. Now as a grad student at UT Austin, I’m researching the origins and significance of appearance based stereotypes. We have special caps embedded with electrodes that we put on babies heads and use to investigate their neural responses to different types of faces. I enjoy working with kids of all ages and this research gives me an opportunity to work with an age group not found in FIRST. Infants are really interesting to work with because they haven’t been exposed to all the social and cultural influences children and adults have. Also, you must use creative research methods with babies; you can’t just ask them questions or tell them to push buttons. You can feel free to ask me more about my research if you are interested. Additionally, I’m teaching my first class in the fall - Introduction to Child Psychology - and am ridiculously excited.

FIRST: Though I was heavily involved with the Pittsburgh Regional for many years, when I moved to Texas for Graduate school I decided that it would be a great time to focus my attention on just mentoring a team instead of running events. I connected with the ausTIN CANs in the spring of 2010 and soon became a 2158 mentor. That summer, I traveled down to San Antonio for an FTC meeting. During introductions, my experience caught the attention of the new Regional Director, Patrick Felty, who had just been hired for a brand new Regional that was in the works. After quite a bit of prodding and persuasion, I eventually accepted positions as the Alamo Assistant Regional Director and Volunteer Coordinator, despite the fact that it went against my initial stance of wanting to commit myself to just one team. I knew the positions lined up with my values of wanting to ensure students and teams get the opportunities I was so fortunate to experience.

Becoming an Assistant Regional Director and Volunteer Coordinator for the Alamo Regional was really all about being at the right places at the right times. I trace it back to beginnings as a volunteer in 2006 (my freshman year at CMU). I was thrust into the position of Pit Administration Lead at the Pittsburgh Regional. Pete Kieselbach (a former 103 mentor and dad of one of my best friends from elementary through high school) was serving as an FTA at the Regional. He realized that no one had been assigned to that vital role and thought I would be a good fit for the job. In my junior year, Pittsburgh got a new Regional Director and the previous RD left her with only a handful of contacts, including mine. To my surprise, she asked me to be the Regional's Volunteer Coordinator (VC) and Senior Mentor. I was also asked that year to join the Championship VC crew and have been the Lead Pit VC for several years. I've really valued my experiences volunteering, and now working, for FIRST.

What is your favorite story to tell about robotics?
I don’t know if I have a favorite – there are too many! After so many years in FIRST, you really end up with a huge store of great memories. Many inspirational. Some are ridiculous and silly. Track me down at a competition sometime and we can swap stories.

What's your favorite robot that you didn't help build?
I always remember FRC 95  - The Grasshoppers from Lebanon, NH - and their robot “Feynman” from 2002 (“Zone Zeal”). The event was my first official Regional with 103: The J&J Mid Atlantic Regional in the old Rutgers gym. The Grasshoppers’ super speedy soccer ball collector stood out to me; it reminded me of popcorn popper! While they didn't win the event, they were recognized with the “Incredible Play” award (I love that retro award, one of the reasons we've revived it at TRR going on 3 years now). I couldn’t track down a video, but you can see pictures of it on The Grasshoppers’ website: https://www.frcteam95.com/
What's your workspace setup like? (Work/Robotics/Home)
At school and at home I generally just work from my laptop wherever I feel like it. I'm actually not a big fan of desks, so you'll usually find me working on the couch or the kitchen table. In the lab I get to play with all sorts of cool, fancy equipment for electroencephalography (EEG) and electromyography (EMG) research.

Anderson High School has been super supportive of the TIN CANs and provided us with space to do great things for and with the Texas FIRST community. We've hosted our end of build season practice event (Austin Robot Roundup) for 7 years and the Texas Robot Roundup off-season summer event going on 3 years at the school. The team has access to a computer lab and a machine shop with all sorts of goodies (3D printer, CNC Mill, CNC lathe, etc.) that the team is gradually becoming proficient with. In the near future, the high school plans to build a 10,000 sq ft state-of-the-art engineering and technology building because of the team’s efforts to spread STEM education. We’ll be able to provide even more support to the FIRST community. That’s pretty exciting, but it’s still a few years out.

2158's Workshop

2013 TRR Winning Alliance in Anderson HS

What do you listen to while you work?
I generally listen to indie-ish music, but I also have broad, eclectic tastes (latin funk, electro-swing, old school rock, classical, etc). Some favorites are Guster, GIVERS, Two Door Cinema Club, Grupo Fantasma, Caravan Palace, the Beatles, Supertramp, Chopin… like I said, pretty eclectic. 

What everyday thing are you better at than anyone else?
Probably being energetic? Woodie Flowers once proclaimed that I was the “energizer bunny of FIRST.” I really do have excessive energy (and I require no caffeine). 
What's the best advice you've ever received?
Don’t waste time doing things that aren't meaningful to you. Spend as much time and effort as you can on the things in life that you value and that make you happy. Spend your time on the right things. That advice is from my mom. I've received a lot of great advice from mentors and friends over the years, but as I've gotten older my mom seems to always know what to say to help me through challenges.

What is your favorite guilty pleasure?
Pizza dip. It is soooo good. Once I start eating it I can't stop. And it's so simple to make too. In a microwaveable dish, do a layer of cream cheese, a layer of tomato sauce (oddly enough, just use Preggo Traditional. Fancy sauces ruin it), and a layer of shredded Italian cheeses. Microwave until melty. I like to dip tortilla chips in it. You can add toppings, but it is really awesome just plain and simple. Enjoy! ;)

Fill in the blank. I'd love to see Danny Diaz (418) answer these same questions.

“Unless.”  From The Lorax by Dr. Seuss

August 19, 2013

Danny Diaz - This Is How I Work

Danny Diaz is in an engineer for National Instruments and a long time mentor for team #418 LASA Robotics. The 2010 Lone Star Regional Woodie Flowers Finalist Award recipient can often be found behind the scoring table at Texas FRC regionals and FTC events. Keep reading to learn about how he joined LASA, why he ties his shoes, his favorite music, and a whole lot more.

[Responses from June 28, 2013]

Name: Danny Diaz
CD Username: Danny Diaz
Current Gig/Job: Senior Software Engineer, National Instruments
Alma Mater/Degree: Georgia Institute of Technology / BS Computer Engineering
Current Team(s): 418, LASA Robotics
Former Team(s): N/A
Location: Austin, TX
Hobbies: Tennis, Sand Volleyball, Board Games, Programming, Learning


What inspired you to do what you do? Tell us a story.
I'll tell you the story behind how I got involved with Team 418, other stories are lengthier and more complicated.  When I first started working at National Instruments in early 2002, I found out about the fledgling "NI Volunteers" program at National Instruments.  The program was designed to help make teachers in the Austin area successful in integrating LEGO Mindstorms into their classroom by temporarily (1-2 year commitment) pairing a teacher with a National Instruments Employee Volunteer; the volunteer helps 2-3 hours a week with troubleshooting, planning, and basically being a "safety blanket" for the teacher while they are using the LEGO Mindstorms platform in the classroom.  At the end of the school year, NI hosted what was called "RoboLab Mania!", an event where teachers and students using LEGO Mindstorms would come and celebrate what they had done during the school year.  I volunteered to help coordinate parking (of all things) at the event, but the event made me curious enough to volunteer to work with a school.  I chose to work with a High School, and got paired with Tony Bertucci at the Liberal Arts and Science Academy (LASA).  Funny thing is, Tony Bertucci was only taking the teacher training (which had the side-benefit of getting paired with an NI Volunteer) because the training included a free LEGO Mindstorms kit to the teacher, and he wanted the extra kit for his classroom.  After communicating with him over e-mail at the start of the next school year, it quickly became obvious that he didn't need/want an NI Volunteer for his classroom Mindstorms activities.  Almost the day before I had set for myself to send him an e-mail to break our connection, he sent me an e-mail telling me I should come in after school and check out the robotics club that he coaches.  They were just starting the BEST Robotics competition, and I worked with the team during that season.  In January, as it always does, FIRST kicked off and the rest is history.

What is your day job, and how’d you get there?
In my day job, I am a Senior Software Engineer with National Instruments, and have been working with the company for just over 11 years.  For the last 7 years I have been in the LabVIEW Real-Time group, specializing in the operating system and a variety of drivers that power our "performance" line of cRIO controllers, PXI platform, and any other Real-Time embedded platform NI sells that runs on an x86 processor (the processor in the current cRIO platform used for FRC is a Freescale PPC chip, for comparison).  While in college my major in Computer Engineering helped me understand silicon and processor design, with elements of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, which gave me the skill set to be able to do the job I currently do.  I was introduced to National Instruments while in college; in school I was a Co-Op student at the Georgia Tech Research Institute, and one day my boss dropped off a copy of LabVIEW and some equipment and told me, "You've got 4 weeks to make a system that works."  From that experience, in a nutshell, I decided to interview with National Instruments and was hired on.

