College/Areial Robotics Info

[pwnageNick]

After seeing the college teams and their robots at St. Louis, I was wondering if there was more info on the competition/program. It seemed pretty cool and I think could have a lot of promise. Is there anyone who has more information to share on this? Thanks!

[prettycolors91]

I know that the Michigan Tech Robotic Systems Enterprise is planning on participating next year. We're mostly waiting on the same thing as you -- information. If anybody has concrete info about registration, rules, dates, competitions...I know of several schools that want to become a part of this great program.

If crazy cool innovations happen in FRC, imagine what will come out of this program!

[Shof]

Here is the manual from the competition:
http://goo.gl/01muw

During the actual event, only one game was being played during the whole 3 days even through the manual states multiple games.

[bduddy]

I put my name down on the list, but haven't heard anything. It would be nice if there was an easy way to get more info about this program...

[prettycolors91]

Does anybody know which schools were involved in this pilot?

[Shof]

Does anybody know which schools were involved in this pilot?

1 - Illinois Institute of Technology
2 - Oakland University
3 - Pace University
4 - University of Wisconsin Platteville
5 - University of Minnesota
6 - Milwaukee School of Engineering
7 - University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
8 - Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
9 - University of Washington
10 - Clarkson University

[CJmango]

Thank you all for your interest!

To clarify on the program, our presence at the event was in the capacity of a demonstration. Many factors contributed to the final product you saw at the dome and it would never have happened without the support of the terrific event volunteers, FIRST and the CARD planning committee.

The format of a program in years to come has yet to be determined. With that said, we would love to hear your thoughts, feedback, and suggestions, and to hear from any of you who are interested in participating.

Please feel free to contact us at CollegiateAerialRobotics 'at' gmail.com.

We are in the process of compiling the media, survey results and many email addresses we collected during the event and will be sending out additional information as appropriate.

[Bryan Herbst]

As CJMango said above, the program is currently working on analyzing how this year went. As you have noticed, information on the program has been rather limited and the best way to get information was to know someone who had it.

In the meantime, remember that step one is getting a group together at your college.

Look into what it takes to start a student group at your college or the college you plan to intend. Find friends and classmates who would be interested.

If you email the CARD address CJMango gave or PM one of the people involved with the program, they will point you to leaders of CARD teams who would be more than happy to assist you in getting your own team started.

[Renee Becker-Blau]

GO FIRST had a great time at this event this past weekend. We were able to network with so many other teams and really learned a lot about how to make quad-copters work! We have a number of students who saw FIRST for their first time this weekend, and even more who had been in FIRST but had never been to the Championship. This was truly a fantastic event that has motivated our members. We look forward to participating next year and are expecting to demo our quad-copter and ground-vehicle around campus and in the community.

It was also amazing to see the finals of the event and how fantastic the quads looked when they were competing against each other. We will have pictures and video coming up soon! We encourage everyone to check it out.

For some background on our program GO FIRST is a FIRST Support Organization at the University of Minnesota- Twin Cities. We were created in December 2009 and had seven members. Our goals are to support the FIRST program by helping area teams, help our students through the student in FRC to a mentor in FIRST transition period, and this year we were a Collegiate Aerial Robotics Demonstration Team. We have done presentations at a number of events around the Midwest region, have helped to mentor or advise 21 FRC teams, and have about 30 members involved with our program.

Feel free to PM me if you have more questions about GO FIRST!

Renee

[Daru]

Hi All,

My name is Dave Fairbanks, I am a junior Computer Engineering student at the Milwaukee School of Engineering in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I was the president and team leader of CARD team 6, SCOE Robotics, as well as a member of the game design committee for the demo.

I was a FIRSTer all four years of high school, and continued for 4 years as a mentor in college. In my time as a mentor, I started and coached 2 FLL teams and 3 Jr. FLL teams, along with mentoring the 2 FRC teams I became involved with. My team members were involved in all levels of FIRST and mentored a total of 6 FRC teams, while our school sponsors many more.

I found out about the demo in late December, and immediately sent an email to the MSOE mailing lists. I got 50 emails per hour for several hours from people who were very interested in this new college level competition! The interest is there and everyone was extremely positive towards our program, we're waiting to hear from FIRST about our future!!

Starting a team was very difficult in the narrow time frame we had. Becoming an official MSOE organization required a lot of steps and paperwork before we could begin to fund raise. My biggest advice to anyone who wanted to start a team for next year would be to start NOW! Develop the relationships with staff and faculty of your school, and develop relationships with your local FRC teams to beg and borrow parts from (a woot woot to our saviors 537, 706, and 1103)

Please, continue the discussion here and we can answer anything we know the answer to!

