2015 Shorewood Mar20-22: Dean's List Semi-Finalist Kiery Advances---Team 5295
Photo back row: the Ordonezes;
Red row: Tyler, Brayden, K.Mougous;
Second row: Kiery, A.Estrada, N.Vasquez, A.Walker, A.Hospador;
Front row:Josh, Todd, C.Mann.
QUICK READ
Seven students, four mentors, and eleven family members of 4-H Team 5295 "Aldernating Current" had lots of fun. We watched our robot's improved performance in a safe and friendly atmosphere. By the last match our robot "FIR" could successfully stack a green recycle can on two gray totes. The team recognizes that recruiting more students would yield a better performing robot. Students considered what are the characteristics of Team 5295 and may change our name or logo. Tyler volunteered to be our new Safety Captain. Kiery will advance to the Pacific Northwest District Championship as a Dean's List Semi-Finalist.
MAJOR FINANCIAL SPONSORS
A huge thank you to our major sponsors each of which donated over $4000 to our team for the 2014-2015 seasons. Our success is due to DS Solidworks Corp, Community Foundation of South Puget Sound, Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, Bezos Family Foundation, M.J.Murdock Charitable Trust, Shelton High School and Alan Walker PE.
ATTENDING
Six students (Brayden O., Guy B., Josh M., Kiery E., Todd M., and Tyler C.) participated the entire Shorewood district competition (Friday evening through Sunday lunch). Dustin S. and his mom arrived Saturday morning and had to leave right before lunch due to a family emergency. Four mentors (R.Bachtell, A.Hospador, K.Mougous and A.Walker) advised the team. These family members attended the competition: Andrew's daughter Sara, Branden's family (3), Dustin's mom, Josh's mom, Kiery's family (3), and Todd's family (2).
Team Captain: Josh
Safety Captain: Tyler
Pit Team: Brayden, Josh (Build Captain), Kiery, and Todd. We passed robot inspection in just 90 minutes.Lead Programmer: Guy
Drive Team: Brayden, Guy (Human Player), Josh (Joystick), and Kiery (Drive Captain). Neither the human player or the joystick operator can be the drive captain.A.Mendez, mentor to rookie Team 5588 told A.Walker: "I like your team. They are a real good group of kids."
We left Shelton High School at 3:30PM on Friday, March 20th. Due to traffic, we arrived at Shorewood High School three hours later due to heavy Seattle traffic. To avoid the traffic expected for an NCAA tournament event in Seattle, our students decided to leave the district competition shortly after lunch on Sunday.
DEANS LIST SEMI-FINALIST KIERY ADVANCES TO PACIFIC NORTHWEST DISTRICT CHAMPIONSHIP
On Sunday, March 22 at the Shorewood District Competition, FIRST announced that Kiery will be moving forward to our Pacific Northwest District Championship event held April 1-4 at Eastern Washington University in Cheney, just outside Spokane. No Dean’s list awards were handed out, just an announcement of whom is moving forward. A.Walker is investigating travel options to the Pacific Northwest Championship with Team 4450 Olympia Robotics Federation. Team 4450 qualified for the Pacific Northwest District Championship by placing 7th at Auburn Mountainview and 3rd this past weekend at Central Washington University. If selected at the Pacific Northwest Championship, Kiery will be a Dean's List Finalist and advance to the World Championship held April 22-25 in St.Louis, Missouri. In February the mentors of Team 5295 nominated Todd M. and Kiery E. to be our Dean's List Semi-Finalists. Only sophmores and juniors can be Deans List nominees. At Shorewood, judges interviewed Todd and Kiery for about five minutes late Saturday afternoon.
DEANS LIST INFORMATION
See pages 44-46 of the Administrative Manual for information on the Deans List process.
http://www.usfirst.org/sites/
PACIFIC NORTHWEST DISTRICT CHAMPIONSHIP
http://pnwfirst.org/events/
SAFETYSafety Captain: Tyler (Saturday & Sunday). Jacob K., our safety captain at Auburn Mountainview did not make the trip.
Pit Safety Survey: No student wanted to perform a safety survey of the emergency equipment in the pits: first aid kits, battery spill kits, and fire extinguishers. Jasmine of Grays Harbor 4-H Team 3787 Acosta Robotocats from Westport performed the safety survey. She advised us to get an eye wash station to flush foreign substances like battery acid from eyes. A.Walker will follow-up on the eye flush kit.
Identified Hazards: A) Tyler noted the sharp edges on our green bin container "Birthday" cart (built on Josh's birthday) had sharp edges that would hurt if someone fell on it. He suggested adding a protective layer of plexiglass or thick black plastic to prevent human damage. B) Tyler also noticed that the blue gaffers tape that held the blue tarp down over the gym floor became loose in spots causing a trip hazard. Placing the tape flush initially will prevent this. C) Tyler also thought that our robot cart should have a few locking wheels like our green bin container storage "Birthday" cart. D) Tyler pointed out that using paper grocery bags as trash bins fails when liquids leak. E) Tyler also thought camping chairs would help rest the legs of team members including his own.To better document hazards, A.Walker printed out more Corrective Action sheets from the USFIRST.org safety manual. A.Walker will check with the high schools before ordering supplies.
