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.