Thanks,

Dave Fairbanks
President, Team 6, SCOE Robotics
Computer Engineer, 2012

[Hawk091]

Hello everyone, I was the mechanical leader for the SCOE ground vehicle and wow, this program was great! It was really interesting to be "thrown to the wolves" so to speak. In FRC, we had our kit of parts, our well established contacts and sponsors, and our mentors to rely on. Most of us didn't have to deal with starting a team fresh, much less during the course of a few months!

I'm not sure how everyone else's FRC teams were run, but even the most student led teams have a lot of mentor involvement..from money and fundraising to design to transportation. It's something I always took for granted. When I participated in this program, I had to accomplish all of this with my fellow students alone. I found it much more difficult but much more rewarding because when I see the robot that I built, I know that I was completely responsible for it.

For this reason I see collegiate robotics as an excellent program because not only does it give the college kids something to do, it trains mentors, it promotes FRC support, and it trains students to be great future employees.

I hope to see this event grow in the future and I am excited to participate!

-Eric Larson

[popnbrown]

My name is Sravan Suryadevara and I was part of the IlliniBots, CARD Team #7 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I was originally going to post a crazy long essay about my experiences and what I think should happen. But I'd rather have this be a discussion.

So I encourage anyone who is interested in this program to post questions. Or any people that think this program may have negative consequences or have concerns to a college FIRST competition, please post away.

All the participants of CARD have been talking a lot of whether or not we should make this a reality and how to make this a reality, all the while sticking with FIRST. I feel it's better to air out any issues and such before fully pushing for a college program and it's important to have the FIRST community support. So let us know!

My one sentence about my experience: It was mind-blowing, CARD, FRC, the Championship, everything was awesome.

[Seed of Cog]

Hi everyone,

My name is Emal Alwis and I am a member of the University of Minnesota GO FIRST, CARD Team # 5.

I was the Captain of the Hopkins Robotics FRC Team in High school (#2239), and now as a University Student, it's great to be able to stay involved with FIRST but in a more collegiate level experience. The competition is designed to be a lot more difficult than FRC, but since CARD is still in development, there are so many different avenues that this program can lead to, all of which are really exciting!

In case you missed the competition, I've posted some videos on the the GO FIRST YouTube Site.

Just visit us at:
http://www.youtube.com/user/umnGOFIRST

I'll be posting videos whenever I have time to do so, so check back often!

-Emal

[SoMe_DuDe904]

As one of the game announcers, the one with the wizard like hat, I have to say I had an amazing time in St. Louis. I wanna thank all the folks that stopped by to see GO-FIRST and the 9 other teams compete. From the bottom of my heart I wanna see this again next year but like Chris said above they are compiling all the data before making an informed decision. Meanwhile, I think CJmango should do a dance :). \o/

Thanks again to all that made this demonstration a reality, and I hope to see you all again next year!

[vivek16]

I'm Vivek Chittineni and I'm from GOFIRST - CARD team 5. I was a member of team 2264 through high school and captain for several years. I'm a freshman in college this year and had a great time at the CARD event. The general impression I got from students at the event was incredibly positive. There's a lot of people that want this to happen. Thanks to all of the volunteers behind this.

-vivek

[DavidGitz]

I would like to be involved with this outstanding effort. I have been in FIRST a long time now (9+ years) and I would like myself and my company, FAST Robotics which makes Quadrotor UAV's to be involved. Who should I approach for this?

[shortdudey123]

Hi Everyone,

I am Grant from CARD team 6 (SCOE Robotics @ Milwaukee School of Engineering). I am the teams secretary and webmaster. I also worked on the network design team.

I had a LOT of FUN in St. Louis!

[Damorian]

Hi all, this is Keith, the team leader from Pace's robotics team. If you don't remember, we're the ones that didn't really get anything accomplished and I had some questions I was hoping the other teams could answer.

-How did you guys finance your projects? How did you find benefactors? Our quad budget was around $500-$600 which meant no backup parts and cheap construction to begin with... This is what killed us since, after we crashed it, we had to poke around trying to figure out what was wrong with it (props to Platteville for all the help).

-What majors were your team members? I imagine most of you all were engineering majors? Any CS?

Those were the main two questions I had. Also, have you guys already started working on newer/better revisions? Do we have any idea what future competitions will be?

Thanks in advance

EDIT: Also, how many members did you guys have?

[Renee Becker-Blau]

-How did you guys finance your projects? How did you find benefactors?

-What majors were your team members? I imagine most of you all were engineering majors? Any CS?


Hi Keith!

1. GO FIRST was financed by a grant we had requested before we learned about this competition that we were originally going to use for a demonstration ground robot. That money ended up going to the first part of the Quad Copter.