PERFORMANCE
2015 Shorewood District Matches
We and our competition robot "FIR"competed in matches 2-10-16-19-24-31-43-46-49-56-61 and finished last of 32 teams. Or as Brayden said optimistically we were only 31 places behind first. We had a 100% success placing the green recycle can on to a stack of totes. We should have tried this much earlier in our season. The mentors of Team 5295 always strive to have our competition and clone robots built by our students. When we compete with teams whose robots are built by mentors and students, our performance suffers.MATCH) POINTS ALLIANCE---DESCRIPTION
--- Match 2 Red --- 18 points on Red Alliance---A team member in the stands told Guy that during autonomous, "FIR" drove 12" too far past the auto zone. We get points when all three robots drive into the auto zone. Guy corrected the programming.
--- Match 10 Blue --- 42 points on Blue Alliance---For most of the match, "FIR" had no oomph and move very slowly. Pit team diagnosed this as a programming error.
--- Match 16 Red --- 70 points on Red Alliance---The right motor does not work. We can only drive in circles. Guy discovered that when fixing the program error of the previous match, that he "forgot to attach the code to a wire". Should we create a pre-match programming checklist or just have another set of eyes review?
--- Match 19 Blue --- 16 points on Blue Alliance---We stack one and a half totes.
--- Match 24 Blue --- 3 points on Blue Alliance---Almost placed two yellow totes to complete the 40 point coopertition of four yellow totes. We find it hard to move more than one tote.
--- Match 31 Red --- 65 points on Red Alliance---During autonomous, "FIR" goes rogue, hitting a tote, bouncing into the wall, and repeatedly dancing at a feed station. The pit team diagnosis is a programming error.
--- Match 36 Blue --- 34 points on Blue Alliance---Almost had a yellow tote to complete the four yellow tote bonus. Our robot "FIR" lost a screw. Who knew we had a screw loose? How can we modify our pre-match checklist (fresh robot battery, fresh laptop battery, check electrical connections, & check chain) to prevent this from happening in the future?
--- Match 43 Not Available --- 4 points on Blue Alliance---The other two robots on our alliance got stuck together. A.Walker wondered if the robots had fallen in love. K.Mougous added "and we are the third wheel". In this match, the 3-D printed part connecting the sprocket to the van door motor on our robot broke. We did not think to bring a spare of this part. Ideally, the team should do a failure mode analysis to determine what spare parts should be brought along.
--- Match 46 Red --- 0 points on Red Alliance---Our robot is unavailable for the match. Guy attends as the human player which gives Team 5295 the alliance score. Team 4180 donated a 3/4" diameter x 7" long aluminum rod. Build Captain Josh asked the machine shop (all student volunteers) to implement his fix re-attaching the sprocket to the van door motor. Our robot only missed this one match.
--- Match 49 Red --- 24 points on Red Alliance---Again Guy is our human player and we get the alliance score. A complete no show gives the team zero points.
--- Match 56 Red --- 54 points on Red Alliance---We stack two gray totes. "We did the totes well." After this match, Josh adds a larger hook to lift the green recycle container. "FIR" now has two lower hooks to lift gray totes and the higher hook to lift the green recycle can by its handle.
--- Match 61 Red Not Available --- 93 points on Red Alliance---We successfully grab and move two gray totes, one at a time, to the white scoring platform. We then place a green recycle bin on top of the gray totes for the first time ever.
PROGRAMMING
"Programming is very delicate especially during competitions." Guy, Programming Lead
Our pit team diagnosed programming as the root cause for going 12" too far in match 2 autonomous, having weak motors in match 10, lacking right motor control in match 16, and going rogue in match 31 autonomous. We need more time to test. Practicing on a mockup field would assist. More students on the team will speed up robot build and allow more time for testing.
ELIMINATION PLAYOFFS
#1 Qualification Score and Winning Alliance Team 1318 Issaquah Robotics Society (purple shirts with long yellow ties) designed a robot that grabs two green recycle cans during autonomous. During the teleop period, the robot grabs a green can and takes it to the feeder station. The human feeder loads a pool noodle (litter), and then grey totes which are stacked underneath the green recycle can.#2 Qualification Score and Winning Alliance Team 3663 CPR grabs a green can, and heads over to the feeder station. There the human player adds a pool noodle, and then stacks six gray totes under the green can. A.Hospador scouted this team consistently creating two stacks of six gray totes with the green can and pool noodle on top AND a third stack of three gray totes.
#4 Qualification Score Team 3968 High Voltage (the team that repeatedly helped us with programming) decided to load totes also at the feeder station. This team used the bottom tote as a base on which to stack all the other totes.