What is your favorite story to tell about robotics?
I've been with FRC418 for about 10 years, and I have LOTS of stories.  However, my favorite stories that make me smile, that make me proud to be a mentor, and proud to work on the team have almost nothing to do with the actual robots we build.  I love to tell stories of students who have told me that the robotics program kept them from dropping out of high school.  Students who come and tell me about how the experience they got while on the team helped significantly drive their success in college and in their jobs after college.  Students who come back and tell me the lessons they learned about proper planning, documentation, teamwork, and the importance of deodorant on group trips.  To Team 418, robotics is a means to an end, not the actual endpoint itself - we enjoy being intensely fierce competitors, but we know there are more important things than robotics.  Like people.

What's your favorite robot that you didn't help build?
All of them.  No, seriously, my favorite robot has to be the robot 148 designed for the Overdrive competition named "Tumbleweed."  That little robot broke the mold when it came to robot design - it proved that sometimes a better strategy is more effective than a better offense.  It was a huge gamble made by the team (isn't every year a gamble for most teams?!) but one that paid off with an Einstein Championship Win that year.  

What apps/software/tools can't you live without? (Work/Robotics/Home)
I've learned that you should never go anywhere with fewer than two USB flash drives, a multimeter, a camera, and an extra power strip.  Everything else is optional.

What's your workspace setup like? (Work/Robotics/Home) I tend to focus on more the software and electronics side of things, and my home workspace is indicative of that.  At home I have a wooden 4'x4' project board I use to insulate furniture from heat, mess, and general damage - that's where I do most of my electronics handiwork.  I use an HP laptop as my primary computer, with an extra 27" flatscreen monitor.  

What do you listen to while you work?

It may sound odd, but I enjoy listening to electronic string quartets and groups that play that genre of music - Bond, Escala, Lindsey Stirling, Dallas String Quartet, David Garrett, etc...  I generally have a Pandora feed up and running all the time, I like it because of the variety and every now and again Pandora will toss something my way I never knew I liked.  I find that type of music (without lyrics) energizes me while I do work, and I can concentrate a lot better with it.  I'll do the same thing at home, and not realize hours have passed.

What’s your schedule like during build season?

My family likes to eat and live in a house, so I unfortunately still have to work during the build season; fortunately my employer gives me "flex hours", but I still have to put in the same time and effort at work.  418 meets when it's convenient for the students, which means from 3:45pm-6:00pm Monday through Thursday and 8:00am to noon on Saturday.  That usually means that I have to get in to work at 6:00am (so I can leave at 3:00pm) or I have to go back to work at 6:30pm until 9:00pm to make up the difference.  It's hard, because you really don't have any time for anything else (even sleep) when you've got a full plate doing other things as well - like helping to plan/organize/run FTC and FLL tournaments for Central Texas during that time.  Build season becomes a madhouse, but fortunately my family supports what I'm doing and they kick it into high gear to help me fill in the gaps where they can.  My wife has definitely joined the "FIRST Widows" club several times over, and she's always happy to see build season come to an end.

What everyday thing are you better at than anyone else?
I hope nothing.  Because if I'm better than anyone else at an everyday thing, people will ask me to do it more - I can't afford that.  :)

What's the best advice you've ever received?

In high school I had a math teacher - Tom Ottinger - who one day in class said: "I tie my shoes to keep the elephants away." I believe the purpose behind such a philosophical one-liner was to mock us for blindly doing things, seemingly without logic, in the hopes that we would arrive at a desired result (as many students in math class do). The more I thought about that statement, the more it became a personal mantra for me - a mantra of critical thinking. It taught me that if I want to do anything, I need to have a plan ("Chance favors only the prepared mind"). It taught me to never rely upon flimsy rationales. And most importantly It taught me to not be afraid to laugh at preconceived notions (especially silly ones) and question their validity. In my eyes, "I tie my shoes to keep the elephants away" turned me into an engineer.

What is your favorite guilty pleasure?

Why would I be guilty about treating myself?  Okay, fine, I guess my answer would be getting a scalp massage after a haircut.  I enjoy spending a couple bucks on myself every now and again for a good scalp massage.  

Fill in the blank. I'd love to see Andy Baker (3940), Norman Morgan (2468), and Al Skierkiewicz (111) answer these same questions.

Anything else you want people to know about you?
Those who want to know more about me should come on down to Austin, TX and join me for a brew.

 

"Bugs are like comic book villains; if you don't see the body with the head chopped off, it will be back."  - Terry Wilcox

August 20, 2013

2013 Offseason Design Competition

We're excited to announce our first Offseason Design Competition. We want to see any and all robot/mechanism designs for our PIPEFALL game. You can submit prototypes, CAD models, napkin sketches, or even completed robots. We will compile all submissions and then on December 1st, we will have a blog post for people to browse the various designs and vote for their favorites.

The prizes are going to be as follows

• 1st Place: Spectrum Hoodie & T-shirt
• 2nd Place: Spectrum Hoodie
• 3rd Place: Spectrum T-shirt

Please submit your entries by either linking to a webpage/file in the comments of this post or by emailing us at team@spectrum3847.org

Spectrum will be building a complete PIPEFALL robot during the fall semester and we want other teams to use this game to help prepare for 2014 FRC Game.

For those of you unfamiliar with the game the complete rules document and CAD model of the field can be found on our website.

PIPEFALL

- Spectrum

“For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.” - Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics

August 24, 2013

Used Quotes Through 8/24/2013

You may have noticed that there is (almost) always a quote at the bottom of our blog posts. Some of you have commented on this. We thought it would be a good idea to compile them all so you don’t have to go back through two years of build season posts to read them all. Here are all the quotes up till today, though we might have missed a few.

Simplicity

“That’s been one of my mantras — focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.” - Steve Jobs 1998

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” - Leonardo da Vinci

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction." - Einstein

“A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be patched up to make it work. You have to start over, beginning with a working simple system.” - John Gall

“Aren’t you oversimplifying this?

Yes. That’s the whole point.” - Steve Krug

“Almost all quality improvement comes via simplification of design, manufacturing... layout, processes, and procedures.”  - Tom Peters

"Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things."  - Sir Isaac Newton

I have learned an important principle: simple things work, often to our dumbfounded surprise, for we tend to distrust the simple and strive for the complex.

—Richard Cracroft, “Our Trek Through the Wilderness”

“Believe it or not, it is not only possible to accomplish more by doing less, it is mandatory. Enter the world of elimination.” - Timothy Ferriss

Mistakes

"Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted. And experience is often the most valuable thing you have to offer." - Randy Pausch

"Success comes through rapidly fixing our mistakes rather than getting things right the first time." - Tim Harford, author of Adapt: Why Success Always Starts with Failure

“It’s important that nobody gets mad at you for screwing up. We know screwups are an essential part of making something good. That’s why our goal is to screw up as fast as possible.” - Lee Unkrich, director of Toy Story 3

“Winners lose much more often than losers. So if you keep losing but you’re still trying, keep it up! You’re right on track.” - Matthew Keith Groves

“You can learn more from failure than success. In failure you’re forced to find out what part did not work. But in success you can believe everything you did was great, when in fact some parts may not have worked at all. Failure forces you to face reality.” - Fred Brooks,

“Good judgment comes from experience and experience comes from bad judgment” - Fred Brooks

“Doing something and getting it wrong is at least ten times more productive than doing nothing.” - Marc OBrien

“Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash.” - George Patton

"Failure is simply an opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently." - Henry Ford

"The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing." - Henry Ford

“If you're not making mistakes, then you're not doing anything. I'm positive that a doer makes mistakes.” - John Wooden

“If it’s a good idea and it gets you excited, try it, and if it bursts into flames, that’s going to be exciting too. People always ask, ‘What is your greatest failure?’ I always have the same answer—We’re working on it right now, it’s gonna be awesome!” - Jim Coudal

“It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.” - Franklin D. Roosevelt

“Failures are the stepping stones to success. Without failure, we’ll never learn how to succeed. So try to fail, instead of trying to avoid failure through fear.” - Leo Babauta

“Mistakes are the best way to learn. Don’t be afraid to make them. Try not to repeat the same ones too often.” - Leo Babauta

“We don’t even have all the questions, yet, let alone all the answers.” - Michael Laine

“Fear will try to stop you. Doubts will try to stop you. You’ll shy away from doing great things, from going on new adventures, from creating something new and putting it out in the world, because of self-doubt and fear. It will happen in the recesses of your mind, where you don’t even know it’s happening. Become aware of these doubts and fears. Shine some light on them. Beat them with a thousand tiny cuts. Do it anyway, because they are wrong.” - Leo Babauta

“Go ahead, fail. Try to avoid mistakes, though.” - Seth Godin

Impossible

“Limits, like fears, are often just an illusion” - M. Jordan

“Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon.” - Paul Brandt

“Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.”