We were also financed by our College of Science and Engineering at the University of Minnesota, who with out their support we wouldn't have been able to cover the trip down to the event. They covered our travel, hotel, and marketing costs making them our largest sponsors. They are unable to support individual FRC teams around the area (they do help sponsor and promote the regional) so being able to support a Collegiate team from their school is an avenue where they would be able to support FIRST.

We also were able to get into contact with ATK a company who ended up giving us a donation that allowed us to finish our Quad copter.

National Instruments was able to sponsor us with an in-kind donation of a single board rio.

For ATK and NI both companies we were able to connect with at a career event where one of our students mentioned their involvement in FIRST and what we were doing now.

A local technical college, Dunwoody Institute of Technology, was able to help us by welding our GV frame together.

Additional money came from grants from the school and from other FRC teams for parts and from the local student chapter of IEEE that reserves money to help student groups on projects similar to this.

Next year we have student service fees to work with.


2. Our majors include- Mechanical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Chemistry, Biology, Biomedical Engineering, CSCI, and mine is Scientific and Technical Communications.

3. We have 15 members involved with CARD and about 30 who are part of GO FIRST. We really have 20 core members in our organization.

[popnbrown]

-How did you guys finance your projects? How did you find benefactors?


We contacted several different companies by getting their university relations contact and sending them information about who we are and what we're trying to get involved in. We actually didn't get that much money (about a $1000 from Qualcomm) and we made ours out of aluminum so it didn't really break. We also kind of ran around got some help from the ECE Machine Shop. We also got additional funding for travel from our Engineering Council, which was awesome!!


-What majors were your team members? I imagine most of you all were engineering majors? Any CS?


We had 1 MechE, 3 CS and 4 ECE



Those were the main two questions I had. Also, have you guys already started working on newer/better revisions? Do we have any idea what future competitions will be?


Well, we got some advice on how to program our quadrocopter, and gave us a mini-lecture on control systems. Our problem was that we couldn't get it flying because of our PID tuning. So we're going to be trying that system out soon.

I think that future competitions will probably revolve around Aerial Vehicles nooooooo Idea what the game will be though.


EDIT: Also, how many members did you guys have?

10 people in all, 8 people that came to the competition.

[EHaskins]

Hi all, this is Keith, the team leader from Pace's robotics team. If you don't remember, we're the ones that didn't really get anything accomplished and I had some questions I was hoping the other teams could answer.

-How did you guys finance your projects? How did you find benefactors? Our quad budget was around $500-$600 which meant no backup parts and cheap construction to begin with... This is what killed us since, after we crashed it, we had to poke around trying to figure out what was wrong with it (props to Platteville for all the help).

-What majors were your team members? I imagine most of you all were engineering majors? Any CS?

Those were the main two questions I had. Also, have you guys already started working on newer/better revisions? Do we have any idea what future competitions will be?

Thanks in advance

EDIT: Also, how many members did you guys have?

I'm on the network and robot communication group for CARD 6, SCOE, from MSOE.

I can't answer the financing question, if Dave comes back he would know, but I can tell you that the majority of our members are Computer or Software engineering students. We have a couple Electrical, one or two mechanical, and even a couple business students.

I think for next year it needs to be aerial game, but in stead of the ground vehicle we need an underwater vehicle. :) It would be a good incentive not to crash your UAV.

EDIT: We have about 20 members, with about ten core members.

[Daru]

I would like to be involved with this outstanding effort. I have been in FIRST a long time now (9+ years) and I would like myself and my company, FAST Robotics which makes Quadrotor UAV's to be involved. Who should I approach for this?

Thanks for your interest, I passed your message along to the other members of the game design committee and I hope they'll get back to you shortly. Renee Becker, who posted earlier in this thread, would be a good person to contact. She has done much of the fund raising and coordination of our demo. Otherwise, I would be happy to talk with you. My email is fairbanksd at msoe.edu


Hi all, this is Keith, the team leader from Pace's robotics team. If you don't remember, we're the ones that didn't really get anything accomplished and I had some questions I was hoping the other teams could answer.

-How did you guys finance your projects? How did you find benefactors? Our quad budget was around $500-$600 which meant no backup parts and cheap construction to begin with... This is what killed us since, after we crashed it, we had to poke around trying to figure out what was wrong with it (props to Platteville for all the help).

-What majors were your team members? I imagine most of you all were engineering majors? Any CS?

Those were the main two questions I had. Also, have you guys already started working on newer/better revisions? Do we have any idea what future competitions will be?

Thanks in advance

EDIT: Also, how many members did you guys have?

