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#16
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Re: Kickoff Procedure?
Our team has two factions. One of them stay at our school/robotics location and watches the web cast while filling up on breakfast danishes and coffee, and the other attends the local Kick off and Picks up the parts from VCU. The group that goes to the kick off usually arrives an hour or two earlier to get good parking and to speculate.
After watching the Webcast, and recieving our parts we discuss our ideas while checking out the field elements that the VCU team concocts. Then we discuss some more on our ride back home while the other group at the home base prints out 4 or 5 game manuals for the team to look over. When we get back home the team discusses the game as a whole and includes discussion of what major things we may need too work on (Camera, IR sensor, special mechanisms) and then split up in to multiple groups with at least one veteran and one mentor. The groups then spend about 45 mins looking over the rules and coming up with crayon sketches and designs of what we want and how we want to accomplish our goals. Afterwards we reconvene and present our ideas.. then, We take votes on simple things such as Maneuverability or Pusher and narrow down concepts to three work-able designs.. finaly,... we get some lunch, chow-down, and talk about how sweeeeeet the game is! after that it gets a little shady... ![]() Last edited by RKElectricalman : 18-12-2007 at 18:42. |
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#17
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Re: Kickoff Procedure?
most of our team will stay at our home school (the Hamilton Career Center) and four people (including myself this year) will take the five mile trip to clemson and get the kit of parts. we then reconviegn at the school and talk strategy and how we want to go about playing the game. then we begin building that day, then pretty much everyday after that... but everyone knows about that. and we dont have those horrific weather problems in SC... for the most part
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#18
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Re: Kickoff Procedure?
Our team hosts a kickoff at home, since our regional one is three hours away. We send a small group to the regional one, usually of new students or ones who haven't gone before. The rest of us gather at our shop around 9:30, and watch the webcast together, then immediately get to brainstorming and strategizing. This year we've invited the rookie team sponsored by WVU, 2614, to come watch and brainstorm with us, since they're the only team that's really in our area.
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#19
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Re: Kickoff Procedure?
Our team attends the NJIT kickoff, finding out the new game, getting parts, attending workshops, etc.
After, we return to our school, go into the cafeteria, and analyze the game by creating "human robots," assigning people different robot attributes to get an idea of how the game will play out. Following this, we gather together and list thoughts of different categories (size, offense/defense, etc.) on a white board. In this process, everyone has an equal voice and we eventually the attributes we want and our laundry list in order of priority. Oh yeah... and somewhere within this exciting frenzy, we find time to eat... Last edited by Spiffizzle : 22-12-2007 at 11:12. Reason: wording |
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#20
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Re: Kickoff Procedure?
Our team travels about 15 minutes to a Technical College for Kickoff to be with other teams from Wisconsin.
We pick up our kit of parts We head to school for lunch ordering Pizza's while we review rules of the game and scoring methods (30 minutes) We assign homework to come up with defensive and offensive strategies (15 minutes) We take inventory kit of parts as a group (30 minutes) Break into groups to go over KOP items (1 hour until...?) Controls team mount the RC with power for programming team. Mechanical team go over drive train motor options (order gearboxes immediately) Programming team installs software and program the RC with default code. Form special purpose teams and discuss manipulator needs/strategies. Our goal is to finalize our strategy and robot rough plans at the next meeting (3 days later). Students, our forum, emails and class discussions are all very busy for the next three days. |
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#21
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Re: Kickoff Procedure?
Our team has a group of 4 go to manchvegas and go to the live broadcast and get the KOP the rest of my team goes to one of our alumni's house and watch it there and EAT PANCAKES!!! then we all go back to our school and have or Collabritive design session. This is the one that one of our mentors got from a presentation done by team MOE 365 at the champ in i think '05. it works out really well and is a lot of fun.
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#22
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Re: Kickoff Procedure?
Pre-kickoff: 68 has been prototyping and speculating for a few months now, so we've gotten to mess with the ideas we wanted to explore during build 2007. We aren't having any meetings during break (all the way up until 1/5) because so many people were on vacation. We meet at GM, pile into 1 or 2 fleet vehicles, and (usually) slide our way to the Novi (I think) local kickoff.
Kickoff: Whatever you feel like. Just take the info in somehow. I sit with my laptop on in front of me, doing something mindless, like Pocket Tanks... Scramble to write the PDF code down (they showed it for a second..literally..last year) and crack the manuals open. I start reading on the way home. Post: Pick up lunch on the way back to GM. Major brainstorming time in the meeting room--argue, draw, sketch, argue some more, ponder, theorize, read the rules, ponder some more, and try to convince the team that your design is the best. (for me: shudder because they are designing a robot that will be a major PITA to code...) Inventory kit of parts; I get my hands on the electrical portion shortly after this (it's like Christmas, except much, much cooler). First week is prototyping/design week. Every day we meet and get as much done as possible. Then we go to our usual Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday meetings until ship, where any free time we might have goes in the shop... That's about it. JBot |
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#23
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Re: Kickoff Procedure?
This is the Robo-Lion's (team 2199) second year competing.
