Difference between revisions of "News"

Revision as of 11:49, 25 October 2010 (view source) MaiKangWei (talk | contribs) (→‎FRC Pancake Breakfast - 23-Oct-2010) ← Older edit		Revision as of 12:35, 26 October 2010 (view source) Siri (talk | contribs) m (spelling) Newer edit →
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	==[[2010 Team Picnic at Warwick Park | Team Picnic at Warwick Park]] - 1-August-2010==		==[[2010 Team Picnic at Warwick Park | Team Picnic at Warwick Park]] - 1-August-2010==
−	The Team's annual [[2010 Team Picnic at Warwick Park | picnic]] was helt at Warwick Park, 2-dusk.  FRC Medalions and Team Certificates were presented to the 2010 team members and new members had the opportinity to meet everyone.  It rained a little, but who's afraid of a little rain?  Temperature was mild.  Turn-out great!  Great food.  Great company.  Great conversation.  Some horseplay & a small dog as well.	+	The Team's annual [[2010 Team Picnic at Warwick Park | picnic]] was helt at Warwick Park, 2-dusk.  FRC Medallions and Team Certificates were presented to the 2010 team members and new members had the opportunity to meet everyone.  It rained a little, but who's afraid of a little rain?  Temperature was mild.  Turn-out great!  Great food.  Great company.  Great conversation.  Some horseplay & a small dog as well.
	== DEWBOT VI travels to Indiana - July 2010 ==		== DEWBOT VI travels to Indiana - July 2010 ==

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Revision as of 12:35, 26 October 2010

This is the current news items about Downingtown Robotics, all the teams:FIRST, VEX and FLL.

Remember to read about Current Events coming your way.

FRC Pancake Breakfast - 23-Oct-2010

Our 2^nd annual All-you-can-eat Pancake Breakfast at Applebee's in Exton. Special guest appearance of Capt'n Rizzo & company.

FRC Car Wash - 17-Oct-2010

FRC Team 1640 washed cars to raise funds at the Lionville Chick-fil-A.

Chester County Council Boy Scout Camporee - 16-Oct-2010

STEMRobotics and the VEX-MEN demonstrated the fun and excitement of competition to 1200 Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts from Chester County. They were very busy keeping 6 robots moving and managing the crowds. The Scouts were thrilled at the chance to drive and a few even took a crack at playing Round Up.

Duel On the Delaware - 16-Oct-2010

Sab-BOT-age's 4^th time participating at Duel on the Delaware. All new FRC students participated as Human Players.

We finished 10^th out of 28 teams in the qualifying matches. Team 007, the 8^th alliance captain, invited us and team 433 (Firebirds) to join their alliance. Alas, we did not make it to the semi-finals.

The Team Screwdriver won an award.

VEX-MEN break 100 - 13-Oct-2010

In 2009 we hit a milestone with 50 roboteers. A year later we hit a new milestone of over 100 roboteers! It is pretty exciting that there is that much interest in competition robotics in Downingtown, 25 times growth in only 5 years! Congrats VEX-MEN!

Franklin Institute Robot Conflict Demonstration - 9-Oct-2010

FRC Team 1640 (Sab-BOT-age) was invited to demonstrate DEWBOT VI at Northeast Robot Club's (NERC) Franklin Institute Robot Conflict. DEWBOT wisely stayed out of the arena. FTC Team 3489 (Minds in Gear) also represented FIRST at this combat event.

Presetation & Demonstration at FIATECH - 5-Oct-2010

Kenneth, Sasha and Carly of Team 1640 presented and demonstrated DEWBOT VI to FIATECH during their annual meeting on 5-Oct at the Sofitel, Philadelphia. The three presenters did a great job and generated a lot of interest. Thanks also to Matt and Nichole for their assistance.

About FIATECH: FIATECH is a consortium of industries and companies from the industrial, power, and retail markets that, of necessity, build large assets such as refineries, power plants, large commercial buildings, or manufacturing facilities. In addition, it includes the leading providers of engineering, design, and construction services...

We thank our long-term sponsor, Bentley, for the gracious invitation to make this presentation.

Julie Bachmann / Rich Kulik Wedding - 14-August-2010

Congratulations to Team 1640 mentor Julie Bachmann and Rich Kulik on their wedding day! Best wishes for a long and joyous future together.

Julie has been a Team 1640 Mechanical Mentor starting with the 2006 (Aim High) season.

