• Navigation targets are placed in the center of each field wall
• 4 sampling fields contain materials
• Minerals are placed in the craters
• Lander is in center
• Robots may be latched to the lander
• Can also be preloaded with team marker
• 30 second autonomous
  • Preprogrammed instructions and sensors can only be used
  • Can use navigation targets\place team marker
  • Completely move gold mineral
  • Successfully park in crater
• Driver control
  • Mineral placed in depot
  • Place silver minerals in correct cargo hold
• End game
  • Store minerals
  • Park in crater
  • Latch back onto the lander

What is outreach Outeach is

1. Community service: spreading FTC Robotics to the community, helping with Robotics competitions, mentoring, etc.
2. fundraising: You will need some money for equipment, admission fees, lunch, etc. You can contact businesses for money donations.

Some of these include

• On Saturday, September 22nd, two members of our team were able to attend the Girls ESTEAM summit. On that day they enjoyed working with young girls and teaching them about spheroes
• One of the requirements for robotics is to ask businesses if they can donate some money. This can include big businesses, organizations, and small businesses. The following businesses/organizations graciously donated some money:
  • UVA Orthopedics
  • TorcRobotics
  • Mindful Herb
• Some of our Team members went to CustomInk to discover to learn more about their business.

Too often, women are underrepresented in STEM fields, especially engineering. Only 11% of engineers are female. We believe FTC Robotics is an excellent way to be introduced to the STEM field, so we are offering female viewers an inside look into what our Robotics team, Nerd of the North 9046, has to go through. This will hopefully provide some insight into

• goals robotics team set
• challenges robotics teams have to overcome
• the worksplace setting robotics teams usually work in
• how robotics teams overcome these challenges

So please accompany us, dear reader, as you read through true accounts of what FTC Robotics is like.

Topics Covered:

• Watched Challenge video
• Brainstormed building ideas/programming methods
• Outlined basic ideas for fundraising/outreach

Building Ideas

• Latching and Landing
  • Extending arm with gear box to latch and land
  • Scissor lift to raise rope to latching point
• Mineral Collection
  • Double claws(concave scoops)
  • Large wheel with smaller training wheels
  • Vacuum?
• Mobility
  • Mecanum wheels
  • Legs to get over crater lip

Programming Ideas

• Using Vuforia library
  • Image recognition and positioning to orient robot on field
  • better performance during autonomous

Although, most of us watched the challenge video independently the entire team watched the video together to make sure everyone was on the same page. We also discussed the pros and cons of certain drive trains

• Mecanum wheels
• Legs
• Omni wheels
• Standard wheels

Topics Covered:

• Continued brainstorming on build designs
• Challenge approaches (ways to score points)
• Chose ideas for building (i.e. layout, wheels, latching, lifting)
• Planned to cover roles next week

Decisions on Build Ideas

• Scoring in cargo hold
  • Prevents other team from stealing
  • Drawer slide with pulley system to raise minerals
  • potentially use this for latching and landing
  • attachment hook on back of drawer slide
• Driving mechanism
  • mecanum wheels in rectangle formation
    • more area to build with reasonable mobility

Programming Team:

• Setting up repository on GitHub
• Installed Android Studio
• Talked about a few problems we might encounter

  Build Team:

• 4 drawer slides
• 2 elevating lift to cargo hold
• 2 pushing out into crater
• Sweeper with color sensor sorting
• Claw picker upper thing

  Decision

• Sweeper system
• Rotating lever to sort between balls and cubes
• Sorting based on the color sensor
• Funnel to prevent too much intake

Interested in creating

• A library/tutorial for programming language
• A library/tutorial for building and using a linear slide for future teams

  We were able to

• Learn about Vuforia
• Plan the robot
• Work on fundraising

  For these two meetings, our big focus was on fundraising. We got more people signed up to contact businesses, and we already have some money coming in. Our captain is taking the opportunity to make guides for how to code common features our robots have, while all the programmers are busy with fundraising. Team members are also helping him with learning about the Vuforia library to aid in the autonomous.   Build Team:

• CAD for basic chassis
• modified with mecanum instead of omni wheels
• moved from drawer slides to linear slides
• Additionally decided on two linear slides with rotation

Goals

1. Decide on a mechanism system for lifting the minerals
2. Create guide for new programmers
3. Create a parts list for ordering materials
4. Continue fundraising by contacting local businesses

The Build team talked over the inclusion of 2 sets of drawer slides instead of linear slides again. Brainstormed various ways to attach slides to chassis, eventually agreeing on linear slides because of the drawer slides weight. After taking inventory over the past month, we have started adding parts to a Spreadsheet that listed all the parts needed and the estimated total cost.

The programming team got android studio and eclipse downloaded and are working out how to navigate the platform. The Build team attached all of the components together. However, just as we feared the robot tipped too much even with the added counterweight. We are considering mounting the slide farther back and making the sweeper out of cardboard

The Build team tried mounting the new mount but ran into several problems. The geared servo interfered with the gears on the linear slide mechanism and the height of the sweeper pushed the robot’s height out of the 18x18x18 limit. The team was able to mount the servo, but height was still an issue. The captain continued teaching the API for Android Studio to the programming team.

Goals

1. Connect everything together
2. restructure Chassis
3. 3d model sweeper bucket + bevel gear

After numerous ideas the team decided on modifying the chassis by raising the arm pivot point by one channel piece. This enabled the robot to fit within the bounding box because it allowed us to retract the arm fully without hitting the outer frame. Raising it up by one also allows for us to still extend perpendicular to the floor. The build team mounted the cardboard sweeper attachment on. However, the overall structural integrity was too flimsy and the team has decided to 3d print a replacement with the same dimensions The programming team went through our list of sponsors and started collecting logos and getting rewards for each sponsor.

Goals

1. Finish the drive train
2. Program the linear slide arms
3. Figure out places to put parts

The programming team is trying to work with some code that he needs to work on and others are learning how to program a linear slide arm. The Build team adding the expansion hubs and slim robot batteries. They are also fixing the linear motor arms so it runs more smoothly.

Goals

1. Getting Androids hooked up
2. Get drive train going
3. Attach new bevel gears

  Coding Team   We were finally able to run code on the robot today. The telemetry works great, but the arm has yet to be completed, both in terms of programming and construction.   Building Team   The build team replaced the arm sticking off the side of the linear slide with two bevel gears to compact the design. However, in the process, the latching hook got in the way and a new design needs to be made for the hook.

Goals

• Work on Autonomous
• Get robot ready to drive

Getting Code to Work Something updated since the last meeting, which caused a lot of dependencies to not be loaded. Most of the meeting was spent waiting 2-7 minutes for each dependency since we only knew which ones were missing from the compile errors. Managing Wires The Build team sorted the wires from the drive train. Instead of routing all the wires to one hub, they rewired it so each would go to the hub on its respective side. This allowed the arm to rotate without running into any wires Attaching Worm Gear Our team finally received our worm gear this week and attached it to the robot.

Goals

• Get the robot up and running Work on Autonomous

Getting Code to Work The build team led by our captain were trying to figure out a way to fix some of the build grade problems. They also fixed some troubleshooting after they tested the robot. They were able to configure the rev hubs. Fixing the Worm Gear The worm gear wasn’t working as intended. The torque from the linear slide arm was too much for the motor to handle and was actually bending and moving the shaft of the motor.