Robotics Journal

6-21-10

Today was my first day at robotics camp. We're going to create some robots in teams and then we would play the robot game, VEX Elevation, by VEX. We were supposed to make a robot and win the game. No holds barred, our robot could do ANYTHING to the enemy robot! For full instructions, go to http://content.vexrobotics.com/docs/vex-elevation/elevation-game-manual.11242008.pdf. I was put in team 6. When deciding our team name, none of us had any ideas. Then I remembered the GREAT 42! THE MEANING OF LIFE, THE UNIVERSE, AND EVERYTHING (the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy)! So we got ourselves called Team 42! This week, we'll be making our base drive, known as "The Protobot". It's quite fun. Sadly, I'll miss Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday because my family and I are going to Utah.

6-22-10

Today, we kept working on our drive-base. There was a lot of confusion over the instructions. Pretty obvious that there would be confusion, seeing as that they were pictorial, didn’t show arrows, pointed at stuff, etc., and were assigned gibberish instead of names. There was a lot to do and we progressed slowly. Sadly, the end result was only a finished 4 parts of the instructions, half done the previous day. While I’m at Utah, though, the team will work on it.

6-28-10

Today, I went to Robotics Camp after going to Utah. My team made a lot of progress. Today, we were working on designing arms for our robot and programming/testing it. I came up with a few ideas, but they had problems. I’m still working on my last idea. At 2:15, I went to get our robot tested. There seemed to have been some electronic difficulties previously. Anyway, our first programming delay was when we had to unscrew and re-screw an important element to connect the battery. Then we downloaded information. We got a crystal and started testing. However, because another team already had a crystal like ours, we had to use a tether. To attach the tether, we had to unscrew and re-screw THE SAME THING WE JUST UNSCREWED AND RE-SCREWED! And for some reason, it wouldn’t work. EVERYTHING WAS GOING CORRECTLY! Tomorrow, we are going to try and replace the most important part, which is probably the problem.

6-29-10

OH MY GOD, THIS IS SO EXASPERATING! WE REPLACED THE IMPORTANT PART ONCE, AND IT DIDN’T WORK! Then we did lots of re-downloading, testing, and… WE HAD TO REPLACE THE ELECTRONIC PART AGAIN! IT TOOK THE WHOLE TWO HOURS AT ROBOTICS CAMP! But at least we figured out the problem. One of the engines had died. We learned this after constant re-downloads of master and competition code. Also, the engines had to be placed into the main electronic piece in a specific order to work. Now the robot works, YAY! We had to replace the dead engine, which we did. Anyway, we just have some testing to do tomorrow.

6-30-10

OH GREAT! THERE WAS ANOTHER PROBLEM! Everything worked, BUT IT KEPT MAKING THE ROBOT GO IN CIRCLES! We replaced the engine AGAIN and IT STILL WENT IN CIRCLES! We showed the teacher, and he told us one axle wasn’t properly inside the engine and there was a programming error. WE HAD TO FIX THE ENGINE AGAIN, AND REPLACING IT TOOK HALF OF ALL THE CLASS TIME! Fixing the engine took another 3/8 of our time. And then, for the last 15 minutes, we reprogrammed it. But at least now it works perfectly.

7-1-10
Today, we figured out ANOTHER ENGINE PROBLEM! HOW MANY ELECTRONICS PROBLEMS IS THIS, 7???!!! One engine was slower than the other so it always turned in a circle, and only to the left. After fixing that, we worked on the arm. The guy working on it mistook advice (didn’t listen to me when I told him what was wrong with his reasoning, either), and he had to kill one part of the arm. Maybe we can still use it, though. We worked on the pivot, which we have finished planning and might be put into operation tomorrow or next week. This weekend, I don’t have Robotics, which is lucky because we’re going on a trip to Lassen Park and Crater Lake.
7-2-10
Today, we finished the plan for the arms. They will be feed systems. Treads are attached to motors so that the treads spin. The treads, in turn, pick up blocks and score goals by moving inward and outward. They will be attached to a pivot so that it can reach the highest goals and pick up the cubes on the ground.

7-6-10
Oh. My. GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MORE ENGINE PROBLEMS!!!!! At first, I thought that A) One engine was burnt out, and B) another was loose. I fixed both. However, there must have been another problem, because, though the constant circular movement of the robot weakened, it STILL moved in circles. One motor might be dead. We’ll fix it tomorrow.