- Johan Wolfgang von Goethe

"I am looking for a lot of men who have an infinite capacity to not know what can’t be done." - Henry Ford

“It's kind of fun to do the impossible.” - Walt Disney

“We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible.” - Vince Lombardi

“It always seems impossible until its done.” -Nelson Mandela

"One of the greatest discoveries a person makes, one of their great surprises, is to find they can do what they were afraid they couldn't do." - Henry Ford

“Attempt the impossible in order to improve your work.” - Bette Davis

Practice and Effort

"Facing it, always facing it, that's the way to get through. Face it." - Joseph Conrad

“The spirit, the will to win and the will to excel – these are the things that endure and these are the qualities that are so much more important than any of the events that occasion them.” - Vince Lombardi

"I do not think there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature." - John D. Rockefeller

“The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out; the brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. The brick walls are there to stop the people who don't want it badly enough. They are there to stop the other people!” - Randy Paush

“I don't care if my team wins. I care if they try their hardest to win.” - pfreivald

“Go the extra mile.  It's never crowded.”  - Author Unknown

“It's hard to beat a person who never gives up.” - Babe Ruth

“Everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it.” - Andy Rooney

“It's the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.” - John Wooden

"Luck is not something that happens by chance. Luck is earned through dedication, work and determination." - Katie Mickley

“Almost nothing worthwhile is easy, and it’s hard to just jump in and be good at something difficult right off the bat... The only reliable way to succeed at anything is to actually do it, repeatedly, with concentrated effort. True for individuals, and true for organizations. Athletes, artists, businesses.” - John Gruber

“If you can’t draw as well as someone, or use the software as well, or if you do not have as much money to buy supplies, or if you do not have access to the tools they have, beat them by being more thoughtful. Thoughtfulness is free and burns on time and empathy.” - Frank Chimero

“Sometimes the problem has to mature before the solution can mature.” - Kent Beck

"It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste" - Henry Ford

"Quality means doing it right when no one is looking." - Henry Ford

"Everything is practice." - Pelé

“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.” - Colin Powell

“What you do every day matters more than what you do every once in awhile.” - Gretchen Rubin

“Hard work is the price we must pay for success. I think you can accomplish anything if you're willing to pay the price.” - Vince Lombardi

"To give yourself the best possible chance of playing to your potential, you must prepare for every eventuality. That means practice." - Seve Ballesteros

"In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is." - Yogi Berra

"I don't know if I practiced more than anybody, but I sure practiced enough. I still wonder if somebody -- somewhere -- was practicing more than me." - Larry Bird

"I know you've heard it a thousand times before. But it's true -- hard work pays off. If you want to be good, you have to practice, practice, practice. If you don't love something, then don't do it." - Ray Bradbury

“Diligence is the mother of good luck” - Benjamin Franklin

“Success is dependent upon the glands - sweat glands.” - Zig Ziglar

“The habit of doing more than is necessary can only be earned through practice. And the habit is priceless.” - Seth Godin

“The great thing about working hard is that you can always work harder, the great thing about being good is that you can always be better.” -- John V-Neun

Design

“The critical thing about the design process is to identify your scarcest resource. Despite what you may think, that very often is not money. For example, in a NASA moon shot, money is abundant but lightness is scarce; every ounce of weight requires tons of material below. On the design of a beach vacation home, the limitation may be your ocean-front footage. You have to make sure your whole team understands what scarce resource you’re optimizing.” - Fred Brooks,

“Designing a product is keeping five thousand things in your brain and fitting them all together in new and different ways to get what you want. And every day you discover something new that is a new problem or a new opportunity to fit these things together a little differently.

And it’s that process that is the magic.” - Steve Jobs

"As you make a prototype, assume you are right and everyone else is wrong. When you share your prototype, assume you are wrong and everyone else is right." - Diego Rodriguez

Excellence

“Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better.” - Pat Riley

“If we study what is merely average, we will remain merely average.” - Shawn Achor, The happy secret to better work, TEDXBloomington, May 2011

"Gentlemen, we are going to relentlessly chase perfection, knowing full well we will not catch it, because nothing is perfect. But we are going to relentlessly chase it, because in the process we will catch excellence. I am not remotely interested in just being good." - V. Lombardi

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.” -  Aristotle

Doing what you love/Passion

"Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success. When you do a thing, do it with all your might. Put your whole soul into it. Stamp it with your own personality. Be active, be energetic, be enthusiastic and faithful and you will accomplish your object. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm" - R.W. Emerson

"Are you bored with life? Then throw yourself into some work you believe in with all your heart, live for it, die for it, and you will find happiness that you had thought could never be yours." - Dale Carnegie

“People who go to work to be a part of the cause don’t go home.  They are home.

Now - who wants to quit?” - Simon Sinek

“Passion won’t protect you against setbacks, but it will ensure that no failure is ever final.” - Bill Strickland

Teams

“It is amazing how much people get done if they do not worry about who gets the credit.” - Swahili proverb

“Individual commitment to a group effort - that is what makes a team work a company work, a society work, a civilization work.” - Vince Lombardi

“In teamwork, silence isn’t golden, it’s deadly.” - Mark Sanborn

“No member of a crew is praised for the rugged individuality of his rowing.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.” - Andrew Carnegie

“Whether it's two people, a department or an organization, teams are the means by which great things get done.” - Steven J. Stowell

"I think a lot of our team commitment is a silent understanding that each one of us has poured our life into what we're doing."  - Claire Carver-Dias

“Teamwork, dedication and friendship have a lot of play in all factors of life, including a robot contest.” - Damian Eveland

Helping Others/Cooperating

“Great discoveries and improvements invariably involve the cooperation of many minds. I may be given credit for having blazed the trail, but when I look at the subsequent developments I feel the credit is due to others rather than to myself.” - Alexander Graham Bell

“Competition is very rarely as useful as cooperation. Our society is geared toward competition — rip each other’s throats out, survival of the fittest, yada yada. But humans are meant to work together for the survival of the tribe, and cooperation pools our resources and allows everyone to contribute what they can. It requires a whole other set of people skills to work cooperatively, but it’s well worth the effort.” - Leo Babauta

“The things you do for yourself are gone when you are gone, but the things you do for others remain as your legacy.” - Kalu Ndukwe Kalu

“Cooperation is the thorough conviction that nobody can get there unless everybody gets there.” ~Virginia Burden

“Working together works.” - Dr. Rob Gilbert

“Everything in the world we want to do or get done, we must do with and through people.” - Earl Nightingale

“It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.” - Napoleon Hill

“People have been known to achieve more as a result of working with others than against them.” - Dr. Allan Fromme

“Competition has been shown to be useful up to a certain point and no further, but cooperation, which is the thing we must strive for today, begins where competition leaves off.” - Franklin D. Roosevelt

“A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life depend on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving.” - Albert Einstein

"It is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Success has nothing to do with what you gain in life or accomplish for yourself. It's what you do for others." - Danny Thomas

"An effort made for the happiness of others lifts us above ourselves." - Lydia M. Child

"As we help others, we cannot help but help ourselves." - Ben Cohen (cofounder, Ben & Jerry’s)

“Be an opener of doors for such as come after thee, and do not try to make the universe a blind alley.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him his own.” - Benjamin Disraeli

“It's not that successful people are givers; it is that givers are successful people.”  - Patti Thor

“People are smarter than you think. Give them a chance to prove themselves.” - Timothy Ferriss

“If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.” - George Bernard Shaw

Planning

“If you don't know where you are going, you'll end up someplace else.” - Yogi Berra

“Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.” - Stephen A. Brennan

“Expect the best. Prepare for the worst. Capitalize on what comes.” - Zig Ziglar

“Good plans shape good decisions. That's why good planning helps to make elusive dreams come true.” - Lester Robert Bittel

“Plan for what is difficult while it is easy, do what is great while it is small. The difficult things in this world must be done while they are easy, the greatest things in the world must be done while they are still small. For this reason sages never do what is great, and this is why they achieve greatness.” - Sun Tzu

“You can always amend a big plan, but you can never expand a little one. I don't believe in little plans. I believe in plans big enough to meet a situation which we can't possibly foresee now.” - Harry S. Truman

“However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.” - Winston Churchill

Kindness

“If only you could sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person.” - Fred Rogers

“There are three ways to ultimate success: The first way is to be kind. The second way is to be kind. The third way is to be kind.” - Fred Rogers

“why not always act as if the other guy is doing the favor?” - Seth Godin

“We are in the people business. It doesn’t matter if you’re in the banking business, your customers, you’re in the people business, and it’s how you treat people. I grew up with the thought that I wanted to treat people the way I’d like to be treated, and I think if you do that, it’s pretty hard to go wrong.” - Nolan Ryan

Thinking & Problem Solving

“If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking.” - George Patton

"Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason so few engage in it." - Henry Ford

"Most people spend more time and energy going around problems than in trying to solve them." - Henry Ford

“Usually we talk about whatever is the most urgent question right now. Sometimes, especially early on, the most urgent question is to figure out what the most urgent question should be.” - Paul Graham, What Happens at Y Combinator, February 2012.

