2010 Washington DC Regional

Team List:

http://frclinks.com/e/dc

Event Info:

http://dc-first.org/dc-regional](http://dc-first.org/)

48 is Looking Forward to attending this 2nd year event in our nation’s capital!

Can anyone confirm a webcast for this event? I’d like to share the link with team family, friends, sponsors, etc.

Aces High will be in DC for our second year in a row. Our robot is ready for inspection as soon as it arrives, so many of our team members should be around to help any other teams that were snowed in and need some help finishing up their bots.

See everyone next week :]

cant wait for DC ill be watching.:cool:

We’re very excited to go way out east and compete in D.C.

While we’ll need to put back in the electronics we withheld, we should also be good to help teams, and have a lot of fun.

Best of luck to everyone.

Received this information from the DC Regional organizers.


February 26, 2010

Greetings! You are receiving this email because you have registered a team for the 2010 FIRST DC Regional, March 4-6, 2010 at the Washington Convention Center.

Information and details are available on our website: http://www.dc-first.org

*** 2010 FRC Technical Notes ***

Charge your classmates early and often.

Update your Driver Station software http://usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/content.aspx?id=10934 now. Teams must have the latest software update to compete.

Practice your ball return technique and read the delay of game algorithm. http://usfirst.org/uploadedFiles/Community/FRC/Game_and_Season__Info/2010_Assets/DOGMA_RevA.pdf If you don’t get the ball back into play soon enough, the point scored with that ball will be nullified.

Check your bumpers. This year, teams must have a system in place to change their bumper colors from blue to red and back again during competition.

*** DC Regional Details ***

Walter E. Washington Convention Center
801 Mount Vernon Place NW
Washington, DC 20001

AGENDA: http://www.usfirst.org/uploadedfiles/community/frc/events/2010/2010_DC_Agenda.pdf

FEATURING:

· Team Showcase – We invite up to twenty (20) FRC teams to demonstrate a product, to make a presentation on center stage, to show a video, to conduct a charity drive or to give-away cool stuff. Teams will be assigned a one-hour time slot on Thursday March 4, between 9-7 pm, starting on the hour. Each team will be provided a standard 2’ by 6’ table at a site in the pits. Two teams at two tables will be featured in the Showcase at the same time. Need more teams to sign up for the Showcase!

· Technology Row – BAE Systems, Booz Allen Hamilton, Norfolk State University, Northrop Grumman and more! (daily)[/font]

· College/Scholarship Row – We are pleased to welcome Catholic University, George Washington University and Howard University (Thursday only), DeVry University and Capitol College (daily).[/font]

· FIRST Expo - featuring a JrFLL, FLL and FTC Showcase of local teams (Friday and Saturday).[/font]

Friday, March 5, 2010
Need FLL Teams for morning and afternoon, Need FTC Team for afternoon
7:30 am – 11:30 am (VIP Breakfast) Jr.FLL, FLL – Mount Airy in Action Robotics (display), FTC – ILITE Robotics
11:30 pm – 3:30 pm (VIP Lunch) Jr.FLL - Friendship Public Charter School - Southeast Campus, Jr.FLL, FLL – Mount Airy in Action Robotics (display)
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Need FLL Teams for afternoon, Need FTC Team for afternoon
9 am – 12 pm – Jr.FLL, FLL – Mount Airy in Action Robotics (display), FLL 3747 GiRo (Girls In Robotics) Transporters, FTC – Mount Airy in Action Robotics (High Voltage)
12 pm – until Closing Ceremonies - Jr.FLL, FLL – Mount Airy in Action Robotics (display)

· Field Trips to the DC Regional – We are pleased to welcome local schools and community organizations (Friday and Saturday). So far, 350 students!

ADULT VOLUNTEERS:
We have adequate volunteers for this event.

STUDENT VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES:
Students are needed as VIP tour guides on Legislative Day (Friday, March 5th) and as Field Trip tour guides on Friday and Saturday. Training for Team Ambassadors will take place on Thursday, March 5th at 2:00 pm. Need more Team Ambassadors!

