Bear Metal in 2010
by Taylor D.
This is the story of Bear Metal as we build our robot this year and compete in the regionals, aiming at the big prize -- an invitation to the world championship in Atlanta, Georgia.
Bear Metal is a high school robotics team participating in the FIRST Robotics Competition. Each year, the makeup of our team changes as seniors go away to college (and sometimes become mentors), and as freshmen join the team and learn the challenges and joys of working together to build a robot.
Our team does a lot more than build robots. We also help teams at other schools who are just getting started. We visit business groups to inspire interest in what we do. And we use our website to let the world know about us.
Learn more about Bear Metal . . .
As a participant in the FIRST Robotics Competition, we build a new robot each year to meet the specific challenge given to us by FIRST. The challenge comes as a game, with teams and their robots competing to play the game most effectively. From the time we learn the challenge to the time we must have our robot finished and ready for competition is a short six weeks.
The Kickoff
One of the most significant events of each year's competition is the Kickoff. The idea is that every team, throughout the world, receives the challenge at the same instant and has exactly the same amount of time as every other team to design and build a robot. So FIRST, which is headquartered in Manchester, New Hampshire, launches each season with a broadcast, live via a web cast and also via NASA-TV's satellite feed.
This year, teams from our region assembled at Mountlake Terrace High School on January 9 to watch the broadcast on big-screen TV. The broadcast began at 10 a.m. in New Hampshire, which may seem reasonable. But that meant 7 a.m. for us, so we had to be out of bed and on the road bright and early.
We gathered in the stands at Mountlake Terrace High along with teams from across the region and even from as far away as Turkey. We could feel the excitement the moment we walked through the door. We waited patiently in the stands, shifting a bit and squirming as the ceremonies went on a little longer than we would like. Really, we just wanted to know what is the game for this year.
Finally, that point was reached; the stands went silent with anticipation. We knew the task ahead would be complex, and the gears were already turning in our heads. The challenge this year, we learned, is a game called "Breakaway", which requires robots to control and propel soccer balls around the arena. Robots will have to climb over bumps or go through tunnels, and in the last seconds of the game they will attempt to suspend themselves from a 7-foot tower in the center of the arena.
Learn more about the game . . .
With the ceremonies complete and the game revealed, an intense 6-week build season was underway.
Since the event was being web cast and broadcast over NASA-TV, it would be tempting to take all this in from the comfort of our own school, and not have to travel so far so early in the morning. But, besides the excitement, there is a very important reason teams gather from all over to be together at this event: sharing with each other their ideas about the game and how to approach it. The crowd broke up into about two dozen groups and talked for the next hour about the game. We discussed game strategy, design approaches, parts suppliers, and every other aspect of robot building. Then everyone set off for home.
For Bear Metal, the day had just begun.
Design Groups
While Bear Metal participated in the breakout sessions at the Kickoff, we had a more elaborate approach for developing our initial ideas. Our whole team was split into about six groups, and each group stuck together for the rest of the day. The moment the game was revealed, each group started talking within the group about various design ideas and game strategies. But each group kept to itself, and avoided talking with other groups.
The goal was to have as many unique design ideas as possible. The team as a whole could meet later and choose the ideas we felt would be most effective. But, for now, if one group conversed with another their ideas would contaminate the other group's original thoughts, and each group's design would no longer be unique.
Back at our school, the team met as a whole to go over the rules of the game. Then we were permitted an hour to polish our group's ideas as best we could. Finally, the team reassembled and each group presented its ideas to the entire team.
It was amazing to see all the different possibilities in strategy and design, and how creative high school students can be in such a short time. Each group's ideas were significant, and bits and pieces were taken from each to develop our final design. Some robotics teams work as one to find their ideas and strategies. Our method gives us a much wider spectrum of ideas, leading to a better robot.
Prototypes
As our design ideas began to settle, we needed a way to assure they would work. This is where Mr. Prelesnik (one of our fabrication mentors) came in. As a mentor new to our team, we can assume Mr. P. was slightly overwhelmed at first; however, his swift uptake of the ideas of robot building and of our team's resources was a blessing.