Team Picnic at Warwick Park - 1-August-2010

The Team's annual picnic was helt at Warwick Park, 2-dusk. FRC Medallions and Team Certificates were presented to the 2010 team members and new members had the opportunity to meet everyone. It rained a little, but who's afraid of a little rain? Temperature was mild. Turn-out great! Great food. Great company. Great conversation. Some horseplay & a small dog as well.

DEWBOT VI travels to Indiana - July 2010

Eighteen members of Downingtown Robotics headed to the Indiana Robotics Invitational. The robot did very well, placing 31st out of 78 robots. Jack, one of our VEX roboteers won the VEX Swept Away tournament.

Summer Cub Scout Demos

Across the summer we are doing VEX Cub Scout Demos at scout summer camps in the area. Over 400 scouts will drive tumbler bots during the summer.

Upper Uwchlan Block Party

DEWBOT VI and VEX robots provided the community with a hands-on demonstration at at the Upper Uwchlan Block Party on 19-June. DEWBOT VI kicked soccer balls all afternoon. DEWBOT III was also on-hand, but didn't actively participate in the festivities.

Seniors Graduate in June 2010

Congratulations to our graduating Seniors - Paul, Brianna, Amanda, Jen and Cole!!!

Bridgewater Raritan Battle Royale - 29-May-2010

DEWBOT VI participated in the 2^nd Bridgewater Raritan Battle Royale (BR)². Team 1640 received the competition's Engineering Excellence Award for DEWBOT's unique, multi-mode pivot drive-train and the mirror mounted to find balls hidden behind the bumps. 1640 placed 12th out of 21 teams in the qualifying matches and was selected by the 2^nd Alliance (2753 Overdrive & 1279 Cold Fusion). We were eliminated in the semifinals.

There was also a large VEX event held concurrently at this location...

S.T.E.M. Defined! 19-May-2010

Downingtown Area Robotics provided a robotics demonstration for all ages at DASD's S.T.E.M. Defined night at Downingtown Middle School. Our room was packed with both robots and humans! FLL, VEX and FRC robots were all present and busy. DEWBOT VI faced off against DEWBOT V while DEWBOT III watched the door. Thanks to all the Roboteers, Mentors and Parents whose hard work made this is great success.

Monty Madness 15-May-2010

Sab-BOT-age made a strong showing against a very competitive field, finishing qualifying matches in 10th place out of 42 teams.

We were the first selection of team 365 MOE, captain of the 6th alliance. Team 2344 Saunders Droid Fatory completed our alliance. Alas, we were defeated in the quarterfinals by the 4th alliance (103 Cybersonics, 341 Miss Daisy and 75 RoboRaiders).

PARC XIII 8-May-2009

1640 placed 8th seed out of 19 teams and was selected by Team 2753 (Team Overdrive) for the 3rd Alliance (together with Team 339). We defeated the 6th alliance in two games in the Quarter-Finals, but were ourselves defeated by the 1st Alliance (Teams 25, 341 & 1989) in the Semi-Finals.

Team 1640 received the Gracious Professionalism Award.

DEWBOT VI experienced a number of mechanical problems at PARC XIII, even missing a qualifying match in the process.

Downingtown Science Fair 3-May-2010

Downingtown Area Robotics FRC, VEX and FLL Teams all participated in the Downingtown Science Fair at Lionville Elementary School on the evening of 3 May 2010.

PSU Firefighting Contest 24-April-2010

Team Buzz-bot went to the annual Penn State Abington Firefight Contest. The robot is a basic squarebot with side sensors and two front facing fang touch switches. There is also a touch sensor for when the robot drives face into the wall. Lastly there is a light sensor to see when the robot is near the candle mat. To blow the candle out it has a 1000 RPM motor with a seven inch propeller. When the sensor sees the white floor it turns the fan on.

The first run wasn't good (some major wall slams), but the second run was great. There was a minor problem with the light sensor. It would see the reflection of the overhead lights and trigger the fan. The fast fan. The very loud fast fan. The crowd was amazed by the noise. The robot worked its way to the room with the candle but backed up rather than moving forward.

The team won a Creativity Award for their design. Congrats to Buzz-bots! They are already planning next year's robot.

Foster Schucker & Steve Rhoads named VEX Mentors of the year

Steve and Foster won the 2010 VEX Mentor of the Year at the Clean Sweep VEX World Championship. This is the highest mentor award presented by VEX.