SITE INFORMATION & VENUE:
DC Convention Center: http://www.dcconvention.com/

Directions and Parking: http://www.dcconvention.com/Visitors/DirectionsParking/GettingHere.aspx

Floorplans: http://www.dcconvention.com/Planners/Large/FacilityInformation.aspx

Washington, D.C. Tourism Information: http://www.house.gov/house/tour_dc.shtml

Wireless networks are not permitted.

Bring safety glasses for everyone on your team. No one is allowed in the pits without safety glasses. Safety goggles will be available for VIP and guest use only.

Power is provided to each pit table. Please do not tap into power anywhere else in the hall, especially while seated in the bleachers.

Scooters, skates, etc. are prohibited.

IMPORTANT PAPERWORK NEEDED FOR THE DC REGIONAL:
FIRST Student Team Members and Parents/Legal Guardians Information System and FIRST 2009-10 “Consent and Release” Form: http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/content.aspx?id=8128
Don’t forget your special FedEx shipping way bills which you received with your kit of parts. There will be no replacement forms available at the event.

SHIPPING & DRAYAGE:
http://www.usfirst.org/uploadedfiles/community/frc/events/2010/2010_DC_Shipping.pdf

PIT AREA:
Each team will have a 10’x10’ “Pit” area on the floor. You will be notified of your team’s location in the “Pit” area.

LOAD IN/OUT PROCEDURES:

Information on load in/out procedures will be provided as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience. We completed the walkthrough and meetings with Security staff yesterday afternoon.

FOOD:
Concessions will be available: Food Show, Harry’s Steak and Cheese, Funnel Cakes, Maui Wowie (smoothies) and Rita’s Italian Ice. Do not bring food on the site. If you bring your own food or purchase food from outside vendors/restaurants, do not bring it into the DC Convention Center. Local restaurants: http://www.dcconvention.com/Visitors/VisitingDCOverview.aspx.

TEAM SOCIAL:
Yes, we are having a team social! Nachos! Karaoke! Any updates about the team social will be posted here: http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/regionalevents.aspx?id=430

See you in the District of Columbia!

There’s already been some email blasts sent out about this, but please bring any spare parts, raw material, and TOOLS that you can afford to. Many teams lost significant chunks of the build season to the snow in the area and are going to be building furiously on Thursday, and any spare hardware, tools, and hands you have will be greatly appreciated.

FYI Travis, all of the URL’s actually link to some Delphi web mail portal login. Copy-paste works great though.

We’re going a day early - if you see us at the Smithsonian on Wednesday, say hi!

Blarrrr I hate that thing. Copy/paste to notepad and back kills the formatting but gets rid of those insidious Delphi links. Should be fixed.

We’ll be at the Air and Space Museum sometime that day. We hope to meet with our congressman on the Capitol steps before that.

The TechnoKats are splitting into separate sightseeing groups Wednesday morning, touring the Capitol Building around noon, and doing more sightseeing afterwards. I’m with the Air and Space Museum group. I’ll be on the lookout for a neighboring-number team. :slight_smile:

5th Gear will be back again, running an informal tournament or two and plenty of individual matches.

If your team has a mascot, start training them for the all-mascot match!

We will be on the same floor as the FRC field this year; probably near Scholarship row and the Concessions. Stop by to compete for glory and (modest:)) prizes, or just to shoot the breeze.

We are looking forward to seeing everyone again and making more new friends.

See you there,
Blake

Team 701 is having a blast so far. We flew in from Cali on Sunday and have been seeing the sites for 3 days now. We did the Capitol, House Gallery, Union Station, and some monuments on Monday. On Tuesday, we visited the White House, memorials, Arlington, and the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. Today we went to the National Archives, Holocaust Museum and the Air and Space museum.

While at the white house we just happened to run into the two mayors of the cities from where our school is from.
http://www.vandenrobotics.com/ploggerb3/?level=picture&id=2886

We also ran into the Caveman shooting a Geico commercial.
http://www.vandenrobotics.com/ploggerb3/?level=picture&id=2933

Where’s everyone staying? We are staying at the Hampton Inn.

Some sightseeing advice and tidbits from a Maryland-suburbs-of-DC native:

  1. They got rid of the Foucault Pendulum in the Museum of American History :frowning:
    But they do have Stanford’s autonomous car from the DARPA Grand Challenge, as part of the “Science in American Life” exhibit :smiley:

  2. The legs of the lunar module on display in Air & Space are fake. How can you tell? the real ones would collapse in 1g. Air and Space does have the real SpaceShipOne, however.

