Team 1114: Simbot Seminar Series
 

This fall, Team 1114 - Simbotics will be hosting a series of weekly online seminars on a variety of topics relating to the FIRST Robotics Competition. These seminars will be broadcast via Google Hangouts On Air, and will be viewable on our YouTube channel, http://youtube.com/simbotics. We'll be broadcasting a new topic each Wednesday at 9:00 pm, starting on October 1st. The tentative schedule is as follows:

October 1st* - Running an FRC Team -- Karthik Kanagasabapathy, Direct Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALASWt2uDqw
October 8th* - Strategic Design -- Karthik Kanagasabapathy, Direct Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ysSvxR-tAs
October 15th* - Scouting & Match Strategy -- Karthik Kanagasabapathy, Direct Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8syuYnXfJg
October 22nd* - Drivetrain Design -- Ben Bennett, Direct Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADcqUWYyHgk
October 29th* - The Chairman's Award -- Karthik Kanagasabapathy, Direct Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_aixQwlNcw
November 5th - Controls / 2015 Beta Control System - Michael Diramio, Direct Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1T9BB4GoRU
November 12th - TBD
November 19th - TBD

*The schedule may vary due to the potential presence of the Toronto Blue Jays in the Major League Baseball playoffs...

The topics for the November 6th date will be determined by the progress and results of our participation in the 2015 FRC Beta Test. The November 13th and 20th topics are still up in the air; if there are any topics you'd like to see us cover, please post here and let us know! We can't promise we'll be able to cover them, but are very open to suggestions.

As the first date approaches, we'll post a direct link where you can watch these seminars!

Re: Team 1114: Simbot Seminar Series
 

You can dream all you want, but after my Tigers get in, you're going to have to fight Oakland.

All kidding aside, this is awesome. I just finished listening to the 1114 EWCP Podcast from a few years ago.

Re: Team 1114: Simbot Seminar Series
 

I'd be very interested in a seminar on mechanical assemblies, arms in particular. (Programming aspect would also be nice)

I love your seminars and look forward to listening to these!

Re: Team 1114: Simbot Seminar Series
 

I'll vote for this too. It's been a whole since we've had an arm game. I've got a hunch...

Re: Team 1114: Simbot Seminar Series
 

Arms and Game Piece manipulation devices would be nice topics as well.

Re: Team 1114: Simbot Seminar Series
 

Some teams used a fusion of an arm and a claw this year. 233 basically used a claw attached to a pivoting arm on Fulcrum. This allowed them to create a dual pickup robot. The design was effective as well, it allowed them to DOMINATE Orlando until their "issue". 254 used a pair of arms last year as their climber.

Arms, while not heavily used recently due to the lack of stacking games, are still useful and an effective mechanism!

Note: Apologies for any spelling or grammatical errors. This post was done on a tablet in a rush.

Re: Team 1114: Simbot Seminar Series
 

Is it possible for your team to talk about how you design your game strategy, your robot chassis and the game piece manipulating devices to achieve consistent performance (accurate scoring of game pieces)? What methods do your team use to verify that the performance of the robot is consistent?

Re: Team 1114: Simbot Seminar Series
 

Thank you so much for these seminars.

Orioles and Cardinals are the birds this season.
Not that I wouldn't mind seeing Jays too.
They have 16 games to get their OPR up.
aaahhhhhh, statistics.

Re: Team 1114: Simbot Seminar Series
 

Are these presenters qualified to run these seminars?

Re: Team 1114: Simbot Seminar Series
 

Considering karthik is the head mentor of a team that's won the chairman's award AND world championship, I think he knows what he's talking about :). If you want check out his previous seminars, "Effective FIRST Strategies". Both the 2012 and 2013 versions are excellent!


Joke went over my head...

Re: Team 1114: Simbot Seminar Series
 

Doesn't he help with the VEX Game Design also? Just saying.... He knows his stuff.

Re: Team 1114: Simbot Seminar Series
 

Almost like he's the Chairman of the VEX Robotics and VEX IQ Game Design Committees or something... :rolleyes:

Small request... Please do post PowerPoint slides on your website!

Re: Team 1114: Simbot Seminar Series
 

Here's the link to our first broadcast, Running an FRC Team, taking place on October 1st at 9:00 pm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALASWt2uDqw

Re: Team 1114: Simbot Seminar Series
 

The Blue Jays took the ultimate sacrifice to ensure we would get our seminars on time..::rtm::

Re: Team 1114: Simbot Seminar Series
 

:(

Re: Team 1114: Simbot Seminar Series
 

I was rooting for the mariners anyway............ :eek:

Re: Team 1114: Simbot Seminar Series
 

Going live in 3 minutes!

Re: Team 1114: Simbot Seminar Series
 

Bump, an hour and a half in and I've learned a ton!

Looks like my Wednesday slot for the rest of these sessions are filled.