Last year (rack and roll) a select bunch went to the kick off. After the kick off everyone met over at someones house and we started discussing the rules and procedures of the game. We ran through a complete game (and used paper plates as robots, and pretzles as tubes) to make sure everyone understood the basic idea of the game. Afterwards we started discussing the nessisary functions the robot needs to perform. We then came up with different classes of robots. We came up with four: the defensive bot (a pushing bot), pure manipulator bot (just an arm to move the tubes), a ramp bot (can lift two robots ) ,and a hybrid (the rampbot with a manipulator). We then started breaking up into little groups as to what class we as a team want to build and ideas of how we can build it. After much debating we looked at our limitations as a first year team and said we would build a pure manipulator bot because we wanted to have fun and actually play the game. This year we will basically do the same thing only we will have the rest of the team watching the web cast at someones house while the select few (which I will now be part of because I am a co-captain this year) is at the kick off. Obviously we will decide again what the classes of robots are and decide what class of bot we want to do. Also different this year, We will be getting two KoP so we have more parts this year. See you all this year, Aarnat |
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#24
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Re: Kickoff Procedure?
Let's see. 115 usually sends a couple people down to the remote kickoff in San Jose. They pick up the kit and watch the live webcast. One of our advisors records the live webcast at his office to show later at the full team meeting. By 11:00 am, all the officers and people who were at kickoff are back at school to inventory, print a full game manual, and set up for the 1:00pm full team meeting. At 1:00pm, after the full team arrives, we show the game animation and any key speeches. Then, an alumnus and former president Patrick Wang gives a game analysis to get the brainstorming started and we go from there until about 5:00 to 6:00. During build, we meet almost everyday. Pre-build we have trainings to get the members up to speed in all the divisions.
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#25
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Re: Kickoff Procedure?
We all meet at the school and then we split into 2 teams.
Team 1, about 3 people, goes to the kickoff in Manchester (only about an hour away). Armed with a digital camera and a tape measure, their job is to look for the little things that weren't highlighted that may be an issue as well as pick up the KoP. Team 2 will watch the kickoff on the web and then we will break into sub teams and come up with 2-4 strategies (not designs). These teams will prioritize the goals and set strategy only. When team 1 returns to the school we'll have a pot luck luncheon/dinner and present each of the different strategies (no decision will be made at this point as we want the students to mull over each of the different ideas). Before we leave, we will inventory the KoP and make a list of missing parts to be sent to FIRST on Monday. Within 2-3 days full scale mock-up models of robots that would perform their strategies are created out of cardboard. By the 1st Wednesday we will vote on the strategy we want. |
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#26
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we watch the webcast at the county college(ccm)
then go over strategy and some ideas of how the matches will go. the next day we have a meeting on robot design and strategy. /* */ |
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#27
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Re: Kickoff Procedure?
Most of our team gets together to watch the Kickoff via the NASA channel or the webcast. A few memebers will go to the local remote Kickoff to pick up the Kit.
After Kickoff we sit down and read the rules. Then we simulate the game in a variety of ways. Some simulations are tabletop versions of the game. Other times we use people to simulate robots. The purpose of thses simulations is to determine one thing. "How do we guarantee we will win the match?" We want to know what the field needs to look like at the end of the mach to ensure victory. This process can take up to several days. Then we figure out how to make the field look the way we want it to at the end. We probably have several ideas on how to do this up front but we work to find the best one. We will also prioritize game tasks and figure out which ones are more important. For example, last year we decided that hanging tubes was more important to us than lifting robots, so we worked the arm and gripper first. We didn't perfect our ramps until our second regional. This strategizing process can again take up to several days. It can take 10-14 days for us to finalize a concept. On the other hand once we have a concept, design and fab go full bore and we get a prototype running within days if not hours. The prototype also gives the software guys something to play with. In addition, if we should get bogged down in fabrication for our real robot, we could ship the prototype and compete with that if we had to. It wouldn't have our traditional blue and yellow, but it would be well tested. |
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#28
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Re: Kickoff Procedure?
The TechnoKats, along with our sponsor Ivy Tech, host a kick off for 36+ teams at Ivy Tech. Usually everyone for the TechnoKats and area teams are there while only a few can come from other teams (due to space available). It starts off in the hall right before the webcast starts, we receive a speech thanking the sponsors and letting everyone know what is going to happen. Then when the broadcast starts, everything is good until just before the game, usually right around the time that Dave makes his appearance, and then the video will begin to lag (never has failed in the past). After the video is over, we get our kits and teams are able to use classrooms to start planning. The Technokats usually get the second hall where we have lunch, then begin discussing what just happened with the announcement of the game.
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#29
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Re: Kickoff Procedure?
1923 attends the local kickoff hosted by our gracious neighbors, 1403. This year, we will be sending one mentor to Manchester. After kickoff, the team meets back at the school, gets the kits together (inventory later, AFTER we get a design-- this makes it so we're not distracted by the shiny robot parts, and forces the team to FINALIZE on a basic design before that date we need to tell FIRST if we're missing something- finalizing can be a problem for us).
Back at the school, we strategize. What's the best, most reliable scoring method? Defense methods? What can WE as a team accomplish? (we have very limited resources, and by "very limited", I mean a classroom, hand tools, and denied access to the school's shop.) ...and all that jazz. This can go late into saturday, and we start fresh on monday with heads full of ideas and notebooks full of designs to consider. All this talk of kickoff is getting me SUPER PSYCHED! ![]() |
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#30
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Re: Kickoff Procedure?
Four team members (maximum for each team) go to the live Kickoff, usually 3 students and one mentor.
The rest gather at a nearby high school and watch the webcast. We all meet at our school, go over the rules and eat. Then we start human simulations to get a better understanding of how the game works and what the rules are. Strategy comes from the feeling of what the team would like to do. This year, they all felt that making a ramp bot and playing defense would be boring, so we went with scoring. All-hands brainstorming will happen the day after kickoff where anyone can submit their ideas. There are no debates or anything, the design team (about six students and two mentors) just absorbs what everyone says and gets to work the following day. |
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