Re: Curie 2010!
 

Clinton, if 2337 takes Curie I will wear a skirt to work (573, if this happens, can I borrow a skirt?). (Yes, pics will be posted to CD to prove my embarrassment)

Re: Curie 2010!
 

of course you can borrow one. who are we to stop a man from accessing his skirt? ;)

Re: Curie 2010!
 

Embarrassment?


You know you'd love wearing it, Andrew.

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Re: Curie 2010!
 

Oh goody, a picture of me trying to get my ears working again. That sound was just way too high! It usually doesn't bother me that much, but when you sometimes can't even hear the field sounds ... :ahh:

Re: Curie 2010!
 

1747 is looking forward to the challenge of putting up some stellar defense as well as scoring some goals :yikes:

We've got some work to put in to find out why our robot isn't communicating with the field but works fine on tether...
Anyway, we can't wait to see you all there in less than 36 hours :eek:

Re: Curie 2010!
 

Well since everyone decided it would be best to tell good stories then I will tell everyone a little about our robot and season. I am happy to see the thread turn around to a more gracious place.

We are a smaller team in Louisiana and this is our second year. We went to the Champs last year off a Rookie All Star award. This year we could only afford to go to the Bayou, our local regional, but we did win the regional which was cool. My fellow mentor and I have been doing this 5 years now and this is our first blue banner.

We were a first week regional, and got to be the guinea pig which led to the awesome update 16. Our regional had one of those teams that hadn't passed inspected at all yet and was still being seeded 6th. So many of the robots at the Bayou could hardly score. With that history you can imagine how disappointed we were when we showed up with a looper bot.

So our robot is a looper bot, with the ability to lock to the tower. We have a secondary multipowered kicker and vacuum possessing system. We did have a climb system as well but we lost it prior to the regional due to weight. With that weight off and after moving our battery at the Bayou we are now capable of crossing the bumps. We have an autonomous capable of starting and emptying the balls in any one zone. We can score from middle and front position in automous and were doing so reliably with our alliance partners during elimination matches.

Our biggest disappointment at our Regional was actually having to win the games we played as a scorer bot using our vesatile kicker. We had hoped to be able to setup on the tower and play infinite loop, but there wasn't anyone we were teamed up with that could score reliably enough while defended. (being a first week, none of the students understood defense in qualifiers wasn't the optimum way to play so defense was very hard on all sides the whole regional) We are so looking forward to a much deeper Curie division so that we can see how our looper performs in action.

We did get to use our looper one time during the finals at the Bayou, and that was a good thing because we learned that there is some serious variation in the ball speed coming off the tower. The one time we tried it, the ball we tried to loop was so fast that it bumped off our top bar. We went back and checked tape, and that was of course the fastest ball the entire weekend, being nearly 70% faster than the average. (Murphy's Law is still in effect it seems) It was a good thing to know, since we have a "poptop" we'll be adding for Atlanta so that we catch even the statistical outliers.

I am including two GIF files from our website showing our designed capability, and the link in my signature goes to a page with GIFs of our robot in live action at the Bayou for anyone who wants to see our capabilities. Curie looks like its going to be a fun division and we look forward to playing some good games.

Re: Curie 2010!
 

Jen, get me one too! If 2337 takes Curie, it'll be the garage sale all over again. :D (Ryan and I in skirts with me in ill-fitting high heels... Not a great mix. And NO, I will not post those pictures!)

Re: Curie 2010!
 

Will there be a webcast of curie anywhere?
I really want to see it :)

Good luck to all teams!

Re: Curie 2010!
 

When the webcast goes live, you should be able to find it here:

http://robotics.arc.nasa.gov/events/...rcwebcasts.php

Re: Curie 2010!
 

i guess it's story time :)

Our robot has mecanum drive with 12:1 gearboxes on each wheel, driven by a set of bevel gears. We have a working suspension on our robot, so the flexibility of the floor at champs shouldn't be an issue (Good luck to everyone with 6" mechs and no suspension!).
The front and back of our robot has polycarb shaped into a plow so that we can push balls from either end. In the center of our robot we have a simple slide mechanism that lods and locks the kicker (in one step!). When released, our kicker can kick over the bump, or into the goal. We have made a couple of changes and soon should be able to shoot over both bumps.
On the sides of the robot, between the legs we have strung two sets of bungee cords so that balls do not go within our robot.
On the top of our robot we have a large polycarb hood that will not allow a ball to rest on it, the hood also has another surprise, but you'll have to stop by our pit to see that ;)

We went to two regionals.
At Peachtree, we seeded 15th overall, got picked by the #8 alliance and lost in QF. We won the GM Industrial Design Award.
At Palmetto we were seeded in 1 through 3 the entire time and ended up as the #2 alliance captains. We lost in SF due to many sudden problems (you know how those pop up in elims). We won the Judge's Award, as they put it for "general awesomeness".

any qestions and all that, feel free to message me, i'm on CD most everyday!

Re: Curie 2010!
 

As a proud contemporary kilt wearer (check my avatar) there is nothing embarrasing about a man in a skirt/kilt/unbifurcated garment.

Re: Curie 2010!
 

That's what I thought too, but FIRST has posted a different link:

http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/robotics/

Re: Curie 2010!
 

its gunna be great... i will be one of your field reseters for the champs... i just can't wait to see 469 and 1114

Re: Curie 2010!
 

And for those of you that haven't seen it already, here is Looking Forward's Curie Prediction!

Re: Curie 2010!
 

team 2345 has arrived in atlanta and is ready to play the game at the best of our ability. Good luck to everybody because it is going to be and intense few days of amazing competition. Have Fun.