Action

”Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.” - Will Rogers

“Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.” - William James

“Life is pretty simple: You do some stuff. Most fails. Some works. You do more of what works. If it works big, others quickly copy it. Then you do something else. The trick is in the doing something else.” - Tom Peters, Chicago Tribune, July 11, 1994.

Misc

“Slow down and remember this: Most things make no difference. Being busy is a form of mental laziness—lazy thinking and indiscriminate action.” - Timothy Ferriss

“if you are insecure, guess what? The rest of the world is, too. Do not overestimate the competition and underestimate yourself. You are better than you think.” - Timothy Ferriss

“Ideas come from everything” - Alfred Hitchcock

“Focus on being productive instead of busy.” - Timothy Ferriss

“How does a project get to be a year late? … One day at a time.” - Fred Brooks

“I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.” - Abraham Lincoln

“Asking a question is embarrassing for a moment, but not asking is embarrassing for a lifetime.” - Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore, 2006, p. 255.

“Everyone you meet is better than you at something.” - David Cain

It is easier than you'd think to get yourself crossed off a draft list. I advise my teams, "Be the team you'd want to partner with." - Joe Johnson

"What happens is not as important as how you react to what happens." - Ellen Glasgow

“It was character that got us out of bed, commitment that moved us into action, and discipline that enabled us to follow through.” - Zig Ziglar

“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.” - Dr. Seuss

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” - Dr. Seuss

“Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”

- Warren Buffett

“Usage is like oxygen for ideas. You can never fully anticipate how an audience is going to react to something you’ve created until it’s out there. That means every moment you’re working on something without it being in the public it’s actually dying, deprived of the oxygen of the real world.” - Matt Mullenweg

“Some luck lies in not getting what you thought you wanted but getting what you have, which once you have got it you may be smart enough to see is what you would have wanted had you known.” - Garrison Keillor Lake Wobegon Days (1985), p. 337

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.” - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, a very loose English paraphrase of his French poem Dessine-moi un bateau, or Make Me a Boat, found in Citadelle, 1948.

“You'll never get ahead of anyone as long as you try to get even with him.” - Lou Holtz

“It is in the compelling zest of high adventure and of victory, and in creative action, that man finds his supreme joys.” - Antoine de Saint-Exupery

“I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.” - Albert Einstein

"I never wear a watch, because I always know it's now -- and now is when you should do it." - Steve Mariucci

“The best way to honor someone who has said something smart and useful is to say something back that is smart and useful. The other way to honor them is to go do something with what you learned. Good listeners get what they deserve–better speakers.” - Seth Godin

“Be curious. Read widely. Try new things. What people call intelligence just boils down to curiosity.” - Aaron Swartz

“Being a role model is the most powerful form of educating” - John Wooden

“For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.” - Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics

August 26, 2013

Kiet Chau - This Is How I Work

The Holy Cows get the honor of being of our first team with two mentors featured on our blog. We have already highlighted their lead mentor Jon Jack and this week we're are featuring another of their mentors Kiet Chau. Kiet has been around FRC since 2004 and has grown up in the program. He's now an engineer with Qualcomm. Read further for the story of how FRC got him his current job, some great stories including some really quick robot rebuilding, and a lot more.

[Responses from July 22, 2013]

Name: Kiet Chau

CD Username: kiettyyyy

Current Gig/Job: Senior Engineer at Qualcomm Labs

Alma Mater/Degree: University of California, Riverside – 

Computer Engineering

Current Team(s): 1538, The Holy Cows (2010-Present)

Former Team(s): 968, Robotics Alliance of West Covina 

(2005-2011)

Location: San Diego, CA

Hobbies: Flying, Tinkering, and building robots

I'm extremely honored to be selected as an interviewee for this project. I’m not sure if there’s much that’s special about me, but, we’ll leave that for you to decide.

I started on FRC 968, Robotics Alliance of West Covina in the fall of 2004. I was a very poor student that didn't care much for school. My mentor, Travis Covington, really helped me turn myself around. I wasn't really involved in the hard core design work of a FRC robot until 2007. Until then, I was primarily involved in software development. RAWC did not have any software mentors. I came into the program knowing very little C and Basic. Fortunately, the time that I spent driving the robot around to debug/test new control schemes allowed me to become the base driver in 2006. I drove the base of our robots on Einstein in 2006 and 2008. I finally graduated from High School and started attending classes at University of California, Riverside in the fall of 2008.

During the 2009 FRC season, I led the team on all fronts and became the drive coach. I was heavily involved in mechanical design, fabrication as well as team logistics. Eventually, I tagged along with The Holy Cows in 2009 after becoming great friends with Jon Jack. Working in San Diego during the summers eventually pulled me in as a mentor with the team when I was offered a full time position.

When I’m not working on robots, I’m usually tinkering with stuff or flying my Cessna 172 with my girlfriend, Helen (another 1538 mentor) to really cool places. I earned my private pilot certificate September of last year and received my single engine instrument rating a few weeks ago. I’m currently working on my multi-engine rating. I love to fly.

What inspired you to do what you do? Tell us a story.

As a kid, I was always taking apart household items just to see what’s inside. I loved to continue to challenge myself. My dad introduced me to computers at a very young age and got me started with computer networking using token ring networks. At this point, I just loved computers and wanted to be one of those guys who got to put awesome computing devices in every day places. At the beginning of my sophomore year in high school, I decided that I wanted to create a game server hosting company, Vivid-Hosting. This business eventually turned into an internet transit company that caters to small to medium sized businesses in the Los Angeles area. After playing the role of systems admin / network engineer at many companies including my own, I figured that I wasn’t challenged and wanted more. At that point in time, I started to put in a significant amount of effort into 968 as their programming student.

What is your day job, and how’d you get there?

It was my senior year on 968 at the San Diego Regional. Earlier during the build season, in addition to working on the robot, I came up with a scouting platform that was a web application which was viewed on an iPod/iPhone. It did a bunch of cool stuff in terms of generating scouting information that was super crucial for the successful outcome of a match. It happened to be that my mentor, Travis Covington, had demoed it to our regional director who eventually mentioned it to a VP of engineering at Qualcomm. This VP asked me to interview for an internship position at their research and development division in San Diego. I interviewed and was selected for the position.

I began my career at Qualcomm in 2008 at their Corporate Research and Development group working on cellular base stations for LTE. Eventually, I moved onto another project which worked on neuromorphic computing for another 3 years where I was designing and building robots for my day job! During the winter of 2011, just before I was going to return to school, Qualcomm offered me a full time position as a Senior Engineer. I’m still attending class to complete my Bachelors of Science degree.

Just recently, I moved to another division called Qualcomm Labs, which is an incubation engine within Qualcomm to pursue research and development projects that are very short term. Basically, I get to build really cool things very often J

What is your favorite story to tell about robotics?

It’d probably be the one where I learned a lot about listening to much greater mechanical design minds J

While on 968 in 2011, just 2 days before the San Diego Regional, we finally completed our practice robot. It was relatively simple, a single jointed arm with a roller claw that telescoped inside of another tube. Unfortunately, I designed the arm to have a long lever that was some box extrusion to be welded onto the surface of some round 3” tubing. There was no support to transfer the torque between the sprocket mounted to the side of the tubing with welded inserts. We just finished writing our main control software while the students practiced for the event. I happened to be on the phone talking with Jon Jack on The Holy Cows about our robot and possibly sketchy arm. I heard a loud high pitched ping and said “I think that loud noise was our arm… I’ll call you back”. Sure as hell, the arm snapped at the weldment. It was about 10PM and I had class the next morning.

During the next 6 hours, I designed a tube that was an insert for the first stage of the telescope and modified the round tubing so that it’d mate with the insert. That way, the torque would not have to be transferred via a few weldments, but, a pressed fitted tube and weldment.

A couple of the mentors and I went to the high school and began fabricating the round tube with some really, really ghetto tools. Keep in mind, 968 does NOT have a CNC mill to work with at its shop. After getting the tube made, we prepped some materials for me to take to Riverside before class to get made.

