2011 Florida Regional
 

Are you guys ready for some hurricane-throwing, blazing sun, tropical drinks, flip-flopping, beach balls rollin' action here in the sunshine state of FLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORIDA?!

Team Resistance 86 will be back for action! Look out for me in my OHMER outfit glowing with contagious lime green since I will be a volunteer for the Florida Regional.

-Josh

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

1557 is ready to finish what we started last year. :cool:

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

Miss Daisy can't wait!

For years our friends on 103 have been telling us that the Florida Regional was their favorite event in FIRST, and we are sure it will live up to the hype.

Fun fact - The last time there was an FRC game that involved hanging innertubes (2007), the teams who are attending the Florida Regional in 2011 had a pretty great year:

* 3x Einstein appearances (179, 233, 1902)
* 3x Divisional Finalist (79, 386, 1592)
* 4x Regional Winner (86, 103, 341, 1251)
* 6x Regional Finalist (108, 179, 386, 597, 1251, 1902)

Should be a great time - on and off the field!

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

Team 79 is ready. Can't wait to see this years bots in action

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

Team 103 cannot wait to get in the Florida sun and kick some bot!

We are also really excited to welcome 341 to Florida, and we will make sure it lives up to the hype!

Florida always has great competition, great fun, great energy, and a great vibe. I hope we can keep that up this year!

Good luck to all the teams! :)

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

Bacon can't wait to see all our buddies! Please come to the Bacon Bowling Bash on Wednesday March 9th.. We can all hang out and chat before the madness begins

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

Is it going to be fun Wendy?

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

And we'll have lots going on in other parts of the arena too! UCF, USF, FIT, ERAU and DeVry will all be there with information on their schools. FLL and FTC will have demos in the lobby. We don't have the final word yet, but 5th Gear might make a return appearance and SAIC will be there.

AND....NASA JPL is bringing the full-scale inflatable model of the Mars Rover Curiosity (http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/fact_sh...laboratory.pdf) to the regional! This will be the debut of the model so be sure to stop by to see it. Curiosity will launch from Cape Canaveral later this year and arrive on MARS 8 months later. Want a sneak peak at the real rover? Take a peak at the Curiosity Cam which takes you inside the clean room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/ms...curiosity.html.)

Sarah
Florida Regional Planning Committee

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

I cannot promise anything right now, but after talking with a mentor, we might be going to the bowling bash. She just needs to arrange a bus to the venue since we will be staying in Disney.

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

Here is the latest on the 5th Gear topic - I am looking for help from someone who has a SketchUp Pro license: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...threadid=92776

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

Ohh!! That sounds awesome and wonderful!!! I look forward to that! How is everything with you, Sarah?

-Josh Simpson

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

There's a rumor that a few S.P.A.Mer alumni will make the bowling bash. The rest of us will arrived bleary eye-ed and in need of much coffee, on Thursday morning. As always we are anticipating a well fought, full-of-fun regional. It looks like there a quite a few rookie team attending this year!

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

I can't promise anything either, but what time does your plane come in? Maybe we can arrange a carpool.

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

Everything is going well Josh. Thanks for asking. The RPC has been working hard and we are getting excited about the regional. Two weeks from today the field will be assembled!

Sarah

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

There is a new post on the Florida Regional website with lots of good information for the teams. Check it out!

Sarah

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

I saw an earlier mention of a get together Wednesday night. Is this open to all teams? Wanted to pass on the information to our group.

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

Yes it sure is. It will be at the Firken and keglar south of the UCF arena from 6:30 to 8:30. 32 lanes of bowling, shoes included. All you can eat buffett and all you can drink soda. 20 bucks per person if you let us know ahead.....25 at the door.

Everyone is invited, volunteers too!

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

I really need to get an idea of how many people are coming to the bowling bash so I can order food.

Please let me know if your team will be there.....or even if a few of you will be joining us.

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

5th Gear won't be at the FL Regional (at least not in an exhibit put together by LM employees and volunteers - indiviudals will be able to download it very soon). An important family matter took a key volunteer out of the picture and derailed the plan.

Everyone involved definitely looks forward to re-engaging next season, and our thoughts are with the folks who are attending to their (more important) family affairs.

Blake

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

Only three more days remaining until the Florida Regional! I am really excited!

-Josh

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

Things to do in Orlando this week:

Tuesday: The International Space Station will fly over head at 7:26 PM. The light following behind the space station will be the Space Shuttle Discovery.

Wednesday:
11:58 AM The space shuttle lands. Step outside a few minutes before and hear the sonic booms.
6:00 PM Florida Regional Social at Firken and Keglar, all you can eat and bowl
7:50 PM The ISS flies overhead again, should be brighter than the night before

Thursday-Saturday: Roooooobots!