ENGINEERING PROCESS Tyler visited the pits after lunch Sunday and spoke to the teams in the playoffs. He discovered that many teams use the first week and a half to two weeks of the build season to brainstorm and prototype. Many full size prototypes are built from cardboard to prove that the idea will work. Then robot construction occurs primarily in weeks three and four. Testing is done in week 5 with modifications added in week 6. Our students mentioned throughout our build season that they would like to learn the basic techniques of robot construction in the fall. This would allow them to focus on robot improvements during the six week build season.
MARKETING IDEAS
Marketing Lead: Todd M.
Name: On Saturday, a student from Team 3786 adored the pun in our name "Aldernating Current". In the past spectators thought our name was Alternating Current. Sometimes visitors ask our students to explain what our name means. Visitors ask "Where are you from?" as our banner does not show where Mason County is located.
Display: Todd spoke with his counterpart Kate of rookie Team 5588 on their fabulous marketing display.Brayden's dad thought a short one-two minute video could show students working and our robot lifting a tote.
Team Characteristics: Students generated a list of characteristics they think Team 5295 represents: Awesomeness; Disaster recovery; Tenacious; Improvisers; Against all odds; and Internal fortitude. Todd said "We are really good at quick change improvements." Basically our team uses robotics in a timber county to teach problem solving skills. Being proactive avoids problems.
The Future: In the opening ceremony on Saturday, Chris Takahashi (on Board of Directors for Washington FIRST Robotics) spoke about his daily work with Workforce Snohomish (the organization that recruited A.Walker to FIRST), "Come to a competition. You will see the future. And the future is great!"
WEBSITE
frcTEAM5295AldernatingCurrent.
Team 4512 suggested that our team website be written to support both wide personal computer screens and small phone screens.
FOOD For the second year in a row, we asked Pagliachi's Pizza (Seattle's Best Pizza) to deliver salads, pasta, and pizza to us shortly after arrival at Shorewood High School. Kudos to K.Mougous for figuring out what students wanted and A.Walker for ordering. Thanks Joy for making us homemade muffins for our Saturday appetites. Thank you A.Walker for being our picnic provider Saturday and Sunday. Kiery's dad offered to buy the team a steak dinner Sunday. The students agreed to this and also to Coach's veto due to his extra one hour driving time this would entail. The team has a rain check for a future steak dinner. Our next major event will be the Lacey STEM Fair on May 2.
THANK YOU
+Thank you volunteer robot inspector Tom Blank for inspecting our robot.+Thank you volunteer pit announcer Heidi Burkett for asking for quiet before sharing key safety information.
+Thank you mentor A.Hospador for loading the New Market trailer on Friday afternoon.
+Thank you Coach Bachtell for driving the van through five hours of traffic and being our male chaperon.
+Thank you K.Mougous for serving as female chaperon.+Thank you Team 1778 Chill Out..! for using five humorous cartoons displayed in your pit to get across ideas for safety.+Thank you Elaine and Alex of Team 2557 SOTAbots for explaining that you sharing your battery tips with Team 5295. On your match schedule board, you list the battery the robot will use in each match. Old batteries are only used in the pit and for testing. +Thank you Team 3070 Pronto for hosting the event. We liked how you hung your team sweatshirts from your canopy. Thank you Darrell for showing A.Walker where the nearest shoe store was located.
+Thank you Team 3663 CPR for helping us with programming.
+Thank you Jasmine and Team 3787 Wild Robotocats for performing a pit survey of safety equipment and advising us to get an eye wash kit. Thank you also for posting your safety equipment on the aisle side of your pit for easy access. You also have a great award display.
+Thank you Team 3786 Chargers for letting our team know you like the pun in our name.
+Thank you Team 3968 High Voltage for aiding our programming efforts.
+Thank you Team 4180 Iron Riders for providing us with a 3/4" diameter x 7" long aluminum rod. We could not participate in the later rounds without your generousity. The display of your team season schedule "Gantt chart" gave our lead mentor ideas.
+Thank you Team 4304 Iron Rams for sharing your pun with us Fe (Iron) + Ramen (Ram).
+Thank you Brandon and Ronnie of Team 4512 BEARbots for sharing the business side of your team. Indeed you are "Bruins Empowered And Ready". Thank you Brandon for showing A.Walker. your Outreach Display of events, sponsors, robot photos, and strategy. Your weekly goals and agenda of discussion items, calendar, and significant events is something Team 5295 can do. Your Engineering Journal Entries clearly documents major engineering discoveries. Thank you Ronnie for your willingness to share your business plan with our Marketing Lead Todd. Team 4512 suggested that our team website be written to support both wide personal computer screens and small phone screens.+Thank you Team 4915 Spartronics and rookie Team 5495 Aluminati for using a 2' x 3' white board for match schedules. We will do so at future events.
+Thank you Kate of rookie Team 5588 Holy Names Academy for developing such a fantastic marketing display and sharing ideas with Todd.
+Thank you A.Hospador, and the Beaudoin and Mann families for donating funds for this competition.
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