After class, I picked up our new inserts and headed on down to a sponsor, Ride and Show (the folks who made the monorail at Disneyland) to get the new arm welded. After getting the arm welded in a matter of an hour or so, I drove the arm down to our powder coat sponsor in Brea for a quick turn.

We picked up the part on the way to the regional and carried it in with our parts allowance. It worked well!

Best part? All of the folks who knew we had a broken arm on our practice robot could not figure out how we managed to get a newly designed and fabricated arm, complete with powder coat done in less than 48 hours before a regional. It was an impressive feat.

What's your favorite robot that you didn't help build?

It’s 254’s 2011 robot. This team is the epitome of engineering elegance. Every single part and component is designed with performance and aesthetics in mind. I mean, have you looked at their tube grabber gearbox? Aside from the mechanical stuff, the software was awesome! You can’t have a good robot that just has a great drivetrain and game piece manipulator, you have to have good software!

What apps/software/tools can't you live without? (Work/Robotics/Home)

I do all of my mechanical CAD work in Solidworks. I do the majority of my board design work in Cadence and occasionally in Eagle when I’m at home. My go-to software development IDE (integrated development environment) is Visual Studio when I get to develop in Windows environments. When I have to develop for *nix or Mac OS X, I typically use Vi as my editor.

What's your workspace setup like? (Work/Robotics/Home)At work, I have two 22” along with a nice mechanical keyboard (one that’s not too loud) and a giant steel series QCK mouse pad. We did a bit of gaming at work on my old projects.

What do you listen to while you work?

I listen to lots of stuff on Spotify and XM Radio. Typically I listen to alternative rock and sometimes go through phases of 90’s hip-hop and occasionally some top tracks from the 2000’s.

What’s your schedule like during build season?

Typically, I'd put in a 9 hour day at work and get off around 5 or 6PM. I’d start my robotics day around then and leave around 10PM during the weekdays  During the weekends, we'd start around 10AM and leave past midnight. This usually gets pushed out further when we have deadlines to meet. It’s a really intense schedule, but it’s what’s needed to ensure that our team builds a quality machine. I typically wear many hats on the team including working on software, mechanical design and fabrication with our students.

What everyday thing are you better at than anyone else?

Keeping my hands clean. I have a bit of a problem.

What's the best advice you've ever received?

“Do what you love”. It’s worked out for me pretty well.

What is your favorite guilty pleasure?

I love soda…. And lots of it... Specifically, Mr. Pibb

Fill in the blank. I'd love to see ________ answer these same questions.

Travis Covington from 254. He’s the mentor that worked with me as a student and continues to inspire me to this day.

Anything else you want people to know about you?

Nope!

September 2, 2013

David Bodmer - This Is How I Work

This week we have our first mentor from the Mid-Atlantic Region (MAR) District. David Bodmer is the lead mentor for FRC#11 MORT and their Beta team FRC#193.  David shares with us a great story about arranging transportation to a regional the day of the event, his reason for why he loves what he does, and several great quotes.

[Responses from July 29, 2013]

Name:  David Bodmer

CD Username:  Mr. B

Current Gig/Job: Lead Mentor/Project Manager for FRC 11 & FRC 193 and Robotics Engineering Teacher at the Mt. Olive High School

Alma Mater/Degree: BS Technological Studies, 1993 – College of New Jersey

Current Team(s): FRC 11 & FRC 193

Former Team(s): FRC 56

Location: Mt. Olive High School, 18 Corey Road, Flanders, NJ 07836

Hobbies: Spending time with family, music (listening and playing), Indycar Racing, Civil War History, travel, log homes, and spending time at the shore!

What inspired you to do what you do?

For me it all started with my high school drafting teacher Mr. Johnson.  I loved my wood shop and drafting classes and would spend all of my extra time in those classes.  Any chance to design and build something, I was there!  It was awesome.  He was a major influence for me and gave me the guidance needed to pursue a career in education.  Where I am today is above my wildest expectations from when I started teaching in 1993.  To be a part of the FRC 11 & FRC 193 families is amazing!  My job allows me to work a talented group of people as we design, build, and compete with a robot built in our shops, what else could you ask for?  It’s AWESOME!  I love what I do and being able to get students excited about Engineering and STEM Education with the hope of making a difference in their futures makes all the long days and meetings worth it!

What is your day job, and how’d you get there? 

I teach the Robotics Engineering courses at the Mt. Olive High School and am Lead Mentor/Project Manager for FRC 11 & FRC 193 based out of the Mt. Olive High School.  My entire professional teaching career has spanned from being a Middle School Tech Ed teacher all the way to my current position which is solely focused on Robotics Engineering and our FIRST program.  The road to my current job was not a straight path and had its twists and turns, but I used all of those turns in the road as an opportunity to learn about myself and my profession.  I can say that where I am currently is the best environment for myself, my students, my mentors, and parents!  We have something special developing here and it’s something that I am very proud to be a part of!

What is your favorite story to tell about robotics?

2011 – Our team was scheduled to attend the Palmetto Regional and travel via Amtrak to North Charleston, SC for the event.  The morning we were set to leave for SC, we had a snow storm in New Jersey and our district busing was suspended due to the poor weather.  We ended up missing our 6:30 AM train!  I sent everyone home and then was making calls with my wife in our home office trying to get a charter bus that would take us to the SC!  To make a long story short, we had the bus arranged by 11:00 AM that morning and we were on our way to SC!  We made a bus change in Fayetteville, NC at about 11:00 PM (which we didn’t have lined up until we got through Washington, DC!), transferred out luggage and gear from one bus to the other, and then back on the road!  We arrived in SC at 2:30 AM and the over to the venue by 7:30 AM.  Needless to say we were exhausted, but in true MORT fashion we put our best effort forward and had a great regional winning the Chairman’s Award and event Semi-Finalist!

What's your favorite robot that you didn't help build?

FRC 469 - 2010

What apps/software/tools can't you live without? (Work/Robotics/Home)

Google Mail!!!!!!!

Remind101

Facebook

Twitter

Cell phone & iPad

What's your workspace setup like? (Work/Robotics/Home)

My space at school and home are similar - they are both a mess!  I have papers, folders, and binders stacked all over the place!  In true mad scientist style, it looks like a mess to the outside world, but to me I know where everything is and for me it works!  Sorry to all of you who keep neat work spaces, not my style!  The most organized piece for me is my backpack which I use daily and for team travel!  That bag is my lifeline for all that is FIRST and MORT!

What do you listen to while you work?

Sugarland or anything country

XM Radio – The Highway, The Pulse

Classic Rock – Beatles, Genesis, Police, The Who, my list here could go on and on!

Occasionally some heavy metal (Metallica, Queensryche to name a few)

What’s your schedule like during build season?

Monday-Friday - 6:30 – 9:30 PM

Saturday - 8:00 AM – 6:00 PM

Sunday - 12 noon – 6:00 PM

What everyday thing are you better at than anyone else?

Tough one to answer, but what comes to mind for me is my ability to listen.  It’s very easy to always want to get in your point of view or ideas, but to me the more critical piece is the ability to listen to others.  Taking the time to listen to others shows that I value their ideas and leads to a higher level of communication and trust with all involved in our program.

What's the best advice you've ever received?

Another tough one!  Over my years of teaching I’ve had many that offered advice to help me as a person and a professional.  The one that comes to mind is more recently when one of our team mentors, Terry Thomas pulled me aside while at FIRST Championships and we got into a discussion about why are we doing this (FIRST)….his point was that we are here to nurture and develop human beings.  While we all want to achieve levels of success on and off the field of play, the bigger and more important goal is that we are here to provide our students, mentors, and parents with the opportunity to develop and grow into human beings that will have a positive impact on our society and world. By taking the time to understand that in one form or another we all add value to our world. This is a critical concept/idea and one that I can obtain through the FIRST program.

What is your favorite guilty pleasure?

 Dark chocolate…the darker the better!

Fill in the blank. I'd love to see __________ answer these same questions.

FRC 359’s Glenn Lee!

Anything else you want people to know about you?

I enjoy reading books by successful coaches and business people and would recommend to anyone looking to become a stronger leader for their program to check out the following people and read up on them, they are amazing people and have so much to offer all of us! 

John Wooden

Mike Krzyzewski

Lou Holtz

John C. Maxwell

Abraham Lincoln

Tony Robbins

Brian Tracy

“Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”  

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Ordinary people with commitment can make an extraordinary impact on their world.”  

