Week Three Update - 1/27/09

We have just about recovered from being 3 days behind schedule and expect to meet our 2/1 deadline for the build of our competition robot! Our electrical and control systems subteams have completed not only the benchtop tasks, but have transplanted the new system onto an old bot. The test bot has been turned over to programming and they are developing VIs to address the anticipated programming tasks. Electrical and control systems are now designing the layout of the boards for the competition bot.

On the mechanical front, we have tested the old bot on the new surface with rover wheels while attached to a trailer with rover wheels. The drivetrain subteam has completed their initial drive design, ordered parts, and expect to be finished by the end of the week. The manipulator subteam has successfully prototyped their concepts for 2 of the 3 tasks and are in the process of resolving the last concept. The integration subteam has seen all of the plans and presented a mockup of the completed robot at last night's meeting. All Beta Realm subteams are confident that the robot will be alive by Sunday!

Website, fundraising, outreach and mentoring all reported progress with their goals, but they could use more support from the team. The February Scrimmage details have been sent to the 18 participating teams and posted on our blog. The details will be on our website's event section soon. We continue our weekly visits to help other teams and expect a second team to begin meeting onsite with us. Due to news received Friday and shared last night, our major funding hurdles are not over. Be sure to pass any sponsorship leads on to Jackie Moore for follow up. Communicate via the google group between meetings for details on how each member can better contribute to the efforts of our Alpha Realm subteams. Full participation in both realms is what defines a committed Chicago Knight!

Balls, Balls, Balls!

Let's keep a running total of the number of balls teams attending the scrimmage plan to bring. Simply add a comment to this post, listing the last total you saw, the number you plan to bring, and the new total. To start off, the Chicago Knights has 7 balls, bringing the grand total to 7!

Chicago Lunacy Scrimmage: Saturday February 7, 2009

Here are the final details for  the 1st Annual Chicago FRC pre-ship Scrimmage!

Date: Saturday, February 7, 2009

Doors open at 9:00; open field play until 9:50; first match begins at 10:00; last match starts at 4:00

Match times will be assigned based on order of teams in-queue. This allows teams who walk in ready to roll to start right away, while not leaving out teams who need help before they can play. We will generally follow the format used by FIRST for practice matches at the competition (5 minute matches), making adjustments to fit the needs of the attending teams.

Location: 2021 S Wabash, Chicago  IL  60616

What we will supply:

full size playing field with competition style floor

all game elements (except balls)

1 table and 2 chairs for each team

access to electricity

plenty of quarters for the parking meters!

What to Bring With You

your robot and tools!

robot cart to protect wheels when not on field (simple furniture dolly will work!)

laptop and wireless router

power strip

ethernet cable for tethered operations

balls, balls balls (with your team number written inside)

money for food (fast food places within a mile of site, concession stand available onsite)

your gracious professionalism!

How to get there

From I-94W (northbound Dan Ryan) - exit at 22nd street (exit is on the left for the local lanes and on the right for the express lanes). Stay in the right-most lane and turn right (east) onto 22nd street (Cermak Rd). Continue east to Wabash and turn left (north). Go one block north and begin looking for metered street parking. 

From I-94E (southbound Dan Ryan) - exit at 12th Street (Roosevelt Road) and turn left (east). Continue east until you get to Wabash and turn right (south). As you approach 20th street start looking for metered street parking. 

On public transportation, take the Red line to Cermak (12th street) station and transfer to the eastbound 22nd street bus. Take it 3-4 streets to Wabash and exit the bus. Walk north a block and a half. OR, you can take the State street bus to 20th street and walk 2 blocks east to Wabash.

The building address is 2021 S Wabash.

There will be a sign and/or red/white/blue balloons outside to help you find it.

Week Three 1/18 - 25

We started week 3 a few days behind, but we did finalize our robot design! Sub-teams are now busy working on their individual deliverables. First priority is to develop a task list and assign responsibilities with emailing RoboticsLady the list of needed materials a close second. Generic updates for week 3 will be posted here with detailed private information sent via the team google group! Next major deliverable: Complete robot built by February 1st!

