The Blair Robot Project : Team 449
The Blair Robot Project Blog
Start of Fall: 9/25/08The Fall season has officially started; our first meeting for new members ended a little under two hours ago! Prospective member turnout reached an all time high this year, with over 70 students attending the meeting. Our president showed a 45 minute presentation on what the team is about and answered questions. Next week, new comers will split into subteams to begin training.
Last week, the team presented to the Electrical Vehicle Association of Greater Washington. We also saw Solar Taxi, a vehicle traveling around the world purely on solar power. Read about it at www.solartaxi.com
On labor day weekend, the team brought the robot to the Green Belt Labor Day Parade with the EVA/DC. The robot, with its mecanum wheels wrapped in several layers of duct tape, made it through the full mile parade, while hurdling the ball in front of crowds. Not only was it good publicity and great fun, we won third place in the automobile category! Not bad, considering we heard about it 12 hours before it took place.
Back to School: 8/28/08Well, much as we hate to admit it, school has started again. On the bright side, activity buses will start soon and we’ll be able to resume our Thursday meetings.
Last Friday, the team brought the robot to freshman orientation to drum up a little excitement. It seemed to work pretty well. Our equipment has also been brought back to our HQ, room 361.
Earlier today we readied the robot and related items for our next bake sale this weekend. We’re trying a different store: the Giant in Silver Spring, 1280 East West Hwy. Silver Spring, MD 20910. We will be there Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 5pm.
Our fundraising parents will have a meeting the on September 6th to discuss our fundraising plans, which appear to be on track for the first time in years.
Regular Thursday meetings will resume for veteran members on September 11th in room 361. New members will be invited to join after the activity fair (still no word on when that will be).
But we’re all counting down to the same date. (Click the link to see the countdown).
Battle o Baltimore: 8/10/08August 8th and 9th found the team at the Park School of Baltimore competing in the second annual Battle o’ Baltimore. After the practice matches on Friday, we entered the qualifying matches Saturday morning. A series of six matches in less than three hours tested the team’s ability to maintain the robot. The conclusion of the qualifiers left our team undefeated, one of two teams that could make that claim. After lunch, we teamed up with KILROY (339) and PHS Robotics (007) as the second seeded alliance. We won our first quarterfinal match against the seventh seeded alliance led by Blue Cheese (1086), but lost the second match when our hybrid seemingly malfunctioned ant KILROY became entangled in the rack (elimination matches in FRC are best of three). The malfunction was traced not to the programming, but a drive belt that had failed due to the fatigue of three competitions and two exhibitions. Without a belt we were forced to play the final tie-breaking match with only three controlled wheels. To make matters worse, team 007 had power issues and were unable to turn on their robot. Incredibly, we lost by a mere six points.
Moral: Murphy was right.
Summer, Part IIThe team attended the first Annual StarryTelling festival on July 19th. The event was a big success, with hundreds of visitors. After an initial setback due to uncharged batteries, we were able to show our robot throughout the day. We hope we inspired a younger student or two (or all of them) to pursue a career in technology. Pictures will be posted when our photographer returns from fencing camp.
The following weekend, we held our first bake sale of 2008. It took place at the Safeway across the street from Blair. The team raised 602 dollars in cookie sales and donations which will be used for building next years robot.
A thank you goes out to everyone who helped out at these events or supported us at the bake sale!
Summer 2008: First HalfThe team has been meeting about once a week over the Summer thus far. We have designed plans for a new robot cart that will boast crab drive and a scissor lift and will me remote or tether controlled. We are also planning several fundraising events, in addition to asking several companies for sponsorships.
On July 19th, we will attend the first StarryTelling festival in Kensington. This space-themed festival aims to be inspirational for people of all ages. Read more at http://starrytelling.com. Come out and see us, in addition to the many exciting events planned for the day!
Thursday May 8Students gathered to be addressed by their new president for the first time. After a brief reminder about an outreach event planned for this Saturday in DC, he moved onto the main business for the week. Pens and index cards were distributed, and team members jotted down any particularly useful ideas that they learned this year, anything that could be improved for next year, and possible ideas for summer activities. The president then read them aloud and after giving his opinion, allowed others to speak for or against the comment made. By the end of the meeting we had covered several posters with ideas.
End of Year Dinner (Friday, May 2nd)All the careful organization put into making certain Friday’s picnic was successful paid off in full. There was certainly enough food and good company to go around, and the mild weather allowed the party to spill outside. Students spent time reminiscing over their favorite memories from build season, though several conversations were also relevant to the future of the team–some of the adults held a meeting where they discussed fundraising for the coming year.
Later, in a short speech, our 2008 president announced the winners of this year’s elections, congratulated the team members on their success in the competition this year, and thanked attendees for their support and commitment to the team. Gift bags were presented to our graduating seniors, mentors, and our BAE Systems contact. Among other items, members surprised their graduating president with a clock decorated with a flaming wrenchman, the team’s number, and the words “Team Mommy.” However, not everything was just a conclusion of this past year–with the party marking the end of the current robotics administration and formally ending our participation in the 2008 competition, team members were already developing plans for the summer and next year.
Elections: Thursday May 1stAfter a brief speech by each of the candidates, all members except seniors voted for their choice of president, vice-president, secretary and treasurer by secret ballot. Results and vote tallies were not announced because several students had arranged to vote by absentee ballot sent by email, and the results given would not be final. Students then briefly discussed changes in the competition that had been publicly released by FIRST. They broke up into two groups, of which the first discussed their plans for the coming spring and summer, as well as specific plans for how to improve next year’s system. The second researched the mechanics of and programming necessary for the CompactRIO controller system that will be adopted for the 2009 competition.
Thursday April 24At the meeting today we took the robot downstairs and drove it around, first near the main office and later in the SAC. A number of teachers and other staff stopped by to watch us, as did other students in the building. Although we did not get a chance to explain as much about our robot as we had at the Blair Fair, it was still useful to spend an hour allowing other team members to practice their driving skills while increasing school awareness of our team.
Blair Fair (Friday April 18)Today after school, students gathered to transport materials and the robot to Blair’s main hallway for the annual Blair Fair. With plenty of space, we were able to drive around the robot, hand out fliers, and explain both the game and the robot. Once in a while, we powered down the robot and allowed visitors inside the cordoned off area to get an up-close look at the robot while team members explained the different components of the robot. During the course of the evening we managed to attract the interest of many attendees, including teachers and administrators in charge of other booths.