- John C. Maxwell

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

- Albert Einstein

September 4, 2013

Pipefall Fall Project Day 1

Yesterday we kicked off our Pipefall fall project. We went over the game rules and started the initial brainstorming like we would do on a real kickoff.
Here is the collaborative document we use to take notes on the game. This is a little less flushed out than one that normally comes out of our kickoff meetings but we also only had 2.5 hours instead of 10 or 12 like we do on the real kickoff day. Also all of the jokes and random things are pretty standard as well. Here is our 2013 kickoff document from Ultimate Ascent for comparison. We will be expanding on this throughout the week and prototyping will begin shortly.
We also broke down our cart today, hopefully it will be powder coated in the next few weeks.
- Spectrum
“The will to succeed is important, but the will to prepare is more important.” - Bobby Knight

September 7, 2013

1st Pipefall Prototype

We built our first prototype collector today for the Pipefall game.

Its a very basic roller claw. We will continue building multiple prototypes over the course of the next few weeks.
- Spectrum
“Remember kids, the only difference between screwing around and science is writing it down.” - Adam Savage

September 9, 2013

Norman Morgan - This Is How I Work

Norman Morgan, or Coach Norm as he is known to most, has been coaching FRC#2468 since their inception six years ago. 2013 was a breakout year for team 2468, winning the Hub City Regional Chairman's Award, finally taking home their first regional banner at the Alamo Regional, and putting on a great performance on the Archimedes field at the Championship event. Coach Norm has been a huge part of that success and was honored by being presented the 2013 Hub City Woodie Flowers Finalist award. Coach Norm is truly dedicated to his students and spreading STEM in the community. Coach Norm expands on why he got into education, how he got the opportunity to coach Team Appreciate, and much more.

[Responses from July 30, 2013]

Name:  Norman Morgan

CD Username: Coach Norm

Current Gig/Job: Robotics Teacher/Head Robotics Coach/District Coordinator

Alma Mater/Degree: Waylang Baptist University, Bachelors of Science in Education

Texas State University, Master of Education in Educational Leadership

Current Team(s): FRC 2468, FTC 3781, 5628, 6504, 6710

Former Team(s): none

Location: Westlake High School, Eanes ISD,  Austin, Texas

Hobbies: Reading, Yellow Lab Puppy, Sports, Playing with technology

What inspired you to do what you do? Tell us a story.

I am a 4th generation teacher and the son of two teachers.  I watched my Dad work as an Ag/FFA teacher with students and the impact he had on their lives with after-school projects.  I went into education as a basketball coach, even paid for my college with a scholarship.  I wanted to a job that allowed me to not only work with young people, but also give me a chance to continue to learn each and every day. I went into the profession really because I was going to get paid to do something that I thought was fun and exciting.  I was getting paid to play each and every day - what better job could there be?

What is your day job, and how’d you get there?

I am the lead robotics teacher and coach at Westlake High School in Eanes ISD.  My principal called me six years ago with a very leading question: “Norman, Do you have an open mind?”. She went on to ask me to start the robotics program for our school which I had helped do some research on.  We started out with 35 seniors, one junior, and one freshman that year.  The program has now grown to classes for 7th thru 12th grade and over 130 students participating in after-school robotics teams for those grades.  I teach three levels of classes in the high school including Concepts of Engineering and Technology, Scientific Research, and Design I and II.  I am the CEO for lack of a better term for our district Robotics program.

What is your favorite story to tell about robotics?

In seventeen years of coaching athletics, I never once had a professional coach much less a college coach volunteer to spend time with students in the gym on a regular basis.  I currently have 16 professional coaches who volunteer each and every week to work with our students on their projects.  These professional coaches (mentors) provide knowledge, skills, and connections that I as a high school teacher can never provide for my students. I do not have to be the expert. Teaching is not about giving someone the answer. I think teaching is about providing the environment for students to grow and learn. The mentors and I provide this environment by leading the students on the projects.  

What's your favorite robot that you didn't help build?

Wow, that is a tough question.  Teams like 1477, 118, 148, and 624 are local teams that inspire me every year with their robots.  The robot that has most impressed me is probably FRC 1114’s  Simbot SS.   2008 was our Rookie year and we had a chance to watch Simbot SS at Championships in Atlanta.  The robot was simple, functional and elegant.  I was amazed at the efficiency of the machine.  

What apps/software/tools can't you live without? (Work/Robotics/Home)

I am a technology geek at heart.  Twitter has been a huge part of my professional development for the past several years.  I use Tweetdeck for both my Mac and PC computers.  iPad apps include Zite, Flipboard, iTunesU for my class as well as for me personally. Numbers, Pages, iBooks, Linkedin, Google+, Kindle for iPad, and Nook for iPad.

SolidWorks for CAD on the PC, Google Drive and online docs, Dropbox, Evernote, Skype, Facetime.  

What's your workspace setup like? (Work/Robotics/Home)

We work out of our classroom and shop which used to be one classroom. The shop is 18’ x 30’ and the classroom is also the same size.  We have an additional storage area down the hall we got this past year that we use for storage and an electronics workbench area.  We share this space between our FRC team and our four  FTC teams.  We have a Jet lathe, Grizzly vertical mill, drill press, band saw, portable saw, and Makerbot Replicator 2.  We have on order a 28” x 50” gantry style 2 ½ D CNC. The past few years, we have borrowed a similar CNC from our mentors that we use for the duration of the FRC season. We practice wherever we can arrange including outside the back of the shop, school hallway, cafeteria, etc.   

What do you listen to while you work?

I listen to anything from Youtube videos, podcasts, sports talk radio, Pandora, etc. while I work in the classroom/shop.   I personally like  country and classic rock. John Fogelberg is awesome.  We do not always listen to music in the shop, although we have a student who has an obsession of Taylor Swift.  I usually let the students control the music in the shop when we work.

What’s your schedule like during build season?

Our school day ends at 4:05 and we have most of the students on the robotics team in the last period of the day.  During season, we use the class for more of a study hall for most of the students.  We have a proposed work time that follows.

Our typical build schedule is:

Monday/Wednesday - 4:30 - 7:30 although that usually leaks over to 8:30

Tuesday/Thursday - 6:00 - 9:30 and that usually leaks over as well.

Friday - No Work until late in the build season

Saturday - 9:30 am - 4:00 pm scheduled  time but  most often that time extends as well

Sunday - not scheduled until the last few weeks before bag and tag.

Many times the students are willing and able to stay longer in the evenings to work with the input of mentors who usually do not get to the shop until 7:00ish.

We are always struggling to manage our time better.

What everyday thing are you better at than anyone else

If you were to ask my team, mentors and parents, it would probably be strategy.  I analyze each and every match from a coach’s point of view.  I was a basketball coach for 17 years prior to becoming a robotics teacher/coach.  My background of coaching has given me a different perspective than most others.  Strategy, to me, is something that can be evaluated continually not just at the beginning of the season or when you are making your pick list.  

What's the best advice you've ever received?

The best advice I ever received was from my Aunt Kaki.  She painted a poster with the following saying on it “I am not judged by the number of times I fail l but by the number of times I succeed; and the number of times I succeed is in direct proportion to the number of I can fail.”  It hung on my wall in my bedroom above my bed.  I read it everyday from the time I was 12 years old until I graduated from college.  

What is your favorite guilty pleasure?

Candy (Hot Tamales, Dots, Candy Sours) and my wife’s cookies.

Fill in the blank. I'd love to see John Novak from Bomb Squad answer these same questions.

Anything else you want people to know about you?

I consider myself a lifelong learner and believe that we all should be learning something new everyday.  

"I am not judged by the number of times I fail but by the number of times I succeed; and the number of times I succeed is in direct proportion to the number of times I can fail." - Tom Hopkins

September 10, 2013

VEX Toss Up, Ball Shifters, and Canstruction

Today we had multiple groups working on several projects. We had our seniors working on their VEX robots for Toss Up.

Our new students were putting together two VEXPro Ball Shifters. The gearboxes went together very smoothly. They will be used on our fall prototype FRC robot.

We also had our 1st Canstruction meeting of the year with English + Associates Architects, Inc.

Very productive day overall.

- Spectrum

“Perfection and polish aren't nearly as important as good light, good drainage and a passionate gardener.” - Seth Godin

September 16, 2013

Justin Montois - This Is How I Work

This week we are featuring one of the creators of Mike and Justin in the Morning and FRC Top 25, Justin Montois. Justin has helped develop one of the most popular webcast shows in the FRC community. Each week during the competition season they compile votes and do a Top 25 show. These shows also recap many of the hot topics of the week in FRC. If you're not tuning in, you should be. The viewer chats during the webcasts are entertaining and sometimes even informative. This year they also started FRC Premier Night where they unveiled many of this seasons release videos. We interviewed Justin about his time in FRC, his role on GRR, and much more.

