Scratch

16Skittles · 2013-02-02 21:07:27

Do you like robots? So do we. Just today I completed my first real robotics competition with a team from my school. Discuss about your experiences here. tongue

We were entered in the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC). FTC is the middle level on USFirst's robotics levels: First Lego League (FLL) is available to elementary and middle school students, FTC is available to high school students as the next level up. To even more advanced high school students, First Robotics Competition (FRC) is available, an even more challenging and larger scale competition. All of these levels are organized by the group USFIRST.

I was extremely unlucky in the progression of the FLL integration into my school. The program started with the 4th and 5th grade students last year, as I was in 8th grade. This year we added both a middle school FLL team(s) and a high school FTC team. Unfortunately, nobody in our team had true experience in the system. Our team was founded late; we started meeting in November, months after the others had already started. Being an avid programmer, I was designated to the role (had we known that the others wouldn't be doing much programming, I definitely would have sprung for RobotC instead of LabView - I don't work efficiently in a graphic environment. Text is just so much quicker.
We've had many issues throughout our endeavor. So many in fact, that I probably can't list them all; I'll just list those most significant ones from the past 48 hours. We had an issue with the Samantha FCS throughout January. ("Samantha" is the wireless module, and the FCS is the "Field Control System) Part of the problem was that our original router was not properly working (we got a recommended router and it worked) and part was that we did not understand the function of the "program chooser" application (pro-tip: use this to select your teleop VI). When we finally got it working we discovered a driver issue causing the right joysticks on our controllers to fail, causing constant motor drive. Note that this was yesterday at about 5:00 PM that we discovered this solution.
At 11:00 PM, disaster struck. Our arm mechanism was incredibly overweight, and in a test our motor applied too much torque to an axle. This ended up useless. The metal rod twisted and bent in the assembly. We tried to replace it with a cut-off screwdriver shaft (we ran out of axles) but when we called it quits at 2:30 AM today, our 11 hour grind did not even produce a functional robot. Also, none of us had practice driving it. Once we arrived at the competition we were able to borrow some parts from other teams (they're all really nice and helpful; the dynamic of the games means that other teams can either be allies or competitors, and those who are matched as your ally could later be your enemy).
We didn't go into the competition expecting much. We avoided dead last (thankfully) and two losses could be at least partially attributed to technical failures: once our ramp (lifting your teammate was a secondary objective) prematurely fell to the ground, limiting our motion and maneuvering, and in another, one of the connectors that paired an axle and gear came loose, eliminating all arm action. Surely as a rookie team we weren't expecting to stand a chance against the established teams, but it was a fun experience filled with people not that different from us. (There was one Portal-themed team complete with a Chell cosplay)

I've been offered a programming spot on an FRC team as a programmer; this level is completely legit. There are no kits, and programming is done in C++ and Java. (By the FTC level I'd say it's legit, but this is even more legit) I hope to be able to fit this in as it will be great experience. I realize now that even as a Freshman I've already begun padding my resume; by the time I'm going into college I'll already have a large amount of experience. tongue

TL;DR: had fun with robotics, do any of you compete in it too? (Also if you want to explain the other competitions, feel free to. Part of this vision was to share design ideas and stuff for future competitions. As we just finished I won't have much to share for any sort of immediate action, but I may take some pictures when my iPad replacement comes in and post them. I've explained the USFIRST competitions as those are the ones I'm familiar with, but they're definitely not the only ones. There are others I've heard of such as VEX, but they're not available at my school AFAIK.

majormax · 2013-02-02 21:16:48

I always wanted to do USFIRST stuff.

But my school happened.

fire219 · 2013-02-02 22:26:37

I haven't been in any competitions (School system around here is about as mediocre and redneck as it gets), but I do build robots. In fact I am working one right now, with the wheel base of an old RC hummer, and an Arduino (Mega2560 to be specific, tho it is overkill for this job) as the controller. I already have PWM speed control for the main (forward/backward movement) motor working, and will have much more working once I have more parts.