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

Wow! When was the last time a space shuttle land during the reign of the Florida Regional / old KSC District?

-Josh

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

20 minute warning for ISS Flyover. It will be to the NNE at 10 degrees above the horizon, which is roughly the treeline. it will be in the sky for 50 seconds, look for the plane that doesn't blink, with a small plane following behind it.

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

Will this regional be webcasted? If so, does anyone have the link?

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

The only thing my friends have been hearing from me the past week was, "I get to drive robots in *insert countdown here* days!!! I'm so excited!!!"

Florida is going to be AMAZING!!!!!!

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

ONE MORE DAY!!!!!!

I'm so excited to see everyone. Can't wait for the party tonight.....lets get it started!

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

less than 30 minutes until sonic booms from Space Shuttle Discovery are heard across Central Florida. Landing is at 11:57 AM, below is a picture of the flight path.


I'll see everyone at Firken and Kegler tonight!

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

Discovery is now home safe and sound. I hope everybody visiting enjoyed the sonic booms.

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

Less than 24 hours!!! I'm pumped! I look forward to seeing everyone there!

Oink Oink BOOM!!!

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

OINK OINK BOOOOOOOM!!!


I am soooo excited too! I can't disagree with you guys! Look forward to see everyone and their robots!

Look out for the lime green hair with high-heel-bright-lime-green-boots guy doing the official scoring on the field!

-Josh

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

My own ignorance has seprated my truck key from me. Wont be there untill it's found. Did i mention its raining?

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

Ouch! Hope you find it soon!

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

Any pictures of that certain color team? I amreally anticipating their robot andseeing what has changed.

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

well.....

let's save this for tomorrow, for suspense or something

not that is isn't assembled yet or anything like that :rolleyes:

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

ok...I have waited this long, what is another day

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

On a more important note, will the regional be webcasted?

I looked for links today, but found nothing. Will anyone be setting one up tomorrow. I would much appreciate it, and I am sure many others would as well.

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

Stream was up for at least a little while today. Link can be found on the NASA Webcast page

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

Any Awards results yet?

:)

Jane

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

103, 233, 1902, 341, 180...

Should be a great Regional, look for these great teams to take most of them :rolleyes:

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

No Bowling Awards?

:D

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

Best of luck to all the teams competing in the Florida regional heading into tomorrow and Saturday...wish I could be there!!!

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

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

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

Hey, I just saw team 180 win match 24 by themselves, 54-0!. Their alliance members were no-shows so that was pretty impressive.

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

Does there appear to be more FMS delays than usual at the Florida Regional?
This brings back bad memories of 2010.

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

Pink, Cybersonics, and Daisy at 2:18. Should be a good match.

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

Congratulations to DeAnn Sperber, Florida's 2011 Volunteer of the Year!

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

Hows that?

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

YAY!

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

@ Tytus - thank you! I was able to watch a lot of the webcast today. They seemed a little jittery at times, but eventually found their groove. I was told they did not have a lot of practice time this year.

I just hope they fixed the motor issue they had today. Also, any word on the statu of their deployment mechanism?

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

Everyone bring some change tomorrow to help Bacon fill piggy banks for the Red Cross and Earthquake/Tsunami Relief

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

what you saw was the result of running a robot that had not ever been tested. the matches were our first real testbed. practice was not too much an issue. our preset positions had not been calibrated, and some sensors had not been set up right, which resulted in the jittering you saw. by tomorrow morning it should be running perfect with a only a few tweaks left to complete.

tower rotate was fixed by switching out the fischer price for a 775 and modifying software. we expected it to burn out that match, we just didn't know how long it would last.

and deployment is working well, except for the one time we forgot to reset the minibot

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

@R1ffSurf3r - thanks for the info. Good luck tomorrow

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

Just wanted to congratulate the winning alliance.

179- You guys where tough competitors all the way through. Scoring tubes like crazy + a mini bot that can race with the best. Not to mention undefeated throughout the whole Florida regional....

233- All I can say is wow... Great bot. I was a little worried for you at the start but as I saw it come together piece by piece (like always XD) I knew for sure you guys would be in it till the end especially once I saw the mini bot go flying up the pole for the first time...

108- Where did you come from lol. a def solid middle tube score that played awesome defense. What a great third pick.

Over all a great alliance with tons of power.

Good luck at the championship. =) By our next regional(Smoky Mountain) we will have a mini bot that will try to keep up with yours and hopefully we can make it there with you guys.

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

The Florida Regional is my favorite event of the year. It's really great seeing so many friends I've made over the years, including some from out of state like all the cool cats on 103. I would like to thank all of the teams that brought their spirit to the competition, which really makes a competition fun for me. The teams I could hear and see the most were Voltage, the Ninjaneers, Pink, and very special shout out to team 79 who will be in the background of my next Who Am I picture.