  3. Best food at the Smithsonian: Museum of Natural History. They also have a little game where you can simulate smashing asteroids into the Earth (and some pretty rock called the Hope Diamond)

  4. Best view: The old post office tower (NOT the Washington Monument). Gigantic windows, and zero crowds.
    http://www.nps.gov/opot/planyourvisit/index.htm

  5. The rule for Metro escalators is walk on the left, stand on the right. Just do it.

  6. And the next time you fly into National, sit in a left hand window seat. If the wind is right, you fly in down the Potomac, past all the monuments. It’s an epic view.

See you guys tomorrow!

Having an absolute ball in DC. Definitely as good as advertised. Lots of inspirational robots and teams from both ends of the spectrum.
As an aside, we’ve got lots of old chassis aluminum, 1/4-20 bolts, 12 awg wire, and pneumatics tubing and fittings. If anybody needs assistance stop by 1529 pit and say hey.

I’ve been having a blast at DC, good job all teams and good luck tomorrow!

REX 1727 wants to thank Teams 3123 and 176 for a wonderful Alliance, as well as all the volunteers, judges, referees, and attendees! Thanks to them, DC was a high energy event that we hope to attend for years to come.

Congratulations (again) on your win, Rex. You have an excellent bot and team. :smiley:


A few things I observed in the regional:

  • The rumors I heard of people at FIRST painting the soccer balls to make any ball finding algorithms fail is untrue, from what I saw. All balls used were pearl white.
  • The supplied target-finding algorithm wasn’t the best that could be used. It picked up the target often, but there were times where it got locked on to an arbitrary object. Putting a threshold at the end helped a bit in recognition. (see: If target.score <= 1000, discard it.) [Note: This should be done after the concentric ellipse testing, as it is impossible to get 1000+ for a single ellipse.]]
  • Kicking, unless you have a really soft (8- ft) kicker, in the offensive zone didn’t work well; we- and many others- ended up ramming the goal to push the ball in.
  • Midfield shots were not too uncommon.
  • The camera stream was either REALLY laggy or nonexistent for quite a few matches
  • If you lose ANYTHING during a competition (see: an omni-wheel :o ), you will be penalized one point unless your robot is disabled immediately after for “intentional detachment of parts”.
  • Autonomous: We had our balls set up like:
    G

XXO
XOX
OXX

R

R: Robot
X: Spot
O: Ball
G: Goal

and turning tapped a few out of the way. In addition, if we set up our balls in the same column, the one that we kicked first was liable to hit the second/third ones. So, for midfield/defensive autonomouses, consider your ball placements.

  • A solid near-field/offensive field autonomous with a kick in it can be used for all three fields easily, and is really helpful in most cases.
  • Connecting with the field this year is extremely easy and quick.
  • The max score of the day, I was told, was 9-0.
  • The autonomous of “go forward for one second, kick”, when used in the offensive zone, gave us a quick point.
  • Kicking from midfield sometimes resulted in hitting the small bump that leads up to the goal, and the chain above the goal. Both prevented the ball from going in to said goal.

Thanks for the excellent competition, everyone. It was definitely the most fun I’ve had in a long time. :smiley:

Sadly, our FRC team won’t be attending worlds this year. So, I wish you all the best of luck in getting to- and in winning- the championship. :slight_smile:

~Buddy

Team 176 Aces High would like to give a huge thanks to our alliance. You guys were amazing to play with throughout the elims, and it was a pleasure working with you guys. Our strategy seemed to work flawlessly all the way through. Hopefully we’ll see both 1727 and 3123 in Atlanta :cool:

Team 1370 wants to thank the 2-3 teams that applauded us on the way out of the convention center. It made the extreme effort at helping as many teams as possible worthwhile, and reminded us that a piece of hardware is nice, but the true reward for gracious professionalism is appreciation from other teams, and lasting friendships. We weren’t sure if our efforts were noticed and appreciated.

It really helped remind us of the core value of first!

Thanks so much! It really hit home. ::safety::

Pat Daley
Mentor Team 1370

Congratulations to the Kil-a-Bytes #1024 for winning the Imagery Award.