1) Finding sponsors was incredibly difficult for us. We got promptly started by a donation by my father, but we were left without much money to start building robots. Our faculty adviser made a donation, which allowed us to finally get started. Eventually, I had a break with IEEE Milwaukee Chapter, where I wowed them with my professionalism and preparedness. IEEE is a good match for us because they do not sponsor FRC teams because there are too many in the Milwaukee area. IEEE was also looking for a way to support FIRST! We also had to collect a large sum from every team mate who wanted to come with us to the competition, and luckily most of the team members were able to pay it. MSOE helped us with transportation and some of the hotel cost. Our total budget resulted at around $5,000 but we could have done it with much less. We did not have any spare quad parts, not even props, and the GV was made with primarily borrowed parts.

2) Our team is mostly CE/SE with a couple EE, ME, and business students. 12 of our members came to St. Louis, and we had about 15 active members total.

3) New revisions of the quad are in the plan. The GV will hopefully be prettied up and put on display on campus.

The GDC hasn't had an official meeting or conference call since the event (that I know of??), however I may or may not have started writing up a proposal for next year's game/s ;)

[pancakethecat]

Hi all,
I was on team 5, GO FIRST from the University of Minnesota, and I want to express how cool it was for me to be able to do something like CARD. I was never in FIRST in high school, so this has been the first time I've had a chance to participate in a robotics competition of any kind; it was awesome! Our team has since the competition already begun discussing how to revamp our bots - I'm really hoping that FIRST decides to keep this program going. It was great to find a student group here at the U that was right up my ally, and I can imagine that there are a lot of people who wish their colleges did similar things. Keep it up!
Mark Jorgensen

[J93Wagner]

Now I know what I'm going to be spending time on in college, assuming I get there of course. But anyway, that will likely be a time sink (besides doing coursework of course!) unless I get distracted by helping out on a FRC team. Best yet, my top two personal choices, UW-Platteville and MSOE, have already started teams! So I'm looking forward to joining even though that's still a couple of years away as I'm class of 2011, but hey, I can still dream, can't I?

One last thing, looking at the list, I'm sorta surprised that about half the teams are from the Midwest area. Anyone got a reason for that other than coincidence?

[Vikesrock]

One last thing, looking at the list, I'm sorta surprised that about half the teams are from the Midwest area. Anyone got a reason for that other than coincidence?

My guess would be that there are more personal relationships between the students on these teams that helped to spread the word about the competition.

[J93Wagner]

My guess would be that there are more personal relationships between the students on these teams that helped to spread the word about the competition.

That sounds about right. Thanks.

[Renee Becker-Blau]

Someone should help me clarify this, but there was a group of schools who attended the FIRST for Life conference in 2010. It was there where Dean Kamen talked and inspired the founders to create this event. ITR ran with it and started designing the game. There were a number of other teams involved as well but I'm not sure exactly who they are. The numbers of the teams are based on who joined when and GO FIRST team #5 was the first to join after their Kick off December 3rd, but we didn't finalize team numbers until later.

Through this process there were other teams who indicated interest in attending but due to funds or lack of notice of the game, they were unable to field a team.

I'm not sure why there's such a great concentration around the Midwest though. Does anyone else have other thoughts?

Also J93Wagner if you decide to come visit UofM-TC let us know!

Thanks,

Renee

[popnbrown]

Well they kind of got it. It was because it was a big turnout from the midwest for the conference. Plus IIT was the principal school behind CARD, just so happened that many of the schools were Midwestern.

Since IIT was the principal school, ITR (team #1) was definitely in there. UIUC (Team #7) got involved because we found a thread on CD. Perhaps the rest of the teams can explain how the got involved?

We actually had almost 20 teams (I believe 16 or 18 was the number) at one point. That included, WPI, Southern Maryland, Princeton, Northeastern, CMU to name a few. There were a bunch of colleges that we were in contact with for a while but due to funding, bad timing and many other issues, it just didn't work out.

Looks like the Midwest just has a pretty strong alumni group. :D

[J93Wagner]

Also J93Wagner if you decide to come visit UofM-TC let us know!

I wasn't particularly planning on making a visit to MN for college visits, but hey, it just might be worth it now. I'll see you there, maybe... If not, well, I'll probably be on a CARD team after I graduate from high school, but that's still assuming I can go to college in the first place!

[salomon90]

I'm not sure why there's such a great concentration around the Midwest though. Does anyone else have other thoughts?


I know that here at University of Minnesota GO FIRST Team #5 we got interested in CARD really back in the late fall when some people we knew at IIT mentioned to us about CARD and quad copters. I think it's mainly from word of mouth and people from the midwest who knew people involved in planning at IIT. It's a geographic logistics thing.

Also, I'd like to mention how awesome a time I had participating in CARD. It was a real time sink, but it was well worth it and I learned a lot more about engineering and designing than I did in any of my Freshman engineering classes this year.