I also have a VEX kit (the Protobot/Tumbler one), but don't use it much. Building from scratch is much more rewarding. smile

banana500 · 2013-02-02 22:27:51

I did FLL for three years, once I enter high school I'm doing FRC.

technoguyx · 2013-02-02 22:37:48

I can't wait to come back to school (March 1st), just so I can go to the robotics club there. I love it. big_smile

I haven't done any competitive robotics yet - I joined the club just last year and I haven't done anything productive with the NXTs, or any of the electronics there. I don't like the NXTs, nor the graphical IDE it comes with. What was it's name, again? tongue

I'm not really the kind of guy who enjoys programming, or competing over who solves problems better. I like to consider myself an electronic tinkerer; scavenging parts from old devices and messing with them in a breadboard with a battery. smile And the club's got lots of equipment for that - voltage generators, multimeters, breadboards, components, great soldering irons... I'm gonna love my time there, I'm sure c:

I've had this crazy idea: An Arduino-compatible board, with a library designed to drive the NXT's motors and sensors, thus effectively being an alternative to the expensive, slow NXT brick, that can be programmed in actual code, too! I really gotta look into this, studying specifications of Arduino boards and NXT components. It's a great idea, I think. big_smile

__________________

My school system is also mediocre and redneck, hah. There's a reason we missed the school year protesting half of 2011 ;D

__________________

Ideas for stuff to do with some Dualshock vibrating servos and a CPU fan? tongue

Last edited by technoguyx (2013-02-02 22:39:39)

16Skittles · 2013-02-02 22:43:41

fire219 wrote:
I haven't been in any competitions (School system around here is about as mediocre and redneck as it gets), but I do build robots. In fact I am working one right now, with the wheel base of an old RC hummer, and an Arduino (Mega2560 to be specific, tho it is overkill for this job) as the controller. I already have PWM speed control for the main (forward/backward movement) motor working, and will have much more working once I have more parts.

I also have a VEX kit (the Protobot/Tumbler one), but don't use it much. Building from scratch is much more rewarding.

Do you find the Arduino sufficient for most of your purposes? One of the main things dissuading me from them is the small amount of space for programs - I just feel that I'd fill that pretty easily.

@people saying their school is "redneck": We're not exactly rednecks in the Midwest, but it is farming territory. tongue The best school at the competition was a school that could probably be described as "redneck" and they had two phenomenal robotics teams. Putting the two on an alliance together (as happened in the semifinals and final, you get to choose a partner in order of seed, they were 1/2 and picked each other) is just plain unfair.

Edit: @techno: Personally I think the NXT is pretty big for all that it does. It's hard to mount and is big and bulky. However, you can program in "real" code, there's a program called RobotC which is essentially C for the NXT. However, it isn't a very open system.

Also, hovercraft with the CPU fan. They're really fun to mess with. tongue

Last edited by 16Skittles (2013-02-02 22:46:05)

technoguyx · 2013-02-02 22:57:33

Okay, maybe our education system isn't precisely "redneck", but it's definitely mediocre. Absolutely not compliant to international standards, heavily privatized - and hence often "for-profit", and most educators are totally incompetent.

16Skittles wrote:
Edit: @techno: Personally I think the NXT is pretty big for all that it does. It's hard to mount and is big and bulky. However, you can program in "real" code, there's a program called RobotC which is essentially C for the NXT. However, it isn't a very open system.

AFAIK RobotC requires replacing the firmware in the NXT bricks, I don't wanna mess them up or something, and openness is precisely what I'm aiming for, by designing my own hardware (which I could then release as open hardware, as it'd be based in Arduino) and libraries.

16Skittles wrote:
Also, hovercraft with the CPU fan. They're really fun to mess with.

Great idea big_smile

fire219 · 2013-02-03 08:31:13

16Skittles wrote:
fire219 wrote:
I haven't been in any competitions (School system around here is about as mediocre and redneck as it gets), but I do build robots. In fact I am working one right now, with the wheel base of an old RC hummer, and an Arduino (Mega2560 to be specific, tho it is overkill for this job) as the controller. I already have PWM speed control for the main (forward/backward movement) motor working, and will have much more working once I have more parts.

