Grant Imahara VEXplorer Robot Challenge

[smartkid]

I'm one of the 25!

Dear Cody Smith,

Congratulations! You have been selected as one of the 25 contestants in the Grant Imahara VEXplorer Challenge. We received a wide variety of ideas and large number of applicants. We judged your idea to be one of the most interesting and compelling and welcome you to the competition.

We will ship a VEXplorer unit to you this week by UPS. If you do not receive it within a week, please contact...

Just got the e-mail today! So happy

Hello, my name is Cody Smith. I'll start with describing myself. I have always been interested in robotics and technology ever since I was a small child. I used to watch Battle Bots every day when I could until it stopped showing. I'm currently a Junior in high school attending Palm Bay high. I'm a member of the FIRST FRC robotics team number 2023 and the FIRST FTC team number 509. This year I lead our FTC team into the Florida regionals and placed 6th getting knocked out in the quarter finals. Our team did however win one of the six special judges awards. The Amaze award. For our omni-directional drive and our three point arm / manipulator. A picture of the O.R.C. or _O_mni-directional _R_obotics _C_law is attached to this e-mail. Our team is currently working on a bot to go to California for the Vex World Championship. We've handled all the Vex parts from the standard kit to Vexplorer's to the pneumatics. I also have done media work for a long time. I love media, Photoshop work, video editing work, etc. It's one of many things I like to do with my spare time on the computer and I have some pretty nice video editing software.

This competition to rebuild the Vexplorer is very interesting. we've already used the Vexplorer parts combined with regular Vex parts to build our three point arm but this limits the parts drastically. I do feel that it is more then possible to make something different out of those part though so here's my idea. The Vexplorer's best feature is it's ability to do recon. it's camera allows it to do so. But, it isn't all that versatile. My idea is to build a standard four wheel drive using two motors linked by the gears. And use the other two motors to make a separate pair of wheels on a rotateable axle. This would allow the Vexplorer to climb stairs, go over objects, etc. The overal purpose would be for extreme recon.

And yes, all 25 contestants get $100 to go shopping with on the vex site. Very, very cool.

[basicxman]

congrats to all it would be so cool if like half the people accepted were from CD

[Andrew Bates]

I was recently informed that two members of our FTC robotics program were also selected as finalists.

[Ryan_957]

i was selected to be one of the finalists as well.....im pretty excited...

[IndySam]

Congrats everybody!

[Alex Cormier]

Thanks and Good luck to the others!

[smartkid]

Very nice, good luck to all the contestants! But with that said, it is a competition

I'm currently in 4 robotics competitions right now, FIRST FRC Nationals, FIRST FTC nationals, Vex World Championship and now this. Robotics has consumed my life, so awesome...

[psyco_klown]

One of our students was selected out of the top 25!

[i_am_samus]

I got accepted! I screamed and cried when I did, I wanted so much to get this :3

[Greg Needel]

wow such a good turn out so far considering there were only 25 spots

Alex Cormier
Cody Smith-2023
2 people from 448
Ryan Green - 957
1 person from 839
Rida - 2590


so we have a quarter of the entries and I am sure not all of the FIRSTers have checked in yet.

[Alex Cormier]

So, looking for an update.

How is everyones robot doing and video? I am in the editing stage for the video and should be done shortly. I will post a link to the video on YouTube and add a few pictures here on cd.

Hope everyone Good Luck!

[Alex Cormier]

Here is the link to my robot.

Enjoy and Good Luck!

[Liz Smith]

Originally Posted by Alex Cormier

Here is the link to my robot.

Enjoy and Good Luck!

Nice robot... . The video looks great too. My favorite cat Misty was very well behaved. Too bad I wasn't there to help you film, but I see you've done pretty well without me. Good luck!

[mplanchard]

VEXplorer and Misty created an entertaining video combination. Good luck in the competition. Marie

[smartkid]

Sorry, I've been busy. Our team went to California for the Vex World Championship and we did a presentation to Harris Corp. I finally got around to filming my bot in action (it's been build for a good long while now, just sitting in a box).

This is a draft of my video: Click here

-Cody