[J93Wagner]

Also, I'd like to mention how awesome a time I had participating in CARD. It was a real time sink, but it was well worth it and I learned a lot more about engineering and designing than I did in any of my Freshman engineering classes this year.

Replace CARD with FRC and "freshman engineering classes" with "any and all high school classes" and you have the story of my high school career.

[Daru]

I found out about it from a GO FIRST member who was a 706 alum which I mentored... and then I started the MSOE team.

[Colin P]

Does anybody have a CARD team budget I could take a look at?

[EHaskins]

Does anybody have a CARD team budget I could take a look at?

I don't believe we ever developed a formal budget, but the costs are going to very based on the materials and equiptment you have access to.

We borrowed most of the components for our ground vehicle from local FRC teams, and I believe all of out equiptment either belongs to our members or the school.

I would assume that $1500-2000 per robot, and another $1000 if you don't have access to tools and equiptment, would be a minimum safe budget

[RyanJK]

Hey there! My name is Ryan Kamphuis, and I am a member of the CARD planning committee. To answer your question, we placed a $2000 dollar limit per robot. Some teams spent right up to that limit, but others built on the cheap and spent less than $1000 on their robots. It really comes down to what materials you choose to use. A few of our robots even had cardboard and wood on them!

[VisandElu]

Although I am still in highschool I look forward to being able to continue FIRST in university. However for the people who participated this year, what do you believe the possibilities are for starting a Canadian team for next year.

Would there be any regionals?

I am near the university and know people in their robotics club although I do not attend it.

Thanks,
-Hilary
Team Captain 3739, Oakbotics

[CJmango]

I've messaged Olivia directly, but as a reminder to anyone interested, you may contact the planning committee directly at

CollegiateAerialRobotics 'at' gmail.com

if you are interested in assisting or joining the program in any capacity. There is no guarantee how things will carry forward, but we are happy to hear from everyone and will keep all interested parties as up-to-date as possible.

Thank you all for the great feedback and support, and thank you to all the volunteers who made the demonstration such a success!

[demosthenes2k8]

This looks like an awesome program, I'm sad I didn't have a chance to see any matches...as soon as I get time I'll definitely be checking out those videos!

So what's the status with this and FIRST branding, anyways?

[popnbrown]

Please do check out the videos!!! All the teams from CARD really loved being there and we are all trying to work together to bring this to other students. Someone from the Planning Committee is putting together a website, where we can throw up all our pictures and videos, so STAY TUNED!

As for the FIRST branding, this was simply a demonstration to see what a future College-level FIRST competition could look like. That's why we weren't very official and why there were soo few teams. The teams involved this year are working with the Planning Committee to make a presentation to FIRST to turn it into a college-level competition. That's why we're trying to gather as much feedback and engage in as much discussion as we can.

[Shof]

Oakland University at 2011 FIRST Championship - Collegiate Aerial Robotics Demo, St. Louis, MO :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzjgPE7M2tU

Amazing team too. Thumbs up to Oakland for their performance at the competition

[Bryan Herbst]

Although I am still in highschool I look forward to being able to continue FIRST in university. However for the people who participated this year, what do you believe the possibilities are for starting a Canadian team for next year.

Would there be any regionals?

I am near the university and know people in their robotics club although I do not attend it.

Thanks,
-Hilary
Team Captain 3739, Oakbotics
If the team can make it down to championships, then it would be absolutely possible! Everyone involved would be thrilled to see this program become international.

Since this is still a very new program and there are still only about 15-20 teams whoa re very spread out across the country, I doubt that there will be any regional competitions.

[Rangel(kf7fdb)]

This is awesome. I will definitely try to sign up when I go to college. Also, did anyone notice the tennis balls as the game pieces.

[popnbrown]

Yes! Absolutely, do! And if you want to continue to receive updates e-mail

CollegiateAerialRobotics 'at' gmail.com

As for the tennis balls, we figured they were the easiest obtainable game pieces around. They also kind of made the game a little harder, tennis balls are relatively a hard thing to design a system for.

[Shof]

heres some video of our bot in action and the team:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W21TtxGt-A

[Nica F.]

Just a quick clarification:

Someone should help me clarify this, but there was a group of schools who attended the FIRST for Life conference in 2010. It was there where Dean Kamen talked and inspired the founders to create this event.

The FIRST for Life Conference last year in Atlanta was a conference intended to inform high school students and current college mentors/faculty members on how to start a FIRST College program aimed at mentoring local high school FRC,FTC,FLL teams, hosting regionals, and/or having a credited FIRST college course. This conference also gave structural examples of colleges that currently have them (ex. Purdue, WPI, and Clarkson). Dean Kamen was not a guest speaker at this conference session and this conference didn't have any direct correlation to a college level FIRST competition.

