23 days left till kickoff!

Dear readers, if you're one of the people who have been visiting the blog over summer break/since the last post, thank you! If you're a new follower, then welcome! And I apologize for the lack of updates. Today is Hanover's first snow day of the year, so I thought I'd catch everyone up on the latest.

So since the last post, we've been super busy! Over the summer, we met at the Clarks' and talked about fundraising, recruiting, and starting a FLL team at Kersey Creek Elementary School thanks to a grant we received from Dominion. And since September, we've been meeting regularly, cleaning up the Mothership, learning important skills (such as using Inventor to draw game fields) and basically just gearing up for kickoff.

I posted the meeting schedule for members and more information on the robotics blackboard. If you're not enrolled in the robotics blackboard (it just shows up as another course), then please pay your dues or see me or Rosie.

I think that's it for now. Keep your eyes peeled for more updates.

quick updates

Today, there will be a meeting after school at Tyler Clark's house for the Robotics Yard Sale taking place on May 22 at the school.
This week, Maxwell (What number are we at now? Like, 7?) was shipped back. The team also took apart the Go Go Ninja Dinosaur FTC bot so we could give back the metal used in the frame.

Keep posted for more updates and member profiles!

quick member profile: brad edelin

From left to right: David Richardson, Casey Clark, Brad Edelin, Mr. Bartels

Junior Brad Edelin answers two questions on robotics...

What was the most valuable experience that you took away from the Atlanta trip?

Just doing something you've never done before. Going and just seeing all the other teams, what they're all about. And seeing how we put stuff together really quickly and being able to compete with the greatest teams in the world of robotics competitions.

How has robotics impacted your life?

It gave me a new meaning to the term "engineering" and just seeing how it is all done: testing, building, trying to do all the steps to make something work and work the way you want it to.

quick member profile: tyler clark

One of the most involved members of DOTM, junior Tyler Clark takes a few seconds to answer a few questions about his Atlanta experience and robotics.


What was the most valuable experience that you took away from the trip to Atlanta?
Just experiencing the whole competition, being here with the best teams in the world and getting to play with them on the same field.

How has robotics impacted your life?
It’s given me a chance to do something I really enjoy that I can’t really find anywhere else in the school—all the engineering stuff. There are engineering classes but it isn’t this hardcore.

Brief update on the last day in Atlanta

Today, in my opinion, was super duper fun. We didn't get picked for the finals, but it seemed okay to the other DOTM members. Then we went to a social/party in Centennial Park. There were games, karaoke, music, stage performances, carnival rides, fireworks and tons of free food.
The team is heading home tomorrow morning. I have a feeling that many will be sleeping on the bus...

Keep checking back for pictures and blurbs from the other team members within the next few days.

wow

Great Match! Our opponent "successfully" countered our strategy by falling over in front of our tower, but we demonstrated our ability to move balls from the midfield to the scoring zone with our kicker resulting in a 9-5 win. This works out to be 24 seeding points, catapulting us from the 50's to 27th.

We're currently being considered by top eight teams for finals' alliance selections, but we're also in good position to become a top eight team ourselves. This depends a lot on our next match which is just minutes away.

Our rematch from earlier should be played about 5:30 right after match 114.

UPDATE

We' ve got a potentially high scoring match just a few minutes away against another loop-bot. We've got the better offensive alliance and our looper's working very well.

The last match which resulted in a 3-3 tie is going to be replayed because a ref stopped a ball on the ball return right at the buzzer. The rule is that balls in motion have 10 seconds after the buzzer. There was a very good chance it would have scored given that the ball before it rolled right off our looper into the goal.

We're ranked pretty low right now, but we're in really good position to move way up, given the right alliance partners. We'll post the results right after the match.

Practice Field 2

Practice Field 3

Practice Field 1

Dean Kamen Addresses the Faithful

Woodie Flowers Addresses The Crowd

There are a lot of people here.

Day two, in brief

Day two was a whirlwind of events. The Georgia Dome and Congress building are completely devoted to all things robotics this week, perfect accomodations for over 400 robotics teams. 
Morning practice matches flew by like catch-as-catch-can, according to one of the robotics moms. Masses of unprepared teams eventually led to a come-and-go system. We managed to get our robot together in time for the qualifying matches which took place after lunch. After our second match, one in which we were victorious, our ranking managed to go up more than fifteen places!   
 
