The 2012 FRC game challenge is Rebound Rumble.

Elements of the 2006 game “Aim High” and the 2001 game “Diabolical Dynamics” are present in this year’s game. Looking at what worked for teams in those years might be instructive. Finding information for the 2001 game will be more challenging. As always, Chief Delphi can provide insights into strategies and potential solutions. Checkout the forums here: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/portal.php. We encourage Team 980 student members to join ChiefDelphi and post to the forums – just remember you’re posts reflect on Team 980, so think before you submit!

Team 980 will begin it’s 11th season of FIRST Robotics Competition on Saturday, Jan. 7 at 2 pm!

We are meeting at our new location: 2920 W. Olive Ave (#108) in Burbank.

Team 980 is providing pizza and soft drinks for our Kickoff Event.

Students (and parents!) interested in Team 980 are welcome to join us for an overview of the FRC program and the 2012 game challenge.

Please checkout this short video about FIRST Robotics:

If you plan to attend, please RSVP by sending a reply to this post (with number of peopled coming).

See you Saturday!!

Ten Team 980 members have booked flights and made hotel reservations for the 2011 FIRST Championship, to be held Apr 28-30 in the America’s Center and Edward Jones Dome in downtown St. Louis. We are competing in the Newton division with 87 world-class teams such as Bomb Squad (16), Team RUSH (27), Robowranglers (148), Swamp Thing (179), ThunderChickens (217), Pink Team (233), Cyber Blue (234), Martians (494), Spartonics (1503), Holy Cows (1538) and many others. It will be a very exciting division and we will be at our peak for the competition!

Team 980 has modified our gripper to pick-up logo pieces quicker. We made a new, simpler, control box for the arm assembly. We’ve also developed a guide for quickly aligning our robot for mini-bot deployment. Our drive team has 25 competitive matches under our belts and we’ve shown steady improvement through the regional events.

Please help Team 980 by purchasing FIRST Green LED light bulbs, a FIRST fund-raising effort backed by Google. Each energy-saving light bulb provides a $13 tax-deductible contribution to our team!

Please click the logo below to visit the Team 980 web-store:

Thanks!!

Team 980 competed solidly in its tenth Los Angeles Regional event, held March 25-26 in the Long Beach Sports Arena. We completed the qualification rounds in 15th place (out of 63) and we were the fourth team picked in alliance selections. We were eliminated in three quarterfinal matches, but emerged as a strong contender.

Team 980 in action at the 2011 Los Angeles Regional.

Our robot performed quite well in the competition. Our autonomous mode became much more effective after line-tracking capability was realized (perfect performance in the elimination round). We showed great scoring capability, especially in Match 43 with almost 40 points scored via a top-row Ubertube and a nearly complete rack of Logos! We made progress with the minibot/deployer on the practice field and have an approach to improve our deployment targeting.

Team 980 moving to complete a top-row Logo

Our lead mentor, David Brinza, was presented with the “Outstanding Volunteer Award” by the Los Angeles Regional Planning Committee.

Team 980 will next be competing at the FIRST Championship in St. Louis on April 28-30. Some minor mechanical and controls upgrades are planned over the next three weeks before we go to the “big show.”

Team 980 looks forward to competing with the top teams in FIRST at the Championship in St. Louis.

Please join us or look for the web-cast of the event.

Team 980 completed it’s first competition of the 2011 FRC season at the San Diego Regional on March 10-12. After a slow start, Team 980 made it to the quarterfinal elimination matches on Saturday afternoon. A great start to our tenth season!

Team 980 had a lot of work to do upon arrival on Thursday. The forearm with game piece gripper was attached to the robot. The minibot deployment mechanism and support was integrated onto the chassis frame. The cRIO controller and radio were installed and configured for competition. The robot was inspected and weighed in at 98 pounds!

On Friday, we started our competition partnered with a robot likely to be one of the very best in all of FRC: Team 254 “The CheesyPoofs”.  Subsequent to our opening match victory, we struggled as we learned to operate our robot and correct mechanical and controls issues. At the end of the first day, we were far down the standings list, but we were finding our game. On Saturday morning, we introduced our autonomous mode and were able to score the Ubertube  and hang a total of six pieces in our final qualification match.

We were selected by the #7 seed, Team 973 from Atascadero, to join Team 980 (RAWC, the Robotic Alliance of West Covina). We entered the elimination round as the #6 alliance. After successfully scoring in autonomous, we won the first match against the #3 alliance by a large margin (80-38). Our Ubertube missed the peg by inches in the second match and would have been the difference in a 53-50 loss. In the final match, Team 973′s control system locked with their robot in our scoring zone, ending our run in the competition.

Team 980 stepped up to meet the challenge in our first competition of the season and will be ready to compete at a higher-level in the Los Angeles Regional on March 25-26.

Team 980 shipped “Lightning X”, our robot for the 2010 FRC “LogoMotion” game on Tues. Feb. 22. A  product of six-weeks of strategy, design, fabrication, assembly and test, we will get our first opportunity to compete in San Diego on March 10-12.

Lightning X: Team 980's entry for FCR 2011 LogoMotion

Our robot is a study of simple, rugged design. It is a scoring machine capable of lifting game pieces from the floor all the way to the top peg on the scoring rack. We have developed an autonomous mode able to hang on the top row and a very small and reliable minibot.

Team 980 examined the game, developed our strategies, and made key design decisions. We’ve moving into the detailed design and fabrication phase of our robot. Our students are eager to turn plans into reality. Let’s do it! In just three weeks, we plan to attend the SoCal pre-ship scrimmage at Harvey-Mudd on Sat. Feb. 19:  a “shake-down” exercise for our robot.

Our meetings at the Burbank rose float barn are growing in importance. While building the 2011 robot, we’re using the 2010 robot for control system testing. We’re starting driving practice with that robot, leading to try-outs for the drive team.

We’ve kicked-off our team fund-raiser: FIRST Green LED bulbs! Members selling two cases of bulbs (60) will cover their travel expenses for FIRST Championship. We’ve set a sales goal of 980 bulbs to realize over $12K for this year. More information regarding these energy-efficient LED bulbs can be found here.

Beside building the robot, we’ve got work to do on our Chairman’s Award, designing team shirts and give-aways, and publicity.

Team 980 is kicking it into high gear!

Come join the fun!

Team 980 had a very successful kickoff and is very excited about the 2011 game: Logomotion

Here’s the animation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxujTCgQPgg

Checkout the Game Manual – password: 5Time4For3Robots2to1Dance!

We will analyze the game in detail at our next meeting Monday (6 pm) at the Burbank float barn (map). We will then start collecting ideas in our brainstorming process. To make our process effective, it’s very important for everyone to understand the game and robot rules (Sec 3 and 4).

Here’s the FIRST Design video recommended by Dave Lavery (7 min). Please check it out.

Here’s the Chief Delphi thread on brainstorming. There are also a lot of discussions regarding mini-bots, scoring, etc in CD. I encourage members to join CD and get involved in discussions.

On Monday, we will inventory our Kit-of-Parts (KOP). We must report shortages before our Wed meeting.

Also on Monday, we’ll discuss team organization. We will have these sub-teams: robot mechanical, robot controls, mini-robot, business operations, Chairman’s, web-site, imagery and marketing/fund-raising. Students can participate in more than one sub-team. We will identify student team leaders and mentors for each of those areas.

If you haven’t already done so, please register at the FIRST Student Team Information Management System. Note: parental consent required to complete registration with FIRST:

https://my.usfirst.org/stims/site.lasso

Students, please complete the NASA team entrance survey:

https://rcs.arc.nasa.gov/rcs/survey/house/entrance.php

Other business:

Here’s a link to the resource page for the FIRST e-watt LED bulb fund-raiser. We should consider this for raising travel funds for our trip to Championship (St. Louis).

The 2010 FRC season has been a remarkable year for Team 980. We competed in four events, earning the Motorola Quality Award in Arizona and Finalist Trophy in Los Angeles. We participated in the Indiana Robotics Invitational and hosted the SCRRF Fall Classic at John Burroughs HS.

FRC Team 980 ThunderBots is now a 501(c)(3) public charity. Corporate and individual contributions to our team are fully tax-deductible. Our Paypal “Donate” button makes supporting Team 980 simple and provides a receipt for tax records.

JBHS students formed Robotics Club: Team 980, boosting our membership.

We have started a partnership with the Burbank Tournament of Roses Association. Team 980 members will become involved in float design and construction and will be provided work space for building our robot.

For more info (including 2011 plans), please look at our FRC980_2010_Wrap-up.

Students need to register in FIRST STIMS: https://my.usfirst.org/stims/site.lasso

More information on the 2011 will be posted over the next few weeks…stay tuned!

The 2011 game challenge will be unveiled five weeks from Saturday! The Team 980 Kickoff event will occur on Jan 8 at TBD site.

Team 980 is registered for Regional competitions in San Diego (Mar 10-12) and Long Beach (Mar 24-26) and the FIRST Championship in St. Louis, MO (Apr 27-30, return on May 1).

Before the kickoff event, Team 980 needs to prepare for the season.

Here’s our “Things To Do” preparation list:

1. Students sign-up in STIMS the official FIRST participant registration site.
2. Work with Burbank Tournament of Roses Association to secure and prepare robot build site.
3. Learn SolidWorks CAD skills. Team 980 has access to 25 student “seats” for SolidWorks 2011. We will have a couple of  high-performance workstations in our design center. Team 980 students will be able to install a 1-year licensed version of SolidWorks on their own computers for design robot parts. Start with a on-line robotics design tutorial (9 units, less than 2 hours viewing time):
4. Develop fund-raising strategies to pay for travel expenses. Championship travel, lodging, and team meal will be $750 (TBD) per student. FIRST will soon release details for team member sales of a new energy-saving LED light (a big technology improvement over compact fluorescent lamps). Look here for more information about FIRST Green e-watt savers.
5. Spread the word about FIRST to friends, teachers and members of the community. NASA has just announced major long-term support to the FIRST program. The story is in the Reddit Top-10!

Be ready for the 2011 season!

Check this website and the Robotics Club Team 980 Facebook group frequently for updates. Team members can also checkout the Robotics Club Team 980: John Burroughs group for more information.