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I have to say having more of a side line role this year was difficult for me but watching these three teams come together and work as well as they did together was very impressive. As video becomes available from the practice robot it will be posted up here and of course we can't wait to see everyone in Florida, Connecticut and ATL.

There is a ton of pictures available courtesy of Mike Walker on the teams website.

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Oh snaps!
Can't wait to see 'em in action next month!:D

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Now that is sweet looking.

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Lol. Ceiling fan light, cardboard box, some garbage bags, duct tape, some good ole' Mike Walker engineering, and Dave saying "Oh, you have 4 minutes to take your pictures, 408 has to go, I forgot to tell you." as I was putting my contraption together. :)

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'

The other really cool thing was how all three teams ended up working together all weekend at our mentors house. We basically had a huge 3 day slumber party (and you know bacon doesn't sleep) with kids from all three teams working together to get all three machines done. It was hard work, but a lot of fun

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It was definitely one of the most intense, but best "weekend[s] before ship day" I've ever experienced.

Cannot wait for Florida Regional to get here! Lucky for me, its right across the street from my dorm - literally! :]

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As lead 1902 engineering mentor I learned a lot from 1251 and their mechanical abilities. I learned what it was like to CAD it totally before any building, thanks Dave from 1251 for that. Our biggest problem was getting parts back from various machine shops.

It was crazy Friday-Monday with all three teams building all four bots the last three days. The Grajales home was filled with building teams going from driveway, to garage and to pool area with every room filled with people working on various issues.

This was definitely a high school/college mentor build. I seldom touched the bot and mainly coordinated things or did runs to hardware store.

We knew the final testing and especially the software would take longer that is why we built a test bot. Continental Airlines is letting us use a hanger for testing.

We have automatic traction control working but discovered a flaw to be worked out.

Proto type shooter shot 12-14 ft, production shooter had bad gear waiting on the part.

Using camera, but camera has issues as all those worked on them can tell you. The shooter can vary speed thus vary distance. It will be seen later if we can hit a target moving side to side.

The amazing thing to me was how well 408, 1251 and 1902 did together each bringing their strengthens to the table. There was no blowups between the teams even with 15 hour days.

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Sounds about right.

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here is another video. it was the first full on shooter test.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...22213028853539

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an admirable collaboration everyone! ...can't wait to tangle with the 3 of you at the FL regional ...and if you pull off targeting and shoot-on-the-fly ? ....yow!

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I'm not sure about 1251, but over here at 408 we are *broke*.
That an our sponsor-guy what very doubtful that we would even finish the robot in time. :ahh:
What's this whole Connecticut thing?

Lol @ "408 has to go, I forgot to tell you.." We got back to South Florida at close to 2am Tuesday(?) morning, went home and went to sleep for about three hours, go back up and went over to 1251's place and fixed a part on the robot (The Lower Rollers/BaneBots thing was still giving us problems) and crated it up.

I'll get my pictures up that I took of the whole weekend later tonight..

I have to say, you guys over at Exploding Bacon are some of the nicest people I've ever night. Thanks for all the help, support, and FOOD...

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We talked about 1251 and 408 coming to Connecticut regional. 1251 lead mentor/teacher was talking about joining us in Connecticut as part of the 1902 team. 1251 could not get away from school to come to Connecticut.

And yes, all of us are broke. 1902 is sending only a small team to Connecticut. I can not make it because of work.

But see you all at Champs.

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As long as I don't have any tests the Tuesday after the Connecticut Regional, I will be there as a part of 1902.

Once we finish up the practice bot more videos will be posted.

I am very proud of what all three teams have accomplished. We have overcome many barriers and managed to barely finish them all on time. This weekend has proven that team work and dedication can accomplish the impossible. Thank you all for working so hard for the past six weeks, and remember the robot is never done. ;)

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Very nice robots. Great work! Congratulations to all three teams. I know from experience that a collaborative design can often be TOUGHER than a single team design, but the results are worth it.

What most people do not understand are the incredible benefits that come from collaboration (unrelated to the robot). There is something special about two (or three) teams coming together like this. This is an incredible bond that each team may not even understand until they compete together. Kudos to you guys for trying it!

Like I said, awesome looking robots. I won't lie, I was secretly hoping that 1902 would venture back out to Texas this year, either to Dallas or to Houston. Not only are you guys awesome to be around, but we've still got a score to settle with you piggies...

-John

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David hit the nail on the head with this. Alot of people worked very hard to get these machines ready and if I were to use a cliche it would be "too many to name". However, there are 3 students in our robotics program I would like to mention.

As you can imagine, there are many hours (dozens) of manual/CNC lathe/mill work in these robots. These students were asked to make the parts for 4 machines. They were asked to machine parts to very tight tolerances. They are required to maintain their grades. They even had to put up with my shenanigans (although I'm not sure that's how they would characterize it:ahh: ).

Of the students that did this work, 2 are juniors in first year machining and 1 is a senior in his second year. Yet, despite their limited experience and enduring many long hours in the shop, they pulled it off.

I want to say publicly that I am very proud of these young men - Kyle Williamson, Jonathan Parriera and Sean Magley.