7-7-10
First things first, we didn’t fix the motors. Actually, we didn’t do anything with them. We worked on the arms. They are on a pivot and are given torque by to high gear ratios connected by chains on an axle so that the gears will make the angle of the arms change. Anyway, we learned that our extremely light robot and extremely heavy arms weren’t compatible. We had to lighten the arms, shorten them, or, as a last resort, make the robot heavier. We decided to lighten them. However, that didn’t work, so we had to remove the extensions (maybe) and put the mounting towers closer to the front so that the shorter arms can reach the cubes.

7-8-10
Well, we finished most of the mounting tower. The bottom axle has been placed and so have the gears and motors. Tomorrow, we will add the chains to connect the bottom axle’s gears to the top axle to add torque. We also finished the arms, but the length was not equal and has to be fixed. By tomorrow, we have to finish the robot. Next Monday, we scrimeouge, Tuesday-Thursday, we have the tournament, and Friday, we dismantle the robot.
7-9-10
Well… today we finished the arms. They work as feed system. The mounting towers are just about done. But we didn’t finish soon enough. Today we were supposed to finish. But at least we aren’t the only group. Only about half of the six groups finished. But we REALLY need to step on the gas and speed it up. On Monday, we were going to purely scrimeouge. Now, we have to finish before we start the scrimeouges. Also, when we finish, we can choose whether to do autonomous mode or not. In autonomous mode, the robots work by themselves for twenty seconds. Even if only one group does it, they can do it. We have to wait twenty seconds anyway because of the autonomous mode timer in the programming.
7-12-10
Well… it’s Monday… and we didn’t finish. We will have only tomorrow. BUT IT’S NOT OUR FAULT! WE’VE BEEN PLAGUED WITH BAD LUCK EVER SINCE WE STARTED! Today, for example, we had to COMPLETELY dismantle the mounting towers we worked days on and put just two part facing a different direction. AND NOW the axles are too short. SEE! I’VE TOLD YOU ON MY OTHR ENTRIES! WE HAVE THE WORST LUCK EVER! We’ll finish tomorrow.
7-12-10
Okay, today, we just about finished. We finished fixing the mounting towers and attached the arms. We just have a few gears to fix and axles to change. The good thing is, we have a few minutes to do it tomorrow morning. I think our robot is one of the fastest in its class (feed mechanism arms, scoring, no defense or offense) since the entire drive base was made of aluminum. Anyway, tomorrow, the tournament starts. I wonder who’s going to win…
7-12-10
I’m going to be honest right now… today was… AN UTTERLY HUGE DISASTER! First off, we finished the robot and were just going to program, it, but it took too long. Our match was rescheduled. But then, our robot didn’t work. We had to forfeit and the enemy could just score without us. But their robot broke too. And suddenly- KERPLOP! EVERY SNGLE ROBOT STOPPED WORKING! The rest of the day was spent fixing the robots. Out of 15 planned matches, we finished… 1. And one team scored 0 points. Our robot only works on a tether, so we have to use that during our match. This means our robot can easily be interfered with. Today we were supposed to have seating matches, but now we have to skip them and go straight to the tournament.
7-13-10
Today was fine. However, during our match, something cracked. Literally and metaphorically. The arms kept it from moving. Luckily, our first match was a tie. But we lost the rematch. It was a really fun day and group one won. Tomorrow, we are playing for third place and have some exhibition matches. And finally, we’ll dismantle the robots.

7-14-10
Due to time constraints, the rest of the tournament was cancelled. For the first hour, we dismantled our robots, a very quick process. Then we watched part of the movie Transformers, because it was (according to our teacher) “mildly” associated with robotics.

My Utah Adventure

6/23/10

Yesterday, we started a road trip to visit Zion, Kolob, and Bryce Canyons. We left for the city of Bakersfield at 7:30 P.M. At 10:30 P.M., we arrived there. On the way, I looked at clouds, read, and slept. Today, from 7:30 A.M. (CA time) to 5:30 P.M. (Utah time), we drove to Zion Canyon. I repeated my routine from last night. On the way, my dad forgot how to open our van’s gas tank and how to use a car wash. I made up a spoof song about it:

He lost it!
He lost it!
Dad really lost it!
Which made us sad...
Because he was bad...
But then...
He found it!
He found it!
He found it!
Dad finally found it!
And luckily, the trip was free (because for the car wash, we were given an extra wash because the first didn’t work correctly)
Dad finally found it
Because of ME!

Once we arrived at Zion Canyon, we explored it by shuttle bus. Our first stop was the “Court of the Patriarchs”, home of the landmark the “Three Patriarchs”. After taking a few pictures, we got onto a new bus. Our second to last stop was the “Temple of Sinawava”. There was a river there, in which we did a little wading. Then we got onto another bus to go to the Human History Museum. Sadly, it was closed. At that point, we left for our hotel.

