Video Request

Okay...so a while back a person commented on our blog from China. We corresponded with them via email and they were interested in how our robot worked more. So for those of you who wanted to see our robot more in-depth, we created a video for you! 

Please comment on YouTube or here if you like it or want more!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bpyDMwNeQo

The Ohio State Tournament in Dayton, Ohio

In February, our team attended the Ohio State Championship for FLL in Dayton, Ohio. The tournament was held at the Ervin J. Nutter center at Wright State University and was sponsored by Wright Patt Air Force Base. We had a lot of fun and did okay. Our presentations went very well, but our robot didn't do what we wanted it to. We made a lot of changes to it in between regional and state, and we just couldn't complete them all in the time we had. Although we didn't win anything, we had a blast and had a lot of fun showing others our cool robot.

Here is a picture of the opening ceremonies.

This is our team preparing for one of our presentations the first day.

These are various pictures from our robot's table times.

A close up of the Lavenator Mach 5, the robot we used.

Two of our three attachments.

Overall, we had a lot of fun over the weekend and really enjoyed showing our robot to others and seeing what others have done.

Tournament Day!!!

Our regional tournament was on December 6th and was a lot of fun. Our team did extremely well placing first overall and first in robot performance. We won the 1st place champions award and the 1st place robot performance award. We also got the title/award of ambassador for the Cleveland area. Because we won first place, we will advance to Dayton, Ohio for the state tournament.

After the tournament we had a team meeting and have decided to keep the robot we have but modify it. We would like to make it smaller and more reliable. Making it smaller and more reliable might allow us to score higher at the state tournament (we think).

Robot Update

We have been doing well the past few weeks except for the fact that our robot is not fast enough. This is due to the fact that is a direct drive to small wheels. We cannot, as of now, complete all the missions in the 2:30 min. with this speed. Thus, we have done some remodeling. Below are our attempts and our current robot that has a 1:3 ratio with the wheels, making this robot three times faster.

Our first attempt skipped terriably, and was thus abbanded:

We tried to hold the chain in with other gears:

We then tried other ideas and came up with the robot we have now. This robot uses all three motors to drive. Two motors are used to drive the robot foward and backwards; one for each half. This has the added benifit that the robot can now curve in two directions.

Update

We have been very busy lately have have made a lot of progress on both the robot and in the research project.

Robot

We have decided to use the synchro drive robot as seen below, but have made some changes to it.

1. We have added structural support to all gears
2. We have added a chain around the turntables to avoid gears skipping
3. We have added a forklift type arm to one side of the robot
4. And finally, we have added magnets to 3 sides for attaching attachments

Our team has also started to program some missions. We have made an arm that can elevate the house very reliably. The mission also gets two other missions on the way there. The team has also constructed an attachment for collecting the carbon balls.

Project

Our team has decided to do our project on snow removal. We have contacted several scientists and have also talked to the Mayor of our city. The team has also made a contact in another community with similar problems. We have started to think of a couple of solutions, but have not decided on one yet.

Pictures and videos will hopefully come shortly, but don't count on it because we are very busy.

Robot Prototypes Finished

Here are two videos of our finished robots. These are just the first fully functional prototypes of that we have.

Both look very promising!

Research started

The research project this year is very open, so we don't have any particular ideas, but we have done some background research. Last week, we talked to Joseph Shultz, who is a legislative assistant for our senator. His specialty is in the field of energy and climate change. We found out lots of general information from him about climate change. One thing that we learned was that the term global warming is incorrect to use. This is because in some areas of the world the climate is warming, but in others it is cooling.

Synchro Drive

Our team had one other idea for a robot platform. The idea was a synchro drive. This type of robot allows the top of the robot to face the same position at all times, but it can still drive in all directions. Below is our start at a synchro drive robot platform.

This is a link to a youtube movie that is not by us that also tells how a synchro drive works.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rL6xx6DDZ9o

Six Wheel Robot Design

Last meeting we brainstormed ideas for different robot platforms. One idea that a team member had was a six wheel robot. Six wheels would provide more stability and would allow it to conquer rough terrain. The below video was taken of a six wheel robot prototype. It is a very basic design and is in development.

Ideas about missions

Our team brainstormed ideas and came up with the following ideas:

Elevate the House

We thought that we should do more then one aspect of the house mission at once.


Research Area

A ramp could work to get items into the research area


Levees

An idea for the levees would be to use a wall to hold the existing ones in place, or use the placable levees to block the wheel.

Engineering Notebook

This year, we thought it would be a good idea to start an enginnering notebook to keep track of different ideas and thoughts. We did some research and found a format that would fit our purpose. The whole team started entering into the notebook the first time we worked on the robot. We have been updating it everytime we work on the robot or have an idea on the robot ince then. It has been useful to us so far.