[sssbox]

The FIRST for Life Conference last year in Atlanta was a conference intended to inform high school students and current college mentors/faculty members on how to start a FIRST College program aimed at mentoring local high school FRC,FTC,FLL teams, hosting regionals, and/or having a credited FIRST college course. This conference also gave structural examples of colleges that currently have them (ex. Purdue, WPI, and Clarkson). Dean Kamen was not a guest speaker at this conference session and this conference didn't have any direct correlation to a college level FIRST competition.

Though I was too busy volunteering to attend any conferences or meetings last year, I believe that the "meeting" that has been mentioned was separate from (or at least a special part of) the FIRST for Life Conference. All I heard about it ahead of time was on the day of there was a word-of-mouth announcement for all current college students who were volunteering to attend some special meeting at a certain time and a certain place (I was told that I "had to be there".

I got the short version afterward, and it apparently had people from FIRST, several universities and a few companies who were in the aerial robotics field to discuss some possibilities for the future. After that, the college students took some ideas and ran with it, separate from FIRST and then later worked to get integrated into the event last weekend.

[Nica F.]

Though I was too busy volunteering to attend any conferences or meetings last year, I believe that the "meeting" that has been mentioned was separate from (or at least a special part of) the FIRST for Life Conference

Being one of the organizers of the "FIRST for Life" conference last year, I just wanted to clarify (as asked) that it wasn't at our conference as it is mentioned in Renee's earlier post.

[Osamah]

Hi All,

Here is the Oakland University Video (CARD Team #2):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzjgPE7M2tU

Hope to see you all next year ::safety::

[Matt2081]

I saw a bit of the CARD competition and here's my suggestions as far as a collegiate FIRST competition goes:

First, I thought the aerial robots were pretty darn cool! But I worry at the potential to create a FIRST-like game entirely out of flying robots. The complications I see are that it is hard to get a flying robot to do much else other than fly... It's difficult to put robotic arms, grabbers, etc. on these types of robots because of weight and balance, and I worry that these limitations will take away from the creativeness of designs that you see in FRC. I like the flying idea and think it presents a great challenge, but maybe not focus the competition entirely on flying robots every year. Possibly have ground and flying robots work together? The flying robot could push a switch to unlock game pieces for the ground robot to score, or the flying robot could activate a tower that allows the ground robot to score on it, or something like that. I feel like the flying robots present the Electrical/Computer Engineers and CS majors with a challenge, but not so much of a challenge for some of the other engineers (like mechanical). If the goal is to make a competition that is more challenging than FRC, then instead maybe make the autonomous period a bigger deal (with more actual automation rather than just pre-programmed steps like in FRC), or incorporate more video recognition and automation into the game. Although flying robots do have some practical applications, I see more development of controls and automation on ground robots in practical robotics applications, and getting practice and experience with these would benefit participants. Automation, sensors, and video recognition are still tough challenges for the Electrical and CS guys, but the challenge to design and build an effective drive train and manipulator that quickly, efficiently, and smoothly implements a game challenge is great for mechanical guys. Maybe I'm the only one with this viewpoint, but I wanted to throw it out there just as a suggestion.

All in all, I think it is great that a FIRST collegiate program is being pursued, and I fully intend to start a team. I already have a group of guys who are excited to get started.

Do we know if FIRST is going to officially take on this new level as part of the program? And if FIRST doesn't, will the competition still happen next year? I don't want to send my Electrical/Software guys off with the task of building a quad-copter this summer if there's no competition (but I very much hope there is)...

[popnbrown]

First off thanks for checking it out! It means a lot that there are people interested and thank you very much for your feedback!

I personally feel the same way, that ground vehicles should be included as well. Or at least that the competition shouldn't revolve around aerial vehicles COMPLETELY. I had a lot of fun designing ground vehicles in FRC and I wouldn't want that to go away.

However, aerial vehicles do definitely present quite a bit of a mechanical challenge themselves. In fact, I'm almost positive that no two teams used the same structure or type of material in their quadrocopter this year. As for grippers and such, it is entirely possible to put one on, how do you balance it and such, I feel would be yet another mechanical challenge! Beyond that, it presents a very sophisticated problem for ECE and CS guys, as they have to try to develop a more advanced control system for a more advanced problem. I think all in all aerial vehicles are an interesting problem that do all kinds of majors. It also definitely "spices" things up a little bit as opposed to ground robots.

Do we know if FIRST is going to officially take on this new level as part of the program?

More importantly, the answer to this question. No we do not know yet, but we are hoping to get that answer as soon as possible. We're collecting feedback (such as yours), surveys from our teams, audience and as much information as we can to show FIRST that this would be a great program.