6/24/10

Today, we went to Kolob Canyon in the morning. We took some pictures and were back in our hotel for breakfast in two hours. Then we went to the village of Marysvale and went to on an ARK (Always Rafting and Canoeing) rafting trip. It was an awesome experience to go rafting. Our guide was Don, the owner of the company. My family was the fastest team of rafters, even though we had the smallest team and my sister and I were the youngest rafters. Going through rapids was really fun since we got soaked up to our HAIR in pitfalls known as “waterfalls”. During the trip, Don pointed out mountains like Big Rock Candy Mountain (WHAT THE HECK?!?!?!?), beaver dams, and vague faces in the mountains. I EVEN SAW KING KONG AND LORD VOLDEMORT (albeit Voldemort possessing Professor Quirrel)! Then we went to Bryce Canyon. We took a few pictures there and I made a poem about it:
Oh!
Bryce Canyon!
What a wonderful place to be!
All the things to do
And the sights to see!

You can see a mountain
Far, far away!
Up at Rainbow point,
You can see stuff and say
HEY!

Oh!
Bryce Canyon!
You’re so neat and cool!
Let me tell you,
You’re really a jewel!

6/25/10

Today, we went to Zion Canyon again for horseback riding. My horse was Chalkboard. He was a little slow at the beginning of the track until I was given a whip to whip him with. There was a lot of treacherous footing and we moved unsteadily, but I got used to it. However, once, the horse in front of me pooped. And my horse stepped in the poop. And a bunch of times, the horses peed, and we were in close contact with the alias of “Rocky Mountain Lemonade”. It was really fun, but very hot and somehow just as tiring as going on the same track on foot. We all got a drink and snack afterwards. Then we went to the Human History Museum and learned about Zion Canyon’s history. Then we left and went to Barstow, CA. Tomorrow, we will get home before noon.

Pomeroy, 6th Grade, and Graduation

This year, I was in 6th grade, my last year at Marshall Pomeroy Elementary School. In 6th grade, I had a lot of fun. We went on great field trips, worked on great projects, and just had a lot of fun.

On Thursday, June 10, 2010, we had our graduation. It was the last day of school and my last day at Marshall Pomeroy Elementary School. We had practiced three times for the ceremony a few days before it happened.



Upon starting the ceremony, we went to our seats with our partners. Then we listened to a speech by our principal, Mrs. Berman. It was also her last year at Pomeroy. Then we listened to our classmates make speeches. And then we started getting out graduation certificates. I was one of the first people to get the certificate. After giving everyone their certificates, Mrs. Berman made a second speech. And then we went and ate refreshments. It was an AWESOME day that ended an AWESOME year.

Back in class, we watched some episodes of the old 1930's cartoon, The 3 Stooges. It was EPICALLY funny. We went outside and played for a while after that. Finally, we came back in, stacked up desks and chairs, got our report cards, and left at 12 o'clock A.M. At home my parents gave me a GRAD(uation) balloon and we ate a small celebratory cake and some pasta.

I've been going to Pomeroy all my life. Actually, the majority of my school life was spent there. 7 out of the 13 years(kindergarten being the first) were spent at Pomeroy! Every year, I enjoyed myself immensely. In kindergarten, I learned to socialize and how to use motor skills. In first grade, I learned how work independently on projects. In second grade, I learned relatively advanced reading and math. In third grade, I did a LOT of reading that was truly advanced, such as the first six Harry Potter books. In fourth grade, I learned science, history, math, reading, and other subjects. In fifth grade, I learned art, drug awareness, and very advanced math. And finally, this year, In sixth grade, I learned art, creativity, advanced math, language arts, and poetry. I shall sorely miss my great years in Pomeroy.

The Exhaustion Song

This one is from couple of weeks ago:

This is a parody of a Doctor Seuss poem (it had something to do with brains in your head and feet in your shoes). I wrote it because I was EXHAUSTED after school on 6/4/10. I made it when I told a friend I had blisters on my hands, I’ve got bruises on my knees. It sounded poetic, so I made this poem:

I’ve got blisters on my hands
I’ve got bruises on my knees
I’m trying to be poetic
But I’ll ruin it with a sneeze

LAWL! Funny!

Open House and my Term Project

I wrote this post a while ago, but posting now as you can see!

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This week, on May 19, 2010, I presented my Term Project. Every year, students have to study something that interests them and make a presentation about it. I made a video and a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation. My Term Project was on neurosurgery, a very difficult research topic. I went to the library one day and took out some books that could help me research. Then I started typing my presentation with the books and some help from the Internet. Finally, when I finished typing, I started practicing my presentation. When I presented it, my classmates said it was well researched. Here is a link to the small video I made from pictures from the Internet.