We had two major questions to answer before we could start on the real robot. What was the best way to kick the ball? And how would we suspend our robot from the tower at the end of a match? Mr. P., using his fabulous wood-working skills, created a kicker prototype with an array of different kicking mechanisms. The prototype was to scale, with a ball which was also to scale. We tested the different mechanisms and chose the one we think will work best for us.
Mr. P. also created a prototype to test a plan for suspending our robot from the tower. The details of our mechanism are still classified, but here's a hint: you probably haven't seen anything like it.
It may seem silly, building tiny models, but it is vital to creating a working robot. We have Mr. P. to thank for this.
Working Groups
Our club has four working groups directly related to building our robot: design, mechanical fabrication, electronics, and programming. Each group has its own leader, responsible for handing out work assignments. And mentors also are actively involved in each working group.
At the start of the process, the design team works the hardest. Until the first plans become available, the other groups can't move at full speed. The design team uses Autodesk Inventor, a computer-aided design system, to render plans for the major parts of our robot and for the robot as a whole. Some basic parts need to be machined and fabricated, and a design is vital for that. Specialized robot parts are included in the kit of parts which each team receives at the Kickoff. We purchase many of the parts from various suppliers who specialize in robot parts.
Once the first designs begin to roll out, the fabrication team goes to work. In our fabrication area we have hand tools, power saws, drills, a lathe, and a CNC mill. Even with all these tools, fabrication requires a lot of careful measuring and hand work. With our large team, we have lots of hands, and a day in the fabrication room has everyone hard at work measuring, cutting, grinding, sanding, filing, and fitting.
Some parts are too complex for the tools we have, so occasionally we take our designs to A&M Precision Measuring Services, one of our sponsors, for fabrication. They graciously work with us, providing their precision machining equipment for our use.
Even before the first designs appear, the electronics team is at work. Using robots from past years, they try out ideas for the new robot. Once the new chassis emerges from the fabrication team, the electonics team can begin adding the motors, switches, controller and other electrical and electronic parts. Wiring these parts is complex, and changes radically from one year to the next as each year's robot design changes. This process is very dependent on the work of our design team to produce the necessary plans.
Like the electronics team, the programming team doesn't wait for the first designs: our six week build season doesn't allow that. Using subsystems from past years (camera, controller, motors) they begin trying out ideas for programming a robot which can play this year's game. At the competitions, throughout most of each match, the robots are under the control of "drivers", team members who remotely operate the robot. But each match also has an "autonomous period" at the start of the match, during which the robots have an opportunity to carry out their functions using only their own brain power, and without the help of the human operator. This is a severe programming challenge, but one at which we have excelled in past years.
Our Current Status (February 12, 2010)
We are nearing the end of build season, and we will be shipping our completed robot in a few short weeks. This is our current status:
- As always, we are slightly behind schedule, but hard work will fix that.
- Winter break at our school is next week, so we will be at work all day every day.
- Even with our robot well under way, our design team is still at work designing parts, making needed design changes, and finishing the final design in CAD.
- Taking designs as they come, the fabrication team has the chassis mostly finished. Additional parts will be coming together soon.
- Without a full robot to wire, the electronics team is already putting together what they can. They will be ready for the finished robot once it’s ready for them.
- The programmers are working with the camera and a vision target, using "Bearenstein" (our robot from last year) as their guinea pig.
In order to make the ship date, many club members will need to make a more serious commitment and fully apply themselves when they are in the club. This said, I have faith that our club can pull together and create the ideal robot, just as we do every year.
Status Update (February 25, 2010)
- We worked day and night through our winter break last week and finished our robot which we have named "Odyssey".
- At 10:00 p.m. on Saturday, Odyssey was ready for trials. Everyone headed up to the Joint Practice Field in Seattle and stayed until 2:00 a.m. Driver tryouts were conducted at this time.
- Trials and refinements continued Sunday and Monday. Odyssey performed very well going over the "bump". View a video compilation of Odyssey trials.
- Odyssey shipped on Tuesday, February 23. We will meet up with Odyssey when we arrive at the regional in Portland, Oregon on March 4.
To be continued . . .