I also have a VEX kit (the Protobot/Tumbler one), but don't use it much. Building from scratch is much more rewarding.
Do you find the Arduino sufficient for most of your purposes? One of the main things dissuading me from them is the small amount of space for programs - I just feel that I'd fill that pretty easily.

@people saying their school is "redneck": We're not exactly rednecks in the Midwest, but it is farming territory. The best school at the competition was a school that could probably be described as "redneck" and they had two phenomenal robotics teams. Putting the two on an alliance together (as happened in the semifinals and final, you get to choose a partner in order of seed, they were 1/2 and picked each other) is just plain unfair.

Edit: @techno: Personally I think the NXT is pretty big for all that it does. It's hard to mount and is big and bulky. However, you can program in "real" code, there's a program called RobotC which is essentially C for the NXT. However, it isn't a very open system.

Also, hovercraft with the CPU fan. They're really fun to mess with.

I am deep in the southeast, where people care more about hunting deer than robots. tongue

I have only had the arduino for a little over a month now (got for christmas), so I haven't done too much with it yet. Some of the arduinos do lack in memory, but the Mega2560 is actually rather spacious (in uC terms): 256KB flash memory, and about 32KB (or 64, I don't remember) RAM.

Also, you would be surprised how far memory will go when you don't have to deal with graphics. wink

technoguyx · 2013-02-03 12:04:54

^^When you don't have to deal with graphics, and are writing native uC code rather than some visual language to be interpreted, I'd say tongue

sonicfan12p · 2013-02-03 13:45:06

I'm in FRC this year, they really are giving us a hard time! tongue Shooting frisbees, climbing pyramids, it's quite interesting. For the next couple weeks, we're going to be really busy finishing up a bunch of things. Our mechanical team still can't decide on a final design for the chassis. roll I'm on the electrical team, and we're still wiring a bunch of encoders for the programmers to mess with. The programmers on the other hand, haven't done much but play with the testbed. tongue

16Skittles · 2013-02-03 14:03:18

sonicfan12p wrote:
I'm in FRC this year, they really are giving us a hard time! Shooting frisbees, climbing pyramids, it's quite interesting. For the next couple weeks, we're going to be really busy finishing up a bunch of things. Our mechanical team still can't decide on a final design for the chassis. I'm on the electrical team, and we're still wiring a bunch of encoders for the programmers to mess with. The programmers on the other hand, haven't done much but play with the testbed.

That's certainly one of the issues we had this year. As a programmer I can't really do much without having a robot to test with, and we didn't have a fully functional robot until we were at the competition.

sonicfan12p · 2013-02-03 14:07:32

Fortunately for us, we have a program that will allow for virtual testing without the real robot, unfortunately it requires a 3d model we don't have yet.

16Skittles · 2013-02-03 14:08:50

sonicfan12p wrote:
Fortunately for us, we have a program that will allow for virtual testing without the real robot, unfortunately it requires a 3d model we don't have yet.

that program sounds magical...

technoguyx · 2013-02-03 17:49:28

^Many of them exist.

16Skittles · 2013-02-11 23:12:10

I just visited our local FRC team today. Apparently they don't have a student programmer, so it seems I could be needed soon, which is kind of bad since they need to pack up the robot in a week. Anyways, I can still code until the competition, and I'll be in a better position to program from the beginning for next year.

Programmer_112 · 2013-02-11 23:19:25

I've wanted to do robotics for such a long time, it seems so cool! I've studied it a little and I plan to do a lot more in the summer. I have made a few, simple robots, and some pretty good stuff with my friends Lego robotics, but never anything really in-depth. Good luck to all those who actually do robotics.

Laternenpfahl · 2013-02-11 23:26:42

I think GP1 is in FRC

playzooki · 2013-02-12 16:08:50

I don't understand what USFIRST is. Is it like Robot Wars and Battlebots.

fire219 · 2013-02-12 17:32:49

playzooki wrote:
I don't understand what USFIRST is. Is it like Robot Wars and Battlebots.

No. Those are about remote-control robots that attack and disable each other. These are about autonomous robots that do (non lethal) tasks like, for example, finding all red balls in a room full of random color balls, and taking them back to its base.