The next day, May 20, 2010, we had Open House. Open House is a HUGE event. Every year, in the days leading up to Open House, teachers clean up their rooms and get all sorts of stuff to show parents. There is also a barbeque (I didn’t attend because I’m vegetarian, and there was no veggie stuff), an ice-cream social, a book fair, an art fair, and classroom visitation.

First, we left at about 6:00 P.M. At 6:10 P.M., we arrived. The first thing I did was getting our pre-ordered ice-cream social tickets. Before I had ice cream, though, I went to the art fair to find the picture I drew for it. It wasn’t there. I had some ice cream.

Then we went to the book fair. This year, my sister bought Harry Potter 6 (we lost our last copy) and a Judy Moody book. I bought a book called N.E.R.D.S. and a book on paper airplanes. Then I visited my classroom and presented my Term Project again there. No one listened! I then went with some friends and we talked and raced. It was a lot of fun. Finally, I went and saw my 4th grade teacher, Mrs.Downey, just before Open House ended. After I visited her, we left.

This is my last year at Marshall Pomeroy Elementary School. I really think I put my last Open House to good use.

My Grandmother

This year, my grandmother came to visit us from India. She had also been here in September of 2009. We really enjoyed her company.

Once, a two days before she left, on May 29, we went cherry picking with her. First, we went to the Livermore temple after getting some food for a picnic we were going to have with our cousins. We met our cousins once we got to the cherry farm and started picking and eating cherries.




Funnily enough, it was the black cherries that tasted best, contrary to the generic red cherry. During the picnic part of our trip, we ate angel food cake, Hawaiian buns, and drank CapriSun Roaring Waters juice. I also *cough, cough* tried to skip stones. If you didn’t pick up the hints, I failed miserably.

My grandmother also made great food. Every day, she made something new and exciting. She showed me “allu muttar” and I REALLY liked it.

My grandmother left on June 1, 2010. On the day before, I made her a picture showing our whole family together. We wished her a happy journey before we left for school and she left for the airport.

I really miss my grandmother and hopes she comes back soon. Luckily, soon, my other grandparents are coming. I can’t wait!

Merryhill: Shadow Day

Today, April 21, 2010, I went to a shadow day at Merryhill Middle School. I followed around a sixth grader at Merryhill for a day! The first thing I did after arriving was meeting the principal, Mrs. Quinn. She told me that I was going to follow a sixth grader named Henry.

First, there was an assembly for the quarterly Honor Roll. There were Bronze, Silver, and Gold levels. After that, I followed Henry outside to the Music Room. I watched the students practice their yearly dance. Every grade has a different one. Halfway through, a person came and told us he had to set up something where they were practicing. It turns out that it was a giant bouncy slide. The students had to move somewhere else. Then, the Mega-iHome (at least I think of it like that) ran out of charge, so they had to listen to the music teacher’s iPhone. Next, we had math, also known as Home Room. The students were studying about regular polygons, a subject my class had finished studying a few weeks ago. I shared some of my knowledge and fully completed a worksheet, which was not actually due the same day.

Next, we had lunch. I thought the kids were just fooling around in class for a while before I learned they were actually eating lunch. It was very early, at only 11:00 am or so. Then, we had the official lunch. I had already finished and asked Henry some questions about the schedule. Today, we were going to have history, language arts, science, and P.E. So anyway, after lunch, we went to history. I basically didn’t do anything because they were working on projects and had a quiz on a book I’d never read. Then they read a handout I didn’t have. I thought the history teacher was very funny.

In language arts, I was given the book the sixth graders were reading, Animal Farm. It was an allegory about communism. I voiced some of the opinions I had about the small amount of the book that I read. Then, the teacher read us a story about a future where everyone was equal. It was HORRIBLE! All the people with ANY skill at all were badly handicapped by the Handicapper General. At the end, because two people wouldn’t be handicapped, they were killed. Afterwards, we had a short ten-minute break.

At science, we learned about ocean ecology. We also did a project about ocean food chain in which we made a food chain with note cards. Finally, we were supposed to have P.E., but since it was raining, we just stayed inside and had a break for and hour or so. After about half of the time, we had to move from the science lab to the cafeteria because there was a meeting in the science lab. Anyway, during the P.E. time, Henry and me became good friends. At 3:40, we were dismissed. I was picked up at 4:05.

All in all, I really liked the shadow day, and since I liked it so much, Mrs. Quinn offered to let me come again. I will be going for a half day tommorow.