Re: Team 1114: Simbot Seminar Series
 

The first seminar was amazing! *Have to leave a bit early due to school*

I was especially touched when someone asked my question for me after Karthik accidentally (I hope so at least :yikes: ) skipped my question!

Re: Team 1114: Simbot Seminar Series
 

Great first seminar

Strategic Design section is great - look forward to next week.

Go Mets in 2015 (wait until next year!).

Re: Team 1114: Simbot Seminar Series
 

Thanks for these, watched the first one last night....can't wait for Strategic Design.....have been implementing your ideas with our team for the past couple seasons...

Re: Team 1114: Simbot Seminar Series
 

The Simbots and their dedication to further the competition level of this program are remarkable. The fact that Karthik makes himself available till 11 PM EST to answer questions after the presentation, is just one example of this. THANK YOU SIMBOTS.

Re: Team 1114: Simbot Seminar Series
 

FIRST gives everyone lots of practice in getting used to late nights.:p

Re: Team 1114: Simbot Seminar Series
 

A seminar on business plans and strategy for marketing would be awesome! We're really looking forward to improving this part of our team, and we'd love to have something to watch as a guide for that. :)

Re: Team 1114: Simbot Seminar Series
 

I have used the 1114 strategy presentation for presenting strategic design approach for lots of teams in Michigan. It is a great packet to run through once you have watched the seminar and give relevant examples/ exercises.

Last week, I was working with a team, and we went through the presenation and then watched some previous years game footage. Using the techniques described.

We watched 2003 and 2008. Interestingly, after going through some quick brainstorming and possible ways of executing the game, the kids were able to come up with strategies similar to what did very well those years.

2003 is an especially interesting one to do the exercise on. It has incredibly high scoring potential, and a possible "choke hold" scenario, though this scenario would be incredibly difficlut to execute.

Re: Team 1114: Simbot Seminar Series
 

Here's the link this week's seminar, Strategic Design, taking place on October 8th at 9:00 pm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ysSvxR-tAs

From now on you, you can always find a link for the upcoming live seminar at:

http://www.simbotics.org/seminars

Re: Team 1114: Simbot Seminar Series
 

Strategic Design will be live in 20 minutes at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ysSvxR-tAs! See you all soon! :)

Re: Team 1114: Simbot Seminar Series
 

Here's the link this week's seminar, Scouting & Match Strategy, taking place on October 15th at 9:15 pm. Please note the later start time to accommodate the FRC GameSense broadcast taking place from 8:00-9:00pm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8syuYnXfJg

You can always find a link for the upcoming live seminar at:

http://www.simbotics.org/seminars

Re: Team 1114: Simbot Seminar Series
 

Here's the link this week's seminar, Drivetrain Design, by Ben Bennett, taking place on October 22nd at 9:00 pm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADcqUWYyHgk

This presentation takes a deep dive into drivetrain design, giving an overview of different drivetrain types, analysis of how to select a drivetrain type, and the physics behind FRC drivetrains. It's highly recommended for any up and coming FRC designers!

You can always find a link for the upcoming live seminar at:

http://www.simbotics.org/seminars

Re: Team 1114: Simbot Seminar Series
 

Here's the link this week's seminar, The Chairman's Award, by Karthik Kanagasabapathy, taking place on October 29th at 9:00 pm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_aixQwlNcw

Topics include how to best structure your submission, presentation tips, and getting the most out of your video. An excellent resource for any team on the cusp of a Regional or Championship Chairman's Award!

You can always find a link for the upcoming live seminar at:

http://www.simbotics.org/seminars

Re: Team 1114: Simbot Seminar Series
 

Here's the link this week's seminar, on the Beta Control System, by Michael Diramio, Gavin Black, and Kaleb Dodd, taking place tonight at 9:00 pm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1T9BB4GoRU

This presentation will provide an overview of the 2015 control system components and Team 1114's experiences while testing it. Plenty of time will be reserved to allow teams to ask questions.

You can always find a link for the upcoming live seminar at:

http://www.simbotics.org/seminars

Re: Team 1114: Simbot Seminar Series
 

Thank you for your time and effort in putting these together. I have learned a lot from each one and hope for future seminars. These were fantastic! I would suggest one on time management and using build time effectively.

Re: Team 1114: Simbot Seminar Series
 

Have you decided on next week's seminar? :)

Re: Team 1114: Simbot Seminar Series
 

Is there a paper on your scouting bet reward system (simbucks?). It looks like a lot of fun and our team needs to make scouting fun. I want to look into doing something like that for our team. I saw this last year at worlds so if my understanding of your system is way off, let me know.

Basically, I am trying to find out how people bet, how many bucks is each reward, what are the rewards (Is it just a leader board for bragging rights or can they "cash" it in for prizes?), how much money does each person start out with to bet, what if someone goes "bankrupt", do the bucks restart at each competition? Thanks