[Responses from July 30, 2013]

Name: Justin Montois

CD Username: JustinMontois (Formerly 340x4xlife)

Current Gig/Job: Student / Robotics Summer Camp Instructor

Alma Mater/Degree: SUNY Oswego

Current Team(s): 340 GRR (Greater Rochester Robotics)

Former Team(s): None

Location: Rochester, NY

Hobbies: Robotics, Bass Fishing, Disc Golf, Ball Golf, watching sports, mainly Hockey (Sabres) and Football (49ers and Stanford)

I want to thank Team 3847 for the opportunity for me to participate in this great initiative. The opportunity to learn about other people in the FRC community is great.

My involvement in Team 340 started in 2005. During the first few years, I didn't do much beyond some CAD work. I didn’t say much and learned from others. Since then, my main role on the team has been strategy and mechanical design. I was part of the design team of our kicker in 2010, Minibot in 2011, Dumping Arm and Pickup in 2012, and Climbing Mechanism in 2013.

I’ve also served as the Drive Team coach in 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2013. Coaching for me has been an incredibly stressful, but an equally awesome opportunity. I love strategizing for each match with my drive team and that of my alliance partners. I feel like I’m getting better as a coach mostly due to conversations I've had with some of the best drive coaches and strategists in FRC. I look up to those guys so much and you and I know who they are (Karthik Kanagasabapathy, Jim Zondag, Adam Freeman, Tyler Holtzman, and others).

If you want to be successful, learn from these guys and others around you that can help you get to where you want to be. They are more than happy to talk to you. Like me, they love this stuff and they love talking about it. That’s what makes FRC special. Even Jim and John Harbaugh, brothers and NFL coaches, are sometimes reluctant to share information with one another. In FRC, most people are more than happy to talk and help out. Remember the onus is on you to step up, not for them to reach out.

What inspired you to do what you do? Tell us a story. 

If I met my 8 year old self, I would easily be able to tell I would end up where I am now. I’ve always had an interest in robotics. I loved playing with LEGO’s and taking stuff apart. I’ve also always had a love for educating others. The connection that is made when a person is able to teach another person a skill, or give them a cool fact, is special to me. Making someone else go: “Ohhhhhhh I get it now” is an amazing thing.

When I joined Team 340 in 2005, I was able to combine my two passions. I was able to teach high school kids cool things and build robots at the same time. That combination is what makes FIRST so special. One thing that isn't always talked about and that I’m sure isn't unique to me is the relationships you develop with students. I have become friends with many of the students on the team that goes beyond the regular mentor-student relationship. Those friendships mean a lot to me and I think it means a lot to them as well. It’s definitely a two way street. I often get just as much as they do out of our friendship.

What is your day job, and how’d you get there? 

My “day job” is being a student during the school year and a Summer Camp instructor at the Rochester Museum and Science Center during the Summer. This fall will be my last semester at SUNY Oswego where I am finishing up my degree in Technology Education. Being an educator was always something I imagined myself doing. I originally wanted to teach American History, because it’s viewed by many students as a boring subject and I thought I could change that. But, due to some fantastic teachers I decided the technology classroom is where I wanted to be.

What is your favorite story to tell about robotics?

One of my favorite stories to tell is about our run in eliminations at the Finger Lakes Regional in 2009. It was my first year as drive coach and our robot was terrible. The purpose of the game, if you don’t know, was to score “balls” into a trailer attached to the robots of the opposing alliance and at the same time they were trying to score in your trailer. Well at FLR in 2009, our robot scored a grand total of 1 ball that I remember. And it was a lucky bounce off the driver station.

But for me, what makes the story so compelling was the adaptation of our robot to execute a strategy. We were selected by Teams 1511 and 316 to join the #7 alliance. We had to face the #2 seed of 1503, 191, and 173 in the QF. 1511 and 316 were decent scorers, but we weren’t. The only chance we had was the endgame where up to 4 SuperCells could be scored by robots or human players for 15 points each.

Our robot became the Empty Cell transporter which was a task you needed to accomplish in order to score SuperCells. We beat the #2 and #3 alliances on the way to the finals by getting our human player the opportunity to hit the opposing teams trailers with some SuperCells and he rarely missed.  We lost to the #1 alliance of 1507 and company, but it was a great lesson in strategy and execution and really demonstrated how important it is to not necessarily select the best robots, but the right ones.

What's your favorite robot that you didn't help build?

Awesome question. I have a few if that’s ok….

• 71 in 2002 - Read the rules, understood the game perfectly, and flawlessly executed the strategy. Domination.
• 67 in 2005 - It was the first time I saw a powerhouse team truly dominate. HOT dominated the “Flop” bot style
• 1114 in 2008 - Elegant machine that handled a giant ball with grace.
• 148 in 2008 - Showcased that picking a “Simpler Strategy” can work if you’re truly the best at it
• 469 in 2011 - Holy fast elevator Batman.
• 1114 in 2012 - Simbot Jordan lived up to its moniker
• 987 in 2013 - Maybe the turret wasn’t necessary, but it sure was awesome
• 118 in 2013 - How they packed all that mechanism into a robot that was less than 30” tall was incredible.

What apps/software/tools can't you live without? (Work/Robotics/Home)

All I need to design is whiteboard markers and Autodesk Inventor. I wouldn't be able to function without those two things. I also love Twitter if that counts as an ‘App’. @jmontois340

What do you listen to while you work?

I like to think I’m pretty diverse. Country dominates my Spotify playlists but I’ll listen to anything as long as it sounds good. Classic Rock, Alternative, Rap, Oldies, Showtunes, Motown, Classical, and others all make appearances.

What’s your schedule like during build season?

As a team, we meet Monday, Thursday, and Saturday. However I’m usually trying to get in the shop as often as possible. When I’m not in the shop, I'm thinking about whichever part of the design process we are in. There are times I try to disconnect, but I find it incredibly difficult. Also CAD never ends.

What everyday thing are you better at than anyone else?

Nothing. There’s always someone better than you out there. However, I think that I’m pretty good at remembering movies lines and things like that, especially from comedies.

What's the best advice you've ever received?

Find your passion. I think one of the biggest things I see with a lot of people in the workforce today is that they are working in a job that might provide well for them financially, but they aren’t passionate about what they do. However, they may very well have that job in order to have their passion outside of work. Regardless of what it is or what it takes to get there, find your passion, and do it.

What is your favorite guilty pleasure?

Binge watching TV series.  

Fill in the blank. I'd love to see ________ answer these same questions.

Karthik Kanagasabapathy from 1114 answer these questions.

“Winning is not a sometime thing; it's an all time thing. You don't win once in a while, you don't do things right once in a while, you do them right all the time. Winning is habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.”
- Vince Lombardi

October 15, 2013

Karthik Kanagasabapathy - This Is How I Work

We have been on a short hiatus but we’re back with a bang. 

Today we have one of the most well known mentors/MCs/VEX Game Designers/Simbots in the robotics community, Karthik Kanagasabapathy. He was a founding member of FRC#188 - Woburn Robotics, the 1st Canadian FRC team, and from there his passion for robotics competition grew. Karthik’s accomplishments need little introduction. He has been essential in developing FRC #1114 into a World Champion and Championship Chairman’s Award winning team. He is the Chairman of the VRC Game Design Committee and helps spread competitive robotics to thousands of teams around the world each year. He’s extremely active in the community, answering all of the VEX Q&A each year and having a consistent presence on Chiefdelphi. His strategy presentations the past few years have been standing room only events at FRC Championship. In this interview he tells you how he was brought into 1114, shares the best advice he’s ever received, and offers loads of advice for students and mentors alike.

[Responses from August 16, 2013]

Name: Karthik Kanagasabapathy
CD Username: Karthik
Current Gig/Job: Regional Manager & Chariman of the VEX Robotics Game Design Committee, Innovation First Intentional - Canada, Inc.
Alma Mater/Degree: University of Waterloo, Pure Mathematics
Current Team(s): Team 1114 - Simbotics (2004-Present)
Former Team(s): Team 188 - Woburn Robotics (1998-1999, one of many founding members of the first ever Canadian FRC team)
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Hobbies: Sports, Analytics, Fashion, City Life, Reading

What is your day job? I work for Innovation First International (IFI) in our Canadian office. Here I oversee all VEX Robotics operations and doings in Canada. I have other responsibilities including supporting IFI's other businesses in Canada, Rack Solutions and Hexbug. The highlight of my job is being the Chairman of Game Design Committees for both the VEX Robotics Competition and the new VEX IQ Challenge. I'm responsible for coordinating and participating in the development of both games, and I am also the primary author of both game manuals. In a nutshell, I get to design competition robotics games with a committee of brilliant people (Paul Copioli, John V-Neun, Tony Norman, Dan Larochelle, Bob Mimlitch, Rich Kressly, Jason Morrella, Mike Soukup, and more!), and then write the rules that are going to be examined and dissected by upwards of hundreds of thousands of students worldwide!