16Skittles · 2013-02-12 21:01:44

fire219 wrote:
playzooki wrote:
I don't understand what USFIRST is. Is it like Robot Wars and Battlebots.
No. Those are about remote-control robots that attack and disable each other. These are about autonomous robots that do (non lethal) tasks like, for example, finding all red balls in a room full of random color balls, and taking them back to its base.

Yeah. Think more practical-it's like making the next WALL-E, not the next Terminator.

playzooki · 2013-02-13 14:18:35

16Skittles wrote:
fire219 wrote:
playzooki wrote:
I don't understand what USFIRST is. Is it like Robot Wars and Battlebots.
No. Those are about remote-control robots that attack and disable each other. These are about autonomous robots that do (non lethal) tasks like, for example, finding all red balls in a room full of random color balls, and taking them back to its base.
Yeah. Think more practical-it's like making the next WALL-E, not the next Terminator.

If Terminator was a box on wheels with a flipper attached XD

sonicfan12p · 2013-02-17 16:53:52

My team's working everyday till 10:30 now, who else is having last minute problems? tongue

16Skittles · 2013-03-29 12:16:46

Bump for new relevance, we're just a week away from the Chicago regional! We head out Wednesday, hoping to get in as much practice as possible Thursday and then come out ready on Friday and Saturday! big_smile

16Skittles · 2013-03-30 00:29:56

sonicfan12p wrote:
My team's working everyday till 10:30 now, who else is having last minute problems?

We were lucky enough to only have a few last minute issues, but as I said our FTC bot failed the night before resulting in a 3AM grind and 3 hours of sleep before competition.

Also, is there a schedule of matches in place yet for Midwest Regional (Chicago) or does that wait until Friday?

scratchisthebest · 2013-04-02 08:14:03

Ugh they're so expensive
My current budget is like $0 and I don't have any motors/etc. except for a 6 year old computer.

They're so cool though hmm

Scratch

archived forums

#1 2013-02-02 21:07:27

Robotics General Topic

#2 2013-02-02 21:16:48

Re: Robotics General Topic

#3 2013-02-02 22:26:37

Re: Robotics General Topic

#4 2013-02-02 22:27:51

Re: Robotics General Topic

#5 2013-02-02 22:37:48

Re: Robotics General Topic

#6 2013-02-02 22:43:41

Re: Robotics General Topic

fire219 wrote:

#7 2013-02-02 22:57:33

Re: Robotics General Topic

16Skittles wrote:

16Skittles wrote:

#8 2013-02-03 08:31:13

Re: Robotics General Topic

16Skittles wrote:

fire219 wrote:

#9 2013-02-03 12:04:54

Re: Robotics General Topic

#10 2013-02-03 13:45:06

Re: Robotics General Topic

#11 2013-02-03 14:03:18

Re: Robotics General Topic

sonicfan12p wrote:

#12 2013-02-03 14:07:32

Re: Robotics General Topic

#13 2013-02-03 14:08:50

Re: Robotics General Topic

sonicfan12p wrote:

#14 2013-02-03 17:49:28

Re: Robotics General Topic

#15 2013-02-11 23:12:10

Re: Robotics General Topic

#16 2013-02-11 23:19:25

Re: Robotics General Topic

#17 2013-02-11 23:26:42

Re: Robotics General Topic

#18 2013-02-12 16:08:50

Re: Robotics General Topic

#19 2013-02-12 17:32:49

Re: Robotics General Topic

playzooki wrote:

#20 2013-02-12 21:01:44

Re: Robotics General Topic

fire219 wrote:

playzooki wrote:

#21 2013-02-13 14:18:35

Re: Robotics General Topic

16Skittles wrote:

fire219 wrote:

playzooki wrote:

#22 2013-02-17 16:53:52

Re: Robotics General Topic

#23 2013-03-29 12:16:46

Re: Robotics General Topic

#24 2013-03-30 00:29:56

Re: Robotics General Topic

sonicfan12p wrote:

#25 2013-04-02 08:14:03

Re: Robotics General Topic

Board footer