Week Two - 1/11 - 1/17

at the Marathon Build Day, we assembled our control system and started assembling our kitbot, while assisting the other teams. Given that we are not likely to use the kitbot, we opted to use the kit wheels on an older robot to test the ability to actually drive on the playing field. There was more traction on the icy streets than on the playing field surface!

After rescheduling a meeting due to weather, we used the new information we gathered from testing (and the Team Update) to adjuste some of our assumptions. We broke into small groups and practiced presenting design ideas based on the previously accepted design goals. Thursday, finalVoting on final robot design was deferred to an online vote (due to inclement weather) to allow as many team members as possible to weigh in.

The control systems and programming groups worked on completing the customization and implementation of the C-RIO with mixed results. The initial benchtop testing was successful. The C-RIO was updated successfully, but the driver's station update was not. In the meantime, the electrical team started preparing to implement the new control system on the old (2007) robot.

In other news, Francis W Parker school finalized their recommitment to sponsoring the team, other FRC teams have begun sending in their RSVP for the 2/7 Lunacy Scrimmage, venue confirmation is underway (based on number of teams who RSVP), we have been moved from the wait-list to registered for the Atlanta championship (now we need $5K right away!), and Chris was accepted into Rensselaer (and received a 4 year Leadership scholarship).

Marathon Build Day - January 10, 2009

Saturday, January 10, 2009, the Chicago Knights hosted a marathon build session. Mentor dedication to their teams was evident as many came out in spite of the inclement weather.

Attending teams:

Rookies: (2781) Queen of Peace, Burbank
. (2831) Perspectives School of Technology - Calumet Campus, Chicago

Veterans: (1739) Chicago Knights, Chicago
. (1755) Julian HS, Chicago
. (2081) Icarus, Peoria
. (2381) Ark of St Sabina, Chicago
. (2136) IMF, Chicago

Super kudos to the 4 students from veteran team Icarus (FRC 2081) and to the parent, Hugh Toner, who brought them. They not only made the trip from Peoria to help us assist the Perspectives-Calumet team, but they worked with other teams as well!

Jonathan Hildyard of National Instruments did an awesome job with LabView and all participating teams benefited from his expertise.

In spite of the weather-induced late start AND the extremely high number of too-large corner pieces in the KOP, all teams left with only about an hour's worth of work remaining before having a fully implemented control system. Two of the six teams completed their chassis, one reused an old robot, and another opted to work on their custom frame. The remaining two teams know how, but couldn't complete their frame due to having received improperly sized corner pieces.

I suspect by now, those issues have been resolved. We will upload our pictures to a shared online service ASAP and send you the link to it when it has been completed. If you have other pictures to share from the day, or pictures of your now functioning kit bot, please feel free to do so!

Also, don't forget to send me your feedback about the day. I am interested in knowing your overall impression of the day, what value (if any) did you receive from the day, and any special moments that stood out for you. In addition, if there were things we could do better/differently, please let us know that also! This will become an annual activity for us. Your feedback can help us plan better next time.

Week One: 1/4-10

We met as a full team debriefing the game and defining our game strategy. As one group, we brainstormed, discussed detailed ideas, produced a prioritized list of ideas for playing the game, robot design options, and design goals. Using team assigned weighted values, we identified our design criteria and prepared to return Saturday to host a marathon build session for ourselves and 5 other teams.

The goal for the build session was to have each team leave at the end of the day with a completed kitbot and a fully implemented tethered control system.

Vote for Lunacy Design Options

Post your choices before 5:00pm Tuesday! Valid choices are

1A, 1B, 1C, (choose only 1)

2A, 2B, 2C (choose only 1)

3A, 3B (choose only 1)

4A, 4B (choose only 1)

see the related message in your email for details

Website Stuff

Current Members:
Mentor- Ray Llanes
M. Braun (History Page)
J. Johnson (Events Page)
J. MacDonald (Mentors Page)
P. McCloud (Bio's Page)
L. Moore (Home Page)
J. Taylor (Thank You Page & Public Relation Liaison & News Page)
S. Williams (...)

Things Needed:
-Camera
-Photoshop
-HTML lessons
-Media team to give us "media"

Kit Happens! Be Prepared

Friday, January 2 - Saturday, January 3, members of the Chicago Knights Robotics team gathered together to prepare for the kickoff.