All day, DOTM members were cheering others and themselves on, working on the robot, scouting other teams, watching the matches, and/or enjoying the atmosphere. We can attribute our success in our second qualifying match, with a victory of 12-9, to our hard-working build team.

Pictures of today will be posted soon!
In the meantime, keep checking this blog for updates on the team's progress!

Awesome.

Noodlish

day two: outside of the pits.

DOTM captain Caitlin Parra learns how to ride a segway!

Daniel Turner, Rosie Easter, Sam Westrick, Stephen Kelley, Silvie Chang and Dane Orie jumping for joy in front of the FIRST banner

Caitlin Parra and Alan Calderwood organize scouting sheets outside the Georgia Dome.

Rosie Easter, Silvie Chang, Taylor Coombs, Sam Westrick and Dane Orie in front of the World Congress Center

Mr. Noodle!!!!

Tyler and David with the robot

Tyler, David, and Kelsi taking the robot off the field

Our 2nd qualifying match, we won 12 to 9!

We won 12 to 9! And we got 35 seeding points because the winner receives their score + 5 + two times the score of their opponents. This will really help our ranking!!

Our 2nd qualifying match, we won 12 to 9!

We won 12 to 9! And we got 35 seeding points because the winner receives their score + 5 + two times the score of their opponents. This will really help our ranking!!

Galileo is one of four qualifying fields

To the field

Yum

Dinner at the CNN Center

End of day one

As day one comes to a close, many team members called it a night earlier than expected due to the long bus ride. Lethargy has definitely taken its toll on all of us.
With the exceptions of seniors Kelsi Callahan (co-captain), David Richardson and junior Tyler Clark, the whole team relaxed in the hot tub before going to dinner at the CNN Center right down the street.

Atlanta is a wild experience; the city is alive with robotics teams from several different places such as Israel and Australia. Every team is super friendly and totally pumped to be here.
Competitions start tomorrow, bright and early. Some team members will immediately get down to business by improving the robot. Others will be scouting other teams (checking out other robot designs and mechanisms) and collecting buttons/other free swag that will be given away. Everybody is here to have fun!

Keep checking this blog and usfirst.org for updates!

Meanwhile...

Team Captain Kelsi Pausing For A Shot

Tyler Trimming The Shield

David Asks The Israelis For Scissors... EPIC FAIL

Maxwell 13 Underway

In the pits with the early team and the rebuild of our bot is going wellish. We're transforming our VCU bot into a looper.

We're on a bus... Still

The early team arrived some time ago, but we've got awhile to go. We haven't even hit traffic yet.

Silvie on the bus.

The early team may have arrived, but the rest of us, like Silvie, are still en route.

The Early Team Has Landed

Why so sheepish Sam?

While it's not only Sam's fault that the power supply for the driver station's laptop didn't get packed, he did get blamed for it. Casey, that's the guy that's pointing, yeah... he forgot it, too. Finger pointing aside, these guys are great. Both underclassmen they've already demostrated essential leadership qualities.

Half full and ready to go.

We are all packed and ready to go by 5:45. Awesome. After a quick check to see if we missed anything, we'll be on our way to Nansemond River High School in Suffolk to pick up Team 3168. The Warriors won the Rookie All-Star Award at the FIRST Robotics Virginia Regional at VCU this year. This is one of the highest honors an FRC team cn receive.

Our ride arrives!

What? You can't tell it's a bus?

That's because it's dark, buddy.

Geez...

5:00 am and not a 'possum was stirring

With the lone exception of the frogs in the pond,

HHS is a very quiet place at 5:00 am.

The day before tomorrow...

Preparations are underway for FRC Team 1522 to head to Atlanta for the 2010 FIRST Robotics Championship! We leave at 6:00 am and head to Suffolk to pick up team 3168 from Nansemond River High School.

The early team - Kelsi Callahan, Tyler Clark & David Richardson - aim to arrive by 5:00 PM for a 3 hour work window in which we hope to do a complete upgrade of our bot. We think this is the 6th version of this year's robot, but we might call it Maxwell 13 in honor of the Apollo astronauts and engineers that used whatever was laying around to salvage the mission.

It's been a great year so far - can't wait to see what Atlanta holds...

4 playing fields - 500 robots - ??,000 students - no sleep