Clean Sweep VEX World Championship

Team 80 Pegasus and Team 81 Longshot are at the VEX Robotics Competition Championship in Dallas TX. They are having a great adventure. Read about the details on the Clean Sweep VEX World Championship page.

Sugartown Lego Expo April 16,2010

Downingtown Area Robotics FRC, VEX and FLL Teams all participated in the Sugartown Elementary School's Lego Expo and Robotics Fair on the evening of 16 April 2010. Team 1640 (especially Siri Maley) assisted Sugartown Elementary in setting up its JFLL program in 2008.

DEWBOT VI receives Xerox Creativity Award at Philadelphia March 26, 2010

Team 1640 Sab-BOT-age received the Creativity Award sponsored by Xerox for its 4-wheel independent pivot drive-train. The awarding judges remarked:

The Creativity Award sponsored by Xerox celebrates creative design, use of a component, or a creative or unique strategy of play. Whether you want to call it "thinking outside the box" or "pushing the envelope", this winning team demonstrates that it has creatively gone beyond the norm in tackling this year's game challenge.

Creativity was illustrated through the coupling of an innovative drive system with a multimode control system.

Mechanical design was initiated the previous summer using modeling and prototyping.

This led to a robust three mode turning mechanism and it is hard to Sabotage the unique and creative aspects of their design.

Congratulations team number 1640 Sab-BOT-age.

On Saturday the team was chosen to be on the fifth seeded alliance during the Philadelphia Regional FIRST Robotics Competition. Downingtown made it to the semifinals, where they were eliminated by the top seed, who went on to win the competition.

Read all the details about the 2010 Philadelphia Regional

Eastern Pennsylvania VEX Regional - March 13, 2010

The second annual Eastern Pennsylvania VEX Regional was held at the Downingtown Education Center from 9AM to 4PM. Our VEX team competed with roboteers from 3 states!

This is major VEX fundraising event, thanks to everyone that came out and supported the teams.

Details of the event can be found at 2010_Eastern Pennsylvania Regional with lots of pictures

DEWBOT VI Finger Lakes Regional March 4-6, 2010

Twenty-five roboteers, mentors and parents made the 6 hour drive on to Rochester NY to watch Sab-BOT-age compete at the [2010 Finger Lakes Regional]. After getting off to a great start of being the first robot inspected, we set off to the practice field.

During practice we uncovered some code problems that we worked on, but never quite got 100% fixed. In a first for us we made all of our practice matches. Our new "design before building" practice has created robots that are mechanically sound. The only work on the robot on Thursday was to replace some bolts on the front of the robot that was interfering with the ball. This work was planned before we left and Clem's step by step instructions made the work go fast.

Thursday team dinner was at Dinosaur BBQ a downtown Rochester Landmark.

The DEWBOT VI Chairmans Award presentation team did a final practice run and then did their "Ignite Sab-BOT-age" presentation for the judges. It went well and we got lots of great comments back. Only 11 teams out of 44 made the effort to compete for FIRST's highest award. We did not win, the winning team was a two time Chairman's winner.

Friday morning also saw the installation of a new chain tension device, a PVC cap from Home Robot Depot. Friday qualifications saw us move up and down many times in the rankings. Control system problems were an annoyance and the team worked on them non-stop.

Friday night we celebrated Jen's 18th birthday with cake and pizza in the hotel.

Saturday was a repeat of Friday on the field. We were not chosen for the final alliances, but we did use the time to allow the programming team to work on the robot.

This was not such a great performance for us. We finished the competition ranked 37 of 44, winning only 2 matches, losing 7, and getting a tie (zero-zero) in 1. We found several control bugs that we're addressing, though we ran into very few major mechanical problems. We hope to fix many of these by the Philadelphia Regional at Drexel University on March 25-27, 2010.

On a positive note our pivot drive got lots of attention. Another team had a very similar setup and was impressed with ours. We also received kudos from the Safety Judges for our constant use of gloves to move the robot around, safety glasses always being worn, keeping our pit (and the one next to us) cleaned and all loose material picked up. By Saturday we had received 35 Safety Tokens a new team record.

More details can be found on the DEWBOT VI Finger Lakes Regional page.

Downingtown VEX Roboteers win Awards at Mid-Atlantic Championships - 27 February 2010

On Saturday 18 roboteers headed down to the Mi-Atlantic VEX Championships in Westminster MD. We met up with teams from MA,NJ,PA,MD,VA,NC to compete in the middle school division. A total of 23 teams participated.