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

On behalf of Team 341, Miss Daisy, I just wanted to say what a great time we had at the Florida regional. Our kids had a blast and it would not have been possible without all of the hard work put in by so many volunteers.

Congratulations to teams 179, 233, and 108. You guys made an unstoppable alliance. We also wanted to congratulate our good friend Jack Tusman of Team 103 for winning Woodie Flowers and congratulate his team for winning EI.

And finally a big Thank You to Arefin Bari and Team 108 for giving us a bus ride from the Hotel to the Arena each morning. Not only was it a tremendous help but it was great getting to know your team. A blue banner could not have gone to a nicer and more deserving group. :)

We made so many friends in just a few days at the Florida Regional that we are already considering a trip next year. Congrats to all of the teams for a great regional and maybe we'll see you next year.

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

I want to commend the Regional planning committee and all the regional volunteers this year for their hard work. Many of them are close friends of mine I have come to know throughout the years and Florida would not be the same without all of you year in and year out. 179,233, and 108 you guys rocked out there and 1251 has a special appreciation for each and every one of you. 179 has taken 1251 under their wing ever since 2005 making sure that we are sustaining and doing well. 233 you guys will always be a benchmark and inspiration for us as far as design goes, we have learned, and continue to learn from you guys the "little things" in robot design. 108 you guys are a South Florida neighbor of ours that continues to be active in the FIRST community despite some trials and tribulations along the way you've managed to keep a great program going. 103 and 341 what a pleasure to have two chairmans championship teams visiting, you both show us the standard for a great team model. Thanks to 1523 for choosing 1251 to be a member of your alliance sorry we couldn't be more help this year because of our field communication issues, we thought it was completely fixed our last qualification match but it wasn't. Keep building robots like you guys did this year though and you'll be around on Saturday afternoons pretty frequently though :] . Finally, I want to publicly congratulate the 1251 students this year for doing an outstanding job at the regional and keeping their heads up even though we seemingly had a problem that was beyond our control with the robot. Remember it's always easy to be proud when your winning, but it takes something special to keep going when things aren't so good.

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

Thanks Barry. You are awesome!!!! I cant wait to see you again soon. I had a blast seeing you!

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

Also thank you to our alliance partners.

801- You where scary all weekend and definitely one of the top performers from the start. I was completely happy when you picked us to go with you to the elimination rounds. You ability to score tubes was on par with the best plus your mini bot was pretty good to. Also would like to thank you for the use of your mini bot. Its a shame we never sent it up the pole though. =/

744- You guys where definitely our secret weapon. When our scouters saw you put up your mini-bot late Saturday we knew your had figured things out and we had to have you. Thank you for saying yes =)

Over all if a few more thing had swung our way I think we would have been in it till the end ;)

Thank you,
Zac

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

Team 108, SigmaC@t had a great time at the Florida regional making new friends and giving our new students a new experience.

To all our neighbor teams in the pit... 79, 86, 103, 341, 180, 744; thank you very much for everything that you have done to ensure that our robot would work in a proper manner.

All the volunteers and the Florida Regional Committee, thank you for all you have done to put together a great regional again.

Team 179 and 233 - I have always wanted to coach alongside with Dan Quiggle and Andy Bradly. It was a privilege to be able to partner up with you guys and go all the way. Thank you for picking us. Given the fact we get the funding, we will see you guys at the Championship.

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

I didn't know that Pandas liked Bacon and SPAM, but I'm sure glad they do! Thank you, 3149, for giving us the chance to join your alliance. And, thanks to all the volunteers that made this another great Florida regional.

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

Ditto the thanks to all the volunteers and sponsors. You guys are all there every year making this happen and we really, really appreciate it. You had a really stressful situation with the wifi interference, coms etc. but got it up and running. I hope you guys don't have to deal with these gremlins in the future. You ran a friendly professional ship. Great MC's Dan, Barry and George, you guys are awesome. Thanks to all the judges for the reviews of everyones hard work. We enjoyed having all the out of towners, 597, 341, 103, 1027, 2564 and 3549. So many rookies this year, thank you JC Penny... Wow...

233 - Guys.. Can you put the thing together before you ship it please? We had our usual scout meeting until 12:30am Friday night about the pink "improvement" factor. I bet other regionals don't have to deal with this because you come ready for business. Well our scouts were right and you guys rocked the house. It seemed like when we were off you were on. If we both played a perfect match we would have broke all the score records. Love you guys!

108 - Arefin, I really appreciate the compliment. I'm sure Andy and I feel the same way when I say it's an honor to have the privilege to coach, be part of and work with such great teams/people.