Attendees:

Students: Pasama, Terry, Chris, Juan, Raven, Sierra, Porscha, JT, Lydia, Monica, Brett, Jazmyn Mentors: James Dowd, Ray Llanes, Jackie Moore, John Moore
Volunteers: Khalid Matarieyah, William Mitchell

Pre-Planned Absence (ie with prior notification):

Students: Max (attended kickoff in Denver), Carl (injured leg - on medical hiatus), Finn (traveling w/family), and James (traveling w/family)
Mentor: Damien Blanchard (traveling w/family)

Accomplishments during lock-in:

1. reviewed communications tools available to team and ensured all present could use them
2. used team's decision process to plan menu for Friday night dinner (identify goals, prioritize
3. goals, brainstorm ideas, evaluate ideas against TEAM goals, assign numerical values to ideas, calculate the weighted value of each idea and rank numerically)
4. reorganized the workshop (lots of physical labor!)
5. each subteam represented chose meeting days and had preliminary discussions about plans
6. control systems team worked on new control system benchtest
7. drive team (plus) cleaned and re-tightened connections for 2007 robot
8. practiced "12 days of kickoff" presentation for Saturday kickoff

Saturday, after breakfast (special thanks to William Mitchell who not only donated breakfast, but also helped prepare it!) and a quick run-through of the "12 days of kickoff," we headed over to Hermann Hall where we were joined by Jared and Mike Johnson (we've all heard about people who would give you the shirt off their back; well, Mike Johnson literally did that! When a member pulled out of the presentation at the last minute, Mike took off his team shirt so a substitute (Khalid) who did not have a shirt could wear one on the stage. Thank you Mike for your generosity, and thank you Khalid for stepping in with no notice!)

The "12 days of kickoff" was a big hit and Dennis Roberson has declared it a start of a new tradition for the Midwest FRC organization. We've been asked to post it to YouTube and to forward a copy to Dean Kamen and Paul Gudonis (president of FIRST); Look for an email announcing its availability! We also met a potential member whose family is moving to Chicago from California (Cecily, a high school junior and current member of FRC #8); Students Mike and Capri, and mentor Damien Blanchard joined us for the webcast. Jared and Brett attended the Control Systems Workshop while the rest of the team (including our guest, Cecily) attended the Q & A.

Afterwards, we all headed back to the Alpha Sigma Alpha sorority house for lunch and KOP inventory. Damien Blanchard led a kickoff debrief discussion with our team. We were joined by two other community based teams for the kit inventroy: PHP Robotics from Hopkins Park and the Ark of St Sabina from Chicago. Jackie Moore decided to forgo the originally planned team meeting due to a lack of sleep. As a team, we began cleaning up while waiting for parents, with Porshcha, JT, Lydia, Monica, and Jazmyn stayed behind to help Jackie and John Moore with the final cleanup of the house.

Kit happened, and we are prepared!

Sunday, January 4, 2009 - Game Review Meeting

Attendees:
Students: Capri, Chris, Jared, Juan, Sierra, Porscha, James, JT, Lydia, Monica, Jazmyn
Mentors: Damien Blanchard, Ray Llanes, Jackie Moore, John Moore
Parents: Mike Johnson (Jared)

Notes:
Each member present received chapters 7 and 8 of the competition manual;
6 balls were brought in and members interacted with the balls, trailers, and baskets;
we reviewed the game rules and discussed possible/max scoring opportunities;
this is our understanding so far:

• perfect score = 360 ((120 cells x 2pts) + (8 super cells x 15 pts));
• takes 8 moon rocks to = 1 scored super cell; no bonus points during autonomous;
• increasing opposing alliance's score (without losing) is good a goal (helps our ranking points)

Next Steps
each team member is to review the entire manual (esp chapters 6,7,8, & 9) before Tuesday's meeting; at the meeting, we will brainstorm on game strategy, then focus on the robot (identify design criteria and constraints, followed by brainstorming design ideas); some administrative issues will be addressed at 4:30; initial brainstorming begins promptly at 5:00.

T-Shirt Sizes

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