Our teams did very well. Team 80 struggled with driving early in the day but came back to place #3 in the rankings. After their great showing at DockBot'10 Team 81 had a great day, placed 5th and was chosen by the second place alliance. The Pterodactyls, Team 82 was one of the Cinderella stories of the day. The mechanical team did not come, but Taylor the team programmer did. He and mentor Dan made some minor hardware changes and some major programming changes to post an impressive record. Using borrowed arm operators Taylor made it into the semi-finals.

The Iron Taco's, Team 94, came ready to play and posted some upsets against much higher ranked teams. Team 89 Govonador, also had a good day. They made adjustments and programming changes and ranked in the top teams. Team 90 posted some solid results as did Team 92. These two robots went through some early mechanical changes but towards the end were solid performers.

Team 96 suffered from missing team members, but Corey kept the code flying and the robot rolling and placed 8th in the qualifications.

Because of the large number of teams it was easy to say "Downingtown Wins" at the end since we were in most matches. Two of the matches of the day were all Downingtown teams.

Alliance selections went well with three of our teams being alliance captains. We had good alliance partners during the eliminations. Team 89 had the upset of the day beating the #1 alliance in their first match.

While we had a number of teams that made it as far as the semifinals, we didn't make it into the final rounds. But we did win some major awards:

• Team 80 - Design Award - The Pegasus Engineering notebook took this award. The team had documented the steps (and mis-steps) in building their robot.
• Team 80 - Innovate Award for the sensor package on the robot. There are potentiometers at each joint, a button on the front to tell when they are at the wall and a switch to tell when the arm is in position. The judges were impressed with the innovative design.
• Team 80 - Programming Challenge - Mike L was able to program the robot autonomous functions to score 21 points, beating Team 82's Taylor by 1 point. Both programmers did a super job and vowed to be back in two weeks with even more points.

By winning the Programming Challenge, Team 80 is eligible to go to the World Championships in April!

Thanks to all the roboteers that went and to the parents that not only drove but then mentored for the long day.

DEWBOT VI Ships - 23-February, 2010

We crated up DEWBOT VI securely last night and into the wee hours of this morning to send him on his way to RIT for our first Regional Competition.

Thanks to all students, mentors, parents and sponsors for making this a successful build season.

VEX Demo at Philadelphia FLL Tournament - January 31,2010

As part of Downingtown Area Robotics outreach and our partner STEMRobotics mission is to get new roboteers involved with robots. On Saturday Foster and Mike M took five robots to the 4th Annual Philadelphia FIRST Lego League Tournament. They set up a field to play Cross Ball and ran a number of matches with the Lego Roboteers. Across the next six hours over 100 students and some parents drove the robots.

Mike spent most of his time keeping the field going and the robots in running order. The combination of Super-protobots and square bots performed well.

There was lots of interest in starting new team in Philadelphia. Foster spent time talking to teachers that have existing VEX hardware on restarting teams. He talked about how to upgrade the starter kits to competition level.

The Lego Roboteers were excited about driving the robots, a number said that being able to drive was very exciting.

VEX Competition at Christopher Dock - January 23,2010

We took eight VEX robot teams to Christopher Dock High School in Lansdale for Dockbots'10. This is the largest VEX event in Pennsylvania, it is sponsored by Christopher Dock Mennonite High School and STEMRobotics. There were 36 teams from three states, with 11 middle school teams and the rest from high schools. About 250 people were at the event. This is the second year that Downingtown has attended Dockbots.

Our teams did very well. During the qualification rounds we played very well, with only a few robot malfunctions. At the end we had two teams in the top ten. Team 81, Longshot placed fourth with a 5-1 record. Our all girls team, Pegasus, Team 80 also had a 5-1 record.

In the tournament, the top 8 teams create alliances. Team 80 was chosen by the number 3 seed, Lower Merion's Harriton High School, to be on their alliance. Team 81 created an alliance with some very strong partners from Radnor High School and Downingtown Team 84, the Iron Tacos. Team 89, Govonador, was chosen by the seventh seed team. Due to the way the draws worked out, The Pterodactyls, Team 82 from Downingtown was able to create the 8th alliance with a team from Christopher Dock and another Downingtown team, Deceptions, Team 90.

So we had six of our eight teams in the eliminations! Longshot and the Iron Tacos made it into the semi-finals but lost to teams that had won the Summit, New Jersey event two weeks ago.

