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Team,
Last night was the parent meeting in preparation for the trip to the regional competition. Things to remember:
1. Safety first. Always wear safety glasses and closed toed shoes while in the pits.
2. Be at the Robotics Building at 5:30 Thursday morning to help load. The bus leaves at 6:00 sharp!
3. Be on time and on task while at the competition.
4. Always be alert for opportunities to help out a team member or another team.
5. Get plenty of sleep and drink lots of water.
6. No leaving the arena or hotel!
Thanks to Mark Rioux’s mom for making a wonderful flag for the team. It looks great!!! Check it out in the attached picture.
The Chairman’s award team worked all weekend to finish the DVD and practice for the interview. The video has been uploaded to youtube for you to view here
Jacub Emery and Mark Rioux were announced as the 2010 FIRST Dean’s list nominees. They received a framed copy of the essay submitted to FIRST. They both have worked hard this year and prior years and deserve this distinguished honor.
Jacub and Company have upgraded the Robot Service Vehicle again this year. We are now on version 3.0 of the RSV. You can check it out on youtube here
We are meeting tonight to finish up with the scouting and match observation database and to pack the tools and spares needed for the competition.
See you tonight,
Bob Libby
Coach – Team 58
The Riot Crew
coach@riotcrew.org
www.riotcrew.org
Hello All,
The time to go is almost here and we are gearing up for the competition. Tomorrow, Monday, at 6:00 there is a parent meeting. We will discuss the trip to Manchester for the regional and how the competition is run. I have attached consent forms for the event and for FIRST. Please print these off and complete for each student of yours on the team. Also there is an informational sheet with the event dates and contact information and an agenda of the competition. Please plan on attending as there is important information to get out.
The t-shirts are in and will be handed out at the meeting. They came out great. Thanks to all who had a hand in designing the shirt.
Thanks and I’ll see everyone tomorrow evening.
Bob Libby
Coach – Team 58
The Riot Crew
coach@riotcrew.org
207-318-6572
Team,
There is a video compilation of our practice sessions at Hamlin School on youtube.com. It can be viewed here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xQhjy_kG84
Also there is a slideshow of all the pictures from the practice session. It can be viewed here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oB37B-Pirk
Don’t forget that Monday is the parent meeting in preparation for the trip to Manchester for the regional. The parent meeting starts at 6:00PM. Students do not need to be at the robotics building until 6:00. There is a lot of paperwork that needs to be completed by each student so make sure to remind your parents.
Bob Libby
Coach – Team 58
The Riot Crew
coach@riotcrew.org
Despite some weather delays the Robot has been delivered to the drayage site.
Steve Martin
Team,
The robot is at Fairchild being crated and shipped to Manchester. Final weight is 119.5 lbs. Jacub is fashioning some LED eyes for the robot to wear at competition.
There is no Robotics meeting tonight. The next meeting is Wednesday at 5:00. Monday, 3/1 at 6:00 will be a parent meeting in preparation for the trip to competition.
See every one tomorrow,
Bob
The Robot is crated and waiting for FedEx pickup.
Steve Martin
The Robot has been picked up by FedEx.
Steve Martin
The Robot shipment now shows up on FedEx tracking so we meet FIRST's requirements for shipping verification. Next step for the robot is competition.
Steve Martin
Look! It's an email!
Thursday, February 18, 2010 10:02 PM
Hey y'all!
There's been a drought of emails lately. I've decided to stop looking up robot fetishisms, and type one. An email, that is. Not a robot fetish.
Although.... I might start with something akin to that.
From wikipedia:
A fetish (from the French fétiche; which comes from the Portuguese feitiço; and this in turn from Latin facticius, "artificial" and facere, "to make") is an object believed to have supernatural powers, or in particular, a man-made object that has power over others. Essentially, fetishism is the attribution of inherent value or powers to an object.
Our beautifully-crafted robot seems to have the inherent value of not working properly... or not working properly yet, anyway. At any rate, this robot certainly has power over us, The Riot Crew, bringing us out here day after day during the High School's February Vacation.
For those of you who haven't been with us this week and are relying on these emails for news, for the past few days we've been practicing in a mock playing field set up in Hamlin. We've managed to get some driving time in and work out a few bugs with the 'bot. Today, however, was a day of fixer-upper-ing. There we were, at Hamlin, all day, fixing the robot, and listening to Jeff talk.
I wouldn't actually know much about that, because aside from concocting an email in my head for the past two days, I've been busy writing essays. Paper flying, keys clanking, minds racing and boggling and thinