New Comic

Have you ever wanted to be an author?  Do you like to make people laugh?  Do you enjoy reading about the Doom Flowers' latest escapades in robotics?

Now you can join in the fun by making your own Doom Comic!  Our new comic, Doom Make a Book, will teach you how to make a book out of one sheet of paper so that you can create your own stories (of doom.)  The less ambitious can still enjoy our new comic-- you can learn how to fold one of our other comics into a book so that you can enjoy it anytime.

Note: Be sure to keep on the lookout for our next Doom Comic... it's in the works as we speak!

Hardware...Yay

 4322 (Murphy)

4322 is now designing a new arm that can hopefully reach the top peg without breaking anything. If you have seen earlier posts, we were designing an arm that used chain to move. Now, we are using a similar design to replicate the results but make it simpler and more effective. Our current ramp is on the prototype shelf, and gathering dust. We are working on autonomies and our new arm while the end game is on hold.

452 (Shelob)

452 is doing minor changes and re-gearing the arm so that it is easier to control and not as fast and jerky. We are also trying to fix the ramp deployment system and it is coming along beautifully. We are also working on making the ramp wider with flaps that fold out during deployment

Our Year in Photos

A picture is worth a thousand words, so here's the story of our robotics year so far; most of these pictures were taken sometime between June 2012 and last week. Want to see more photos? You can see all the photos that have been featured on our blog (including those from past years) here.

Top row, left to right: Our most recent picture of our robot (4322); teaching kids about LEGO robots at a middle school outreach event; a previous version of this year's robot (4322).

Second row: Our robot's mustache, which detects weighted rings, says "hi"; interacting with kids at a YMCA summer outreach event.

Third row: Building custom parts with heat-forming plastic; giving kids some hands-on science experience at a summer robotics workshop; testing out this year's robot (452.)

Between rows: Working with other FIRST robotics teams to teach kids about programming.

Fourth row: Designing this year's robot (4322); making a claw using plastic; testing out prototypes; a plastic ring from this year's game; spare parts and metal waiting to be used.

Our Many Blog Updates

Hello, reader!  Have you seen all our changes to this blog?  Over the past few weeks and months, we've added several new pages, helpful documents, and things you'll enjoy.  Here's a list:

Fun Stuff: This page has all the random funny items that don't really go on our main blog.  Click here to check it out-- you'll be glad you did!

• Stop Robot Cruelty desktop backgrounds
• Word of the Day, which is a very unrealistic definition of a word
• Team Quotes, a page with interesting quotes from team members
• Doom Flower Comics about safety, the engineering process, and how to take over the world
• Lessons in field components, a commentary on this year's game

Videos: This page is for videos we've taken of our robots.  We hope to add some more soon.  Click here to view.

Meet the Bots: Want to meet the two PHI robots?  This page has everything you need to know, from stats to design history to photos.  Click here to see.

Need Help: We've compiled a list of information that new teams might find helpful for getting started with FTC, everything from what you'll need to how to survive your first tournament.  We hope to keep adding to our list as time goes on.  Click here to browse the Need Help page.

Suggestions?  If you have an idea of something you'd like to see on our blog-- more photos? new comics? more help for new teams? -- please let us know!  Post a comment or email us at phirobotics@yahoo.com.

Left! No wait, your other left! Wait, don't press that-- CRASH!!!

...button.
Oh brother.  There goes the field again.
As you've probably guessed, we're beginning to get our bots driveable, but since the programs are still in the works, things don't always go as planned.
Our prototypes have begun to be combined into two different bots.  Some designs have been eliminated, and others have sprung up in their places.  And now that the bots are (semi-)driveable, we're starting to test them out.
So far there haven't been any casualties, but we have had a few... well... episodes in which the bot has whacked something or somebody.  Those include (but are not limited to):
-A team-member's hand
-The scoring rack
-Someone's foot
-The scoring rack
-Random objects and/or people's legs
-The scoring rack
-The field wall
Oh yeah, and did I mention the scoring rack?

Yup.  We're working on that...
Fortunately everything seems to be coming together well, and the programs are beginning to take shape.
We're hoping to enter our first competition on November 17th, and we're all hopeful that we'll have a good bot by then.
Well, I should get back to the field, so until next time, I'm signing out.

Left!  Go left!  No, no, go right!  BANG!  Not that right, the other right!  WHACK!  Wait, try scoring the ring now.  Hey wait, not that--- CRASH!!!
...fast.




Also pictures from our summer activities:

 

 

                                                
                                                 Free rides provided by Wyaat

                                               
                                                    Phi members helping kids build robots

                                              
                                                 Lecturing kids about engineering

                                                      Making team posters

 

Team Games

 

 

 

                                                  Building robots





                                    Helping team 399 teach kids about robotics at Columbia Middle School

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Playing the game

 

                                                           Testing programming
       

Danger, Doom, and Deadly Peril: Prototyping 101

Sometimes prototyping can be a bit dangerous, as the team has been finding out.  This year's challenge requires extendable arms- something that, if done incorrectly, can lead to disastrous consequences.  We have three different prototypes in the works, some of which can be quite dangerous when they... er... misbehave.
Out of the three arms, one in particular has proved especially deadly.  That said, out of the three, one is untested, one isn't that dangerous (provided you don't point it at someone), and the third has been nicknamed "Psycho," among other things.




Psycho (A.K.A. Phil)

"Psycho," as we have been referring to him, began as a simple claw mechanism.  After the prototyping for the claw was complete, we moved on to making a wrist, which was, semi-accidentally geared for speed.  Almost immediately after its construction it tried to take off the heads of three of the team members.  Once we had it running more smoothly, we attempted to test its behavior while carrying a weighted ring (which weigh about 2.1 ounces).
Psycho threw it ten feet down the driveway and narrowly missed hitting one of our mentors.
Oops.
After re-gearing Psycho for strength (not speed!!!), he got a bit calmer, and we were able to successfully use the wrist mechanism without flinging random objects.  We then moved on to the arm itself.
We had decided to make a linear extension arm, which quickly turned dangerous- that is to say that it very nearly launched at team members' faces.
Not to worry, no humans have been harmed in the making of this robot.
(*Scream in background*)
Um...  Except that one.
Note: Psycho is NOT the official name of one of our robots!  It is the a nickname for our robot's arm.  Apparently it is also known as Phil. (Phil D. Psycho?)

The second arm (hereafter referred to as "Elastic" unless otherwise specified) is a lot less complex than Psycho/Phil.  Consisting of a chain system that raises the arm, it not made any attempts on team members' lives, however it did attack a team member's leg.

Elastic, as shown in its extended form.

The third arm, a telescoping mechanism, is known as Fishing Pole.  It remains the only resident invention that has made no attempts to injure team members.

Fishing Pole (the arm on the work table) 

As you can see, inventing and prototyping are dangerous jobs.  Do not attempt them at home unless you are prepared to face the possible consequences.

DISCLAIMER: I as the author of this post claim no responsibility for any confusion in regards to/concerning the names/potential names of our robots.  None of them currently have names.  The arms have nicknames.

This is a video of fishing pole arm in action.

United We Stand

Phi is going to try to become more unified this year. Team Phi is going to work together and try to help the other teams at all times. We are now unifying our meetings and blogs. We also have several new members and are proud that they are becomming involved in brainstorming. The team is currently brain storming about new ideas for how to score points in the new 2012-2013 year.

FLL Educator Workshop

Last Saturday at the FIRST Lego League Educator Workshop at Joe Walker Middle School, PHI Robotics team members helped local educators build their own Lego robots and learn about how to get started with FLL.

After a morning of presentations by Eagle Robotics on how to run a FLL team, workshop attendees constructed their 'bots from Lego parts and NXT brains.  Then, they programmed their robots to complete a challenge similar to the one assigned to FLL teams each robotics year.  By the end of the day, these new Lego coaches and mentors had gained valuable firsthand experience to share with their teams about how to build a robot.

We had a lot of fun partnering with the NASA AERO Institute and Eagle Robotics on this workshop.  If you'd like our support with other workshops and events, email us at phirobotics@yahoo.com, and we'll see what we can do!

Workshop attendees learn about robotics.

A PHI team member ponders on how to build a Lego robot.

Local educators watch their robot in action.

Summer Outreach

As a creative summer outreach project, this month our team gave several hour-long robotics presentations for about 20 kids from K-6th grade at the Quartz Hill YMCA Childcare Center.

We taught the children about robots and played a game about basic programming.  With the older kids, we discussed FIRST Lego League, and explained how they could join a team, while the younger kids had fun drawing imaginary robots and looking at robot books.  The finale was a lively game of Simon Says, featuring the guest appearance of Goldie the robot (a human in a friendly robot costume.)

We enjoyed teaching the children about robotics and leading them in fun activities, and we hope to partner with the YMCA Childcare Center for more events like this in the future!  If you'd like us to give a similar event at your school or community center, you can email us at phirobotics@yahoo.com.

PHI team members show off our robot.

A team member picks volunteers for a fun activity.

Goldie joins a game of Simon Says.

Summer Robotics Workshop

This past week, we partnered with several other local robotics teams as well as NASA and Lockheed Martin to host a week-long robotics workshop for sixty elementary- and middle-schoolers.  We had a great time doing a variety of activities, from throwing water balloons to teaching kids to build robots.

During the week, the kids got to participate in science activities including launching balloon rockets and building a protective "spacecraft" to safely land an egg launched by a slingshot.  Each afternoon, the kids worked in teams of six to build robots out of VEX metal parts to play a game involving racquetballs.  On Saturday, parents got to see all the teams play in an exciting competition very similar to the FIRST Tech Challenge competitions.

PHI had so much fun helping mentor at this year's Summer Robotics Workshop, and we hope to do it again next year.

Mojave Scrimmage

This Saturday we are going to Mojave to participate in an informal scrimmage. The bot is getting ready, as are we. We will be there from 10 AM to 2 PM. The team will be there and will do matches. We hope to have a lot of fun driving and working on the bot.

This is not a drill!! Oh, wait, yes it is!

    We are starting new drills to help us hone in our driving skills. we are doing many new levels including really hard, micky carl, and make you cry. We hope this will kill time, make laughs, and help us drive better.

Scrimmage?

      Minataur (Jigatar, Jiggles) may still be used after all. There is a scrimmage in Mojave this April. The bot is to do demostrations or scrimmages. The team will also be touring the new space progams. We hope to see other teams there too!

No Worlds

We are probabbly not going to worlds this year however, we ae now fundrasing and helping 452 with their robot. We mainly work on their autonomies and do other minor things with the bot. We are now building nemisis bots to give Butters a challenge to get points, or for "awesomeness". Another thing we are doing is working on tutorial videos for Tetrix. The bot has not been used recently, now we are building a magnet ball rig to get more points if we have some other competition. Sadly, we never got to go to the engineering week scrimmage.

After Las Vegas

    Even though we lost at Vegas, we are still mounting a magnet sensor. The bot is going to go to Northrup Grumman later this month to do scrimmage matches. The bot is also getting new servo mounts. We hope Alpha will do well at Worlds.

     

Las Vegas

The competition is in two days. We are now making the final changes to the robot, mainly making new autonomies. Minojigataur (Minotaur, Jiggles, Jigataur) is now recovering from the failure of the "new better lift." We are getting last-muinite driver practice, and strategy. Some of us are very frustrated with the failure of our newest autonomies. We are learning to work with a new platform, for our lift. We just have to finnish the last tweaks. (P.S. The entry on January 19 is INVALID! the real name is the Minojigataur.)

Much sadness aboundith

      Sadly our lift broke, and our giant lift will have to be removed, hopefully, we can do well on Saturday.

Driver practice

      We are building a new scissor lift, and are doing driver practice. Our drivers are Derek, Jonathan, Calin, Tyler, and Jacob. The bot is doing well and we are trying new stratigies to win. The team is ready to go to Las Vegas. Jiggles's new lift is taller, and sturdier, and our new autonomies are helping our team a lot.

robot name confusion

we have been thinking of new name for the robot but we were at a dilemma between Minotaur and jiggles. so we decided to name is JIGETAR!

Old to New

                                      Today, 4322 is going to talk about the life of Jiggles.

     He started as a 4 by 4 square bot( phase 1). It has grown into a robot capible of getting into finals twice. We added two long arms that could capture a bowling ball.( Phase 2)

      We then removed them and added a conveyor belt however it was slanted and wasted space. The bot then got a scissor lift. We made the first major rebuild with a strait conveyor, the "tomahawk" arm, and the scissor lift. We used this until after Los Angeles.
      We then did our second major rebuild. we made a new, more efficient conveyor belt, and a larger scissor lift. The bot did well until the finals in San Diego. We are now starting our third major renovation. We are making a stronger lift, and a flap to keep crates on the lift.

Don't forget to check out our new "Fun Stuff" page.  Click here to go see it.

Phase 4

Phase 5

Phase 6

Phase 1

Phase 2

Phase 3

Debrief from San Diego

     We and Alpha both went into the semi-finals with a score of (5, 0). We were paired with Shockwave and were ranked second. In the Semi-finals, We went against Garagebots (team 72). Sadly we lost the tournoment. Phi Alpha won the entire competition, and will go to worlds. Congratulations to Alpha!

San Diego!

      We are making the finishing touches to the bot. 4322 is Almost complete, and we are starting driver practice. We are working on the engineering notebook, and our photos. The bom (bill of materials) is finnished and we are now having an extended meeting. The bot has a new cart and we are ready for the new competition.

Driver practice

     Today we practiced with 452 and are learning how to drive.The bot's ramp is now tweaked and we are replacing the servo. We hope to be driving soon. The bot, Minotaur, will be working soon. We hope to do better this weekend. Please wish us luck in this competition.

The bot's broken part, the ramp.

Meet the Minotaur!

We've finally thought of a new name for the robot: the Minotaur.  This is because the robot looks somewhat like a bull.  Several of us are very, very glad that we have a good name for the robot (to replace the unspeakable one!)

The bot is not the Minotaur!!!!!

We are finnishing our radical changes

"Jiggles" (front) and Butters (rear) 

                                                   Our first picture of "Jiggles"

New scissor lift and arms

        We are finnishing our new "radical changes". Omega is now going to incorperate magnet ball technology, and a new layer for our scissor lift. "Jiggles" is now rewired and can drive in teleop. Sadly, we need to remake all of our autonomies. The bot has gone very far in its short life. The bot's arms are being called T-rex arms. The new arms have caused drastic changes to our bot. We are starting driver practice, and are learning new tactics for scoring points. We now have a new layer for the scissor lift. We are waiting with anticipation for the competition.

     If you have any new names, please tell us. Also, we would appreciate if you voted for our name.


The bot will not be named Minotar!!!

Happy New Year

Today is our first meeting of the new year. The Bot has been finished and looks much better than the last pictures. The main problem with the new changes is that we must rewrite all of our autonomies.We are making a new ramp that will have more than half a NASA logo. The bot has a new ramp with a trench to let the new arm go down all the way. We are excited for the San Diego and putting our bot to the test.


By the way the word of the year is apocalypse: (ap-ok-o-lips)n. 1. The end of the
world or a great negative worldwide change.

The word of the day (last meeting) is rubber band: (ruber band)n. 1. A rubber, or plastic, circular flexible strap thet is used to

creat tension. 2. A sprongy thing that is used for shooting at people.

The word of the day is apocali: (ap-ok-ol-i)n. Plural of apocalypse.