Re: FIRST Robotics for the Blind?
 

I believe that Truck Town 68 had two deaf alumnus within it's eight year history.

Re: FIRST Robotics for the Blind?
 

Elgin and I are working on getting this info together for distribution, but in the meantime...

Here's how it worked:

We used a Honeywell magnetic sensor that could be configured to act as a compass. This was fed to a Z-World RCM-2020 microcontroller board, which was then fed to the robot controller. The Banner sensor was aimed at the carpet to sense the tape that marked the zones. This sensor was connected to the robot controller.

As the sensor detected tape (indicating a zone change), we would read our joystick inputs and compass heading to determine our movement direction.

All of this info was collected by a Visual Basic program on a laptop connected to the dashboard output of the Operator Interface. We'd use this info to provide audible feedback to the driver(entering zone 2, facing northeast, etc).

There was more...we tried to auto-track the goals and grab them, using the same feedback system to inform the driver of the current status.

There were problems, but we were pretty limited in 2002 as to suppliers, cost, and configuration, not to mention the PBASIC based RC (ugh)!!!

If anyone wants more info, feel free to contact me, I'll help if I can...

Re: FIRST Robotics for the Blind?
 

Our team had a blind student this year who worked with the programming team. He is very proficient with using computers and had done some programming in the past I believe. About halfway through the build season he got sick for almost two weeks, after that he was too bogged down with school work to continue with us. I hope that he is able and interested in participating on the team again next year.

Re: FIRST Robotics for the Blind?
 

We have had 2 deaf students on our team.

One of them just graduated last year as a 4 year member of the team and is now attending RIT. He was an awesome build team designer and a great kid. Our team misses him a whole lot.

He also volunteers at many FIRST events like Rochester, Philly and our own Ramp Riot off-season comp.

Nothing has ever stopped this guy from reaching his goals.

Re: FIRST Robotics for the Blind?
 

Hello to all,
I know this thread is outdated. I mean, cmon, 2005!
But I think it is the perfect thread to post in, as the original intent is having FIRST for disabilities.
I've been involved with FIRSt since 2007, the year in which me and my team attended a competition, Buckeye regional. At the time, I wasn't as into the team and what we do for the competitions as I was this year. Being blind with only light prception on my right eye, I don't do much of the building. Heh, I can just imagine me pllugging the wrong wire in and causing total chaos.
But there are other things I do. I like programming, and since I was born in a foreign country (Hungary), have been learning it from my dad since I was 8. Those were the Pascal days. But since C and Borland in general has roots with Pascal, it was easier for me to addept to C and C++ rather than something like Java. So I don't do much object orientated programming, I like a simple IDE better. I use screen reading software
www.freedomscientific.com
which converts the screen into a synthesized voice.

Personally I don't consider blindness as a disability, but rather as something that gives me more adventure and taste to my life. If you were present at this year's competitions, you might of seen me as we were taking the creativity award for this year. Having no vision, I can concentrate more on feelings, sounds, emotions...
I'm prowd to be part of the team, as it does give me a unique experience in High School.
Many of my friends say that they would rather go deaf than blind. I think both disabilities have advantages and disadvantages, even in the perspective of first -- if I were deaf, I would do lots of building work as I can see where to put and drill. Being blind, I'm concentrated more on programming and websites. I do html, which I hope to improve as I'm basic at it.

Lastly, I am also glad to see that Team 47 recognizes the need to do something for the Blind. Technology and work has improved a lot over the past years for the blind, and I am glad to see that, and with that it is nice to know that many recognize the blind as part of society.
I am open to any questions, regarding FIRST Events, the blind...

Thanks for everything :)

-TOmi

Re: FIRST Robotics for the Blind?
 

Tomi,
Thanks for updating this thread.
I am looking for advice and support networks to pass on for an inquiry on having a new student joining the FIRST family who happens to be blind.

General advice can be posted here. Specifics including contact information can be sent to my email at jbeatty@usfirst.org

Thanks!