341 - Great to have you all, good folk and we hope you come back. Awesome machine, our scouts were torn on picking you.

103 - Congrats on the Engineering and Inspiration award, and to Jack for the Woody! You guys rocked and I loved the minibots.

180, 1902 and 3149 - Great job and awesome teams to come down to. Great minibots 180 and 3149, and all of you were great tube scorers. Us Florida teams are tough to beat, look out Einstein.

3242 - Wow, a second year team wins Chairmans, that's hard to do with teams like 79, 1902, 1523 ,1557 etc, etc, etc around. Keep up the hard work!

3622, 3520 - Great people on board starting these teams. You guys are in good hands, I expect great things!

And thank you Zach for the compliments, 1592, 744 and 801 was a scary alliance. You guys had some awesome tubeage.

945, great machine, very consistent with auto and logos

1251 you guys were incredible, I feel bad about the watchdog issues, without that I know you would have went all the way, I hope you get that worked out. and thank you Drew.

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

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

here is the armcam Video of the final round

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

"Armcam"!! What a cool video!

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

lots of footage to go through.... i'l get them all uploaded eventually

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

That is the coolest thing ever! You can actually see me on the right side, the dude with the green hair and lime green big boots! Yep! That is me!

Florida Regional is always the da bomb! I always enjoyed being there and being a volunteer as an official scorer and website evaluator!

179- You guys always put the competitive edge on. Simplicity is bliss! Team 86 enjoys our long time rival of greenness! We will always be back next year. You guys are amazing!

233- Pink, The Famous Comeback Team. This is like the 4th year overall (from what I can remember) where issues has plagued your early progress until you guys came back and show off the amazing robot in the last few matches before the finals. Kudos to you pink guys! I had the honor to talk to Marian during the matches on the field and shared our stories.

Congratulations to Jack for winning the Woodie Flower award!

Thank to all of the amazing volunteers and staff who worked all the hours to make this amazing Florida Regional awesome and the way it is known around the world.


-Josh

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

Panda is grateful for all the support and camaraderie we received from the "food group" teams! It turned out to be a great alliance that only had to fold to the one that was even more awesome...

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

Luvin' the Plushies! :D

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

It was definitely an amazing regional... even if I still don't have my voice back yet :yikes: Congrats to all the teams and I love Exploding Spamdamonium!! :p Looking forward to the South Carolina Regional next week.

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

Anyone with pictures or video from the regional it would be awesome if you could post links here. Im sure we all missed alot while working on our robots.

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

THANKS to everyone who contributed. We raised 328.03. We will be doing the same thing at Palmetto and then challenging our sponsors to match what we raise.

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

i cant edit so il re-post

match #14 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOnruyS0r4U
match #23 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hp8pQzumx1k
match #32 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9viMuZjGYBA
match #54 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuMFgwC49qw
match #61 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RTgHKxjS3s (new)
match #71 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LGVmh_NLn4
finals round #2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awBqmOvqsjQ

the pictures i took at the regional can be found here
http://s30.photobucket.com/albums/c3...gional%202011/

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

The Florida Regional had two photographers this year, Michelle Celio and Victoria Burg, who took thousands of pictures (literally....thousands) during the event - in pit, on the field, awards. They are now both working feverishly to edit the pictures and deliver them to the Regional Committee. As soon as we get the pictures, we'll post them on the Florida Regional website and I'll make a post here letting you know they are up.

Sarah Plemmons
Chair, Florida Regional Planning Committee

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

Thanks to Exploding Bacon and S.P.A.M. for showing the Pandas how alliance members can work together to be greater than ever expected.

As the number eight seed, we didn't expect to make the final. But with the help of 1902 and 180, the "Exploding Spamdamonium" alliance was not really challenged until the finals.

We got lucky during a couple of matches. But the scoring power of 180 and 1902 was something to behold. Add the solid minibot deployments from 180 and 3149 and we had a pretty good team.

During the final, S.P.A.M. mentors pitched in to help repair our minibot deployment device. Exploding Bacon sent a contingent of cheerleaders over to our small group of spectators and team members and taught them a Panda cheer, "P A N D A, panda, panda, all the way."

Thank you both for teaching us Pandas what First Robotics is all about.

Craig

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

How are the pictures from the event coming? I'm hoping to use one in a presentation for work.

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

Video is up for the final matches.

http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/robotics...regional-2011/

They even have some video of me doing to the cotton eye joe on stilts on the QF-4 video!

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

As promised...the photos are up! a BIG thank you to our volunteer photographers and our webmaster. Enjoy!

Sarah

Florida Regional Photo Galleries

Re: 2011 Florida Regional
 

I told you of that video!!!! Lol. Also the 2009 one...which was awesome.