And if FIRST doesn't, will the competition still happen next year? I don't want to send my Electrical/Software guys off with the task of building a quad-copter this summer if there's no competition (but I very much hope there is)...

As of now, we can't say for sure. We're going to continue to try and push, perhaps continue it as a demonstration. But regardless, we have a lot of people (that would be on teams) that seem to be interested and perhaps we could do several different scrimmages, and again show FIRST that this would be a great addition to their program. So I would suggest YES! MAKE A QUAD-COPTER! It's great fun...sometimes (like all robots).

I am going to be working with my quad-copter and my team over the summer and I know several others may as well. So feel free to PM me.

Any more questions about the program in general e-mail CollegiateAerialRobotics 'at' gmail.com
so we can keep you updated on what will be happening for next year.

[rickliner]

Hi everybody - I am the faculty mentor for Pace team #3. We had a great time at the competition even though it was really tough. Thanks to all the other teams for their enthusiasm and help, and to all of the awesome volunteers and committee members who pulled off a great event.

Regarding the bots: the planning committee decided to make the ground vehicles optional this year, just because they weren't sure if teams would have the time and money resources to build two robots. But the games were designed for both air and ground to work together, and more than half of the teams did have both kinds. One very cool thing that was done during the elimination rounds was that alliances were expanded -- if your team had only an air vehicle working, you invited another team's ground robot to join you, or vice versa.

The rules on aerial vehicles were purposely very vague. Although everyone at the event had a quadcopter, teams were not forced to use that design. At the original "pitch" meeting with Dean Kamen and Chris Anderson last April, there was a lot of discussion about blimps (and a demo) as well. And there are plenty of other possibilities.

Why were so many teams from the midwest? I think it was almost certainly due to money. Our team spent twice as much on transportation of people and bots as we did on the robot parts themselves. Our team members flew the 1,000 miles to the event, but our team's hero was the friend who agreed to drive a car full of robots, parts, and tools for 15 hours each way. There were several other teams from the northeast who were involved during the season but ended up dropping out.

It would be great if this program could attract sponsorship for free or discounted shipping as FRC teams receive.

Rick

[Cow Bell Solo]

I just want to make this available to everyone out there and that wasn't able to make it to the Championship to sign up for the email but today I received additional information about CARD. The below is a qoute.

"Hello everyone!

You are receiving this email because you have expressed interest the Collegiate Aerial Robotics Demonstration, a proposed college-level FIRST program. Please note, no additional announcements will be sent to this email list. You must follow one of the below procedures to extend your involvement in the program.

We’re happy to say that we have had terrific feedback from our first season and overwhelming interest in moving forward with the program. With that in mind, we have put together the following overview of the upcoming season to help put things in perspective and bring you into the community dialog either as a team or a supporter of the program.

For Supporters/Volunteers:
If you are interested in the administrative or volunteer aspects of the program we welcome your participation! It can be quite time consuming, but the outcome is well worth it. We also welcome in-kind or monetary support and are happy to discuss sponsorship options. To get started, please email collegiateaerialrobotics@gmail.com expressing your intent.

For teams:
First, while you have received this email, it does not mean you are an official participant in the program. In part because of the overwhelming response and challenge that comes with participation, we have implemented a tiered registration system for the upcoming season. We also learned from our first year that many teams found they needed more than one year to form a team, organize their program, begin development of robots, and actually be prepared to participate in an event at the college level. With tiered registration, you may participate in the program without committing to a demonstration event.

Officially, our season kicks off September 10th, when we will hold a conference call for all interested teams. More information on that call is forthcoming, but its purpose will be to orient everyone to the season, answer initial questions, and set everyone on a path toward success. We will not be releasing game information on that call, but will provide an overview of what to expect.

Between now and September 10th, all interested teams are required to complete this pre-registration form (https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dDZCOHJXdF9vMkZ2QjRqWk9pTGlCaHc6M Q). We also ask that you provide a letter of support from your institutional sponsor to collegiateaerialrobotics@gmail.com.

Following September 10th, with the academic year in full swing, teams will organize and work toward building a solid foundation. The next major event will be the release of game information at the end of the fall academic year in December. We will conduct registrations for the Championship event at this time. Teams will have between the December game release and the April Championship event to further develop and finalize their robotic platforms and finalize other deliverables.

Now, your most important step is to begin organizing your team! There are numerous examples out there in the FIRST community and we’re here to help, along with the 10 teams who participated in the first season of the program. In addition to completing this registration form, you can sign up for our team Google Group (http://groups.google.com/group/collegiateaerialroboticsteams), where you can communicate with the Planning Committee and other teams on anything related to the program.