What is your favorite story to tell about robotics? One of these days I'm going to write a novel about my FIRST experiences on 1114. I'm not sure anyone would want to read it, but there are so many stories I'd love to get down on paper. Of course at this exact moment, I'm drawing a blank. All the ones I can think of are all probably a bit too long for this article (i.e. The formation of our 2008 World Championship Alliance, The Einstein 2012 Fiasco, etc.) Oh, wait, here's a good one. It's the story of how I joined Team 1114. During the 2003 season, I was in the midst of a pretty busy semester at the University of Waterloo. So instead of mentoring a team, I did what a responsible university student should do, and took the season off from FIRST. (This may have been the only time I was ever described as a "responsible university student", but let's roll with it. In all seriousness, this is important advice for any young mentor. School always comes first. You have your entire life to be an FRC mentor, but only 3-5 years of undergrad. Your GPA will stick with you for a looooong time, especially if you're particularly ambitious. Don't mess it up by spending too much time mentoring/running a team). I went to the 2003 Canadian Regional (now the Greater Toronto Regional West) as a spectator. I didn't even have time commit to being a volunteer, so I randomly grabbed a seat in the stands and watched matches. While watching, I was kind of talking to myself, analyzing the various teams on the field. There was one rookie team that I was particularly captivated by. They had a drivetrain with steerable wheel modules, and were the only team at the event who could stack bins, and they were stacking easily, like way too easily. It was clear that there was some real engineering talent on this team. It was the most impressive engineered rookie robot that I had ever seen. On the other hand, as most veterans of 2003 know, stacking was not the optimal strategy in Stack Attack, as it was very hard to do, and very easy to undo. The effort to reward ratio was completely out of whack. The best teams in FIRST that year specialized in knocking over stacks. I started thinking aloud about what this team could have accomplished with a different strategic design, one that focused on game tasks that were more optimized towards the match objectives. Well, the random person that I was sitting beside was interested in what I had to say, so we started up a conversation about this team. Turns out his name was Stephen Rourke, Director of Engineering at GM St. Catharine's, and he was founding mentor of Team 1114. The team that I was analyzing on the field? You guessed it, Team 1114. We talked for a while that weekend, and by the end of it he said, "If you ever want a job at GM, just let me know."  A few weeks later I got in contact with him when I was looking for an internship, and he emailed me saying "How are your project management skills? Would you like to run Team 1114?". And that's how I ended up being a Simbot.

What's your favorite robot that you didn't help build? 

Team 71, Beatty, 2002. That robot broke all conventional thought patterns on what a robot was capable of doing. It was an incredibly risky strategy decision (A robot that can't turn? Really?), and a nearly impossible design. The fact that they nailed it so perfectly is still awe inspiring to me. I'll never forget seeing the Beatty BEAST dragging three 180 pound goals, along with two 120 pound robots (dominant robots, 67 and 68!) as if they were rag dolls. Seriously, watch this: (Beatty 2002 Season Recap at the 1:00:24 mark, in case the link didn't take you there automatically)

469, Las Guerillas, 2010 is next on that list, for all the same reasons. What can I say, I'm a fan of chokeholds.

What apps/software/tools can't you live without? (Work/Robotics/Home) 

I'm honestly not that much of a techie at all, but at the same time, I'm addicted to the tools I have. I practically break out in chills if I'm away from my BlackBerry for more than a few minutes. I have a new BlackBerry Z10, and it's my ultimate productivity device. The BlackBerry Hub does a great job of compiling everything from all my various accounts (personal email, work email, texts, BBM, calendar, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) and providing it to me in an easily filterable and searchable environment that allows me to remain hyper connected at all times. The device really does allow me to "Keep Moving". It's too bad BlackBerry is struggling to stay afloat, considering the Z10 is such a useful device. I'm actually considering going out and buying three right now, just so I can still keep using them if BlackBerry gets out of the Smartphone hardware business. I'm a big fan of products such as Google Drive and Dropbox, which allow for seamless collaboration by multiple people from multiple sites. This is especially important to 1114, where almost all of our mentors live at least one hour from the build site and have very busy day jobs. Other things that are a must for me are red pens, 0.5mm mechanical pencils, compact notebooks/pads, and a high quality white rubber eraser. (Seriously, I detest people who do math with fat pencils, it just looks awful.) Oh, and sticky notes.

I'm pretty sure I proved my lack of tech savvy by listing pencils and erasers as some of the tools I can't live without...

What's your workspace setup like? (Work/Robotics/Home) 

I'm kind of a neat freak, so my office layout is set up to minimize clutter. I have my laptop, which is always plugged into a 24" monitor so I have more real estate to work with. I also like to have a lot of open desk space so I can spread documents out without having them being cluttered. For my projects at home, I used to always have a giant cork board that I could pin articles and notes to (a la Carrie Mathison on Homeland). The fact that I don't have one of those going right now is a sign that I haven't been really firing on all cylinders on any new ideas/projects. Hmmm.

What do you listen to while you work? 

My music is totally dependent on my mood, which tends to be very independent of work. Hip Hop is great when I really want to lockdown and engage on a project. Sunny days make me want to listen to a lot of 90's pop punk; rainy days always end up with me listening to something more mellow like Dashboard. If I need to get pumped up, well then I'm going to skate to one song and one song only... #BallSoHard

What’s your schedule like during build season?  Work from 9:30 to 5:30, nap from 6:00 to 8:00, then dive into FIRST stuff from the rest of the evening/night. Friday nights after work I head down to St. Catharine's, where we work in the shop until about 1:00am. The mentors then gather at the team clubhouse and discuss the latest happenings for an hour or two. Saturday morning we head to the shop at 10:00am and work until 1:00am, and the process repeats. On Sundays I call it a night at 6:00pm-ish and head back to Toronto. The biggest task we have on Sundays is making sure everyone has a plan for what needs to be done during the week, especially the students, since they work fairly independently of the mentors during the week. 

What everyday thing are you better at than anyone else? 

Once you get into the trap of thinking you're better at anything thing than everyone else, you instantly fall into complacency, which is very dangerous. I'd like to think I'm pretty good at a lot things (although I'm certain others would disagree)...fast thinking, analytic problem solving, recognizing patterns, reading people's emotions, but I would never make the claim that I'm better than everyone else at any of these. There are too many people in this world to ever be certain of something like that.

On the other hand, I probably could have just answered this question with "Looking good. Being charming" (the aforementioned others would have probably said "Losing his hair. Being delusional.").

What's the best advice you've ever received? 

It's tough to choose just one option. I'll go with some advice from my former boss, the late Stephen Rourke. "You can't get what you don't ask for." The world is filled with opportunities, but if you spend your life waiting for opportunities to be handed to you, you'll miss out on almost all of them. You need to seek these opportunities out and straight up ask for them. The worst that can happen is that someone says "No". Want that dream job, even though it's a long shot? Apply for it! Want to be picked by 67 at Champs? Ask them? Want to talk to the hottest guy/girl in room? Go up and start a conversation! Don't be the person sitting on the sidelines with a boring job, missing eliminations, and an ugly significant other! Rejection really isn't that bad; you're never going to climb a mountain without a few scrapes.

Another great piece of advice is to make sure you always have at least three mentors in your life. When I say mentor here, I'm referring to someone with a lot of experience who is an active participant in your life; someone you can always reach out to for advice and guidance. A lot of FIRST students think the need for mentorship ends when they finish high school. The thing is, learning is a lifelong process. If you stop being open to mentorship when you're 18, you will stagnate quickly. Experience is a key to success, and cannot be replicated, but mentorship can certainly accelerate the process of gaining experience.

What is your favorite guilty pleasure? 

Heh, that's a dangerous question. I'll always been a proponent of the "Work Hard, Play Hard" philosophy, as such I can be a bit hedonistic from time to time. Also, I'm really on a high fashion kick when it comes to formal wear. I'm all about custom suits and shirting. There's nothing quite like a suit that's perfectly tailored and fits like a glove. My goal is to have a closet like Jay Gatsby, so I can start throwing around custom shirts of every colour and pattern, all monogrammed with KK. Oh yeah, and of course there are Jordans. I love my Jordans.

Fill in the blank. I'd love to see  EJ Sabathia (254)  answer these same questions.

Anything else you want people to know about you?

I had the opportunity to do a TEDx talk this past winter. I think it's worth watching. If you enjoy it, share it with some people. Here's the link: http://youtu.be/MfC3JdkEVgQ

I'm fairly obsessed with sports, from historical and statistical perspectives, but also just the grandeur and beauty of the stories behind professional sports. There's nothing quite like being a fan. People often ask me why I'm so captivated by FIRST, simply put, despite not being a sport, it captures much of what makes sports so great.
If you have any questions for me, feel free to reach out to me on Twitter (@kkanagas) or on Facebook (karthik.kanagasabapathy).