This was the best showing by the team this season.

Team 81 won an Excellence Award, they were pitted against the 11 middle school teams that attended. They got the award based on their robot design, being able to explain their design process by showing drawings of other ideas that they had tested and discarded and for their great teamwork. They have qualified to go to the World Championships in Dallas Texas in April.

Not only did the roboteers do a great job, but we also had a super turnout by our parents. Many continued acting as mentors for the teams, others pitched in and helped queue the robots for matches, perform match scoring, doing crystal management and helping with the inspection process. Without their efforts the event would not have been so successful.

Our next match is Saturday, 27 February in Maryland followed by our home event on 13 March at DEC.

All you can eat Pancake Breakfast - December 6,2009

Downingtown Area Robotics All-you-can-eat Pancake Breakfast at Exton Applebee's was a great success. Both the 8 AM and 9AM seatings were almost full. We had great service from our robotic waitstaff (students not robots). Applebee's donated the full cost of the food. With the gift basket raffle we collected over $1000. Everyone had a great time and we look forward to doing it next year!

Vex scrimmage PSU Abington - December 5,2009

VEX scrimmage at PSU Abington was a success, congratulations to Team 80! Team 80 - Pegasus - won an award for the most number of matches played. There were 23 robots that saw action representing 10 different schools or club teams. Abington Bank supplied 50 pizzas that were gobbled down at lunch time. Thanks to all the parents that drove and braved the first snowfall of the year. Click the link to read more about the Penn State Abington VEX Clean Sweep Scrimmage.

Expanded Space at DEC

We moved into our second bay in the Downingtown Educational Center Shop on 24-November-2009. Siri and Murph, back from University for the Holiday, joined us for the expansion. The second bay will be used for FRC and VRC storage, thereby freeing up the original bay as a work area. See the photo gallery.

Lansdale Catholic FLL Tune-up - November 21, 2009

Today was the Lansdale Catholic FLL Tune-up competition. We were registered as team 2028, the Lionville After School Robotics Club. The team that competed was the Maglev Movers, one of our two FLL teams. The kids had a GREAT time and got to experience their FIRST competition. The education was irreplaceable as they got to experience all of the ups and downs that come along with this type of event. Most of the things that could go wrong did; robot lockups, cables not plugged in, parts coming off, missed mission pieces, knocking down unexpected field pieces, etc. What an incredible experience they had. They all worked well as a team and did an awesome job.

The team placed 14th out of 48 registered teams! Not too bad for rookies. Go Maglev Movers!!!

Thanks go out to Lansdale Catholic and the event staff who hosted this event.

Ramp Riot - November 14, 2009

DEWBOT V's last competition. Our robot scoring performance (hitherto not a strong point for us) was significantly improved over earlier competitions. Carly drove very aggressively, and has become adept at pinning between the robot and trailer, so that we can score. Ken and Paul took turns as Operator. Cole, Matt & Vamshi were our Payload Specialists and did a great job. Ken and Ben R took the lead on scouting. We won 3 of 5 qualifying matches, placing 17th of 36.

While Sab-BOT-age was playing with the Phillie Phanatic, the VEX team was holding a mini-contest for the Girl Scout "Girls in Gear" program. We took robots, cubes and balls and played a game on an 8*8 field. We had 45 scouts ranging from Daisy's (1st and 2nd graders) through Cadets. There were some pretty fierce contests! A number of the scouts said that our driving event was the best part of that days program.

STEMRobotics demos VEX at GameExpo - October 24/25, 2009

[ http://www.gamexpo.us/expo/robotics/images/roboshowlogo.png]

Our VEX partner and sponsor STEMROBOTICS.org is doing demos of Clean Sweep, the new VEX game at the 2009 GameX event at the Oaks Convention center. They will be there Saturday 9AM -6PM and Sunday 10AM 5PM. Come play Clean Sweep with them and help introduce new roboteers to competition robotics. They have 14 passes, contact them and get in as our guest. This is being billed as a premiere game industry event. There will be lots of games, music and of course Robots!

Foster reported back "Saturday was tons of fun, we ran over 60 matches during the day. To allow more people to play we created three robot alliances. We had help from Scott and Jarred along with Andrew and Joe from our prior mentor classes.

We were there again on Sunday, doing another 60 matches. Towards the end of the day we had matches between Miss Daisy (341) and our support staff.

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Older news items can be found in the News Archive