We also encourage team members to participate in the planning and organization of the program. This open-source mentality allows direct communication and input from teams to best improve our collective chances for success. Interested participants should email collegiateaerialrobotics@gmail.com expressing their intent.
Thank you and we’re looking forward to the upcoming season!

--
Christopher Jones and Karina Powell
Co-Chairpersons, Collegiate Aerial Robotics
CollegiateAerialRobotics@gmail.com"

[xitaqua]

Hello All,

Is there any teams participating on College/Aerial Robotics in St. Louis looking for mentors ?.

We have a group of engineers building a demo quad-copter.....we just got done designing our motor mount....it fits on a 1/2 inch PVC pipe.

Cheers,
Marcos.:)

[Andrew Lawrence]

FIRST! Y U NO OFFER A COLLEGE LEVEL ROBOTICS COMPETITION???

Seriously! They know the kind of education students get from FIRST, and think about that with college students! The games could be a lot harder, a lot more intense, and a lot more professional. Plus, students would learn even more from FCC (FIRST College Competition)! And you gotta admit, FCC has that nice ring to it!

[Andrew Schreiber]

FIRST! Y U NO OFFER A COLLEGE LEVEL ROBOTICS COMPETITION???

Seriously! They know the kind of education students get from FIRST, and think about that with college students! The games could be a lot harder, a lot more intense, and a lot more professional. Plus, students would learn even more from FCC (FIRST College Competition)! And you gotta admit, FCC has that nice ring to it!

Do you read threads before you post in them or do you just speak before you think? I'd suggest the former and suspect the latter.

Literally 2 posts above yours is a post that should be of some interest to you.

[Katie_UPS]

I heard that the proposal for CARD to join FIRST was rejected. Are they running as a separate competition now?

[Hallry]

I'm pretty sure that they're still having a competition, but it won't be located in St. Louis with the Championship. My friend and alumni from my FRC team is starting a CARD team at Steven's Technical Institute in Hoboken, NJ, and she said that there is a conference call for all teams this Saturday (supposedly their 'kickoff'?).

[EHaskins]

I'm a member of the MSOE CARD team. There will not be a completion in St. Louis, but othe venues are being looked into. Anyone interested should look at the CARD teams google group. http://groups.google.com/group/Teams_CollegiateAerialRobotics

[xitaqua]

Does anyone know where and when will be the competition this year ?

I understand the following teams plans to compete this year :
University of Minnesota
MSOE
University of Washington
University of Kentucky
Iowa State University
Chaminade College preparatory
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University; Prescott, AZ
University of Memphis
Stevens Institute of Technology
Oakland University
University Wisconsin Platteville

[EHaskins]

The competition will be held April 13-14, 2012, at the Milwaukee School of Engineering Kern Center.

If anyone is interested in voluenteering I can forward your info to the people coordinating our voluenteer effort.

[xitaqua]

I plan to check it out on April 14. Is there a schedule of activities ?
Also recommendation of a hotel to stay ?

Cheers,
Marcos.

[Andrew Lawrence]

Are there any robotics programs like this for schools in California? I can't seem to find any.

Preferred school: Cal Poly San Louis Obispo

[EHaskins]

Schedule details haven't been determined, but in general Friday will be qualification matches/testing and Saturday will be elminations.

I don't have any information about hotels, but I'll ask our logistics team to provide any information they can.

[xitaqua]

Thanks Eric !!!.

Look forward mtg everyone at the competition !.

[EHaskins]

FYI, this was just sent out to the CARD mailing list.


Good afternoon teams,

As you all know, last Friday was the deadline for commitment to the April event. Unfortunately, we have not reached the required level of participation. We do have all the groundwork laid for a successful event, but will have to postpone the date.

For some of you, this is good news as it means more time to work on those robots and get things moving. For those of you who have committed to the date, you will have the registration fee refunded. We are sorry if you have made accommodations and hopefully you will be able to receive a full refund on those as well.

We know many of you have worked diligently over the past months. Similarly, those of you who have helped to plan and organize the event or support other participating teams have done a tremendous job and we are thankful.

We are sorry for the inconvenience all around, but are looking forward to bringing this to fruition at a time when more of us are able to participate.

[xitaqua]

Hello All,

BERSDT is working in developing K-6/K-16 Aerial Robotics teams: the college teams develops the robots and the K-6 learn how to pilot it, for now the elementary students are practicing on a Parrot Drone, hopefully in the Fall we will start working in getting them trained on Arduino based platforms developed by College teams.

http://ladue-frontenac.patch.com/articles/scope-fair-in-ladue-connects-the-dots-between-science-technology-and-the-community#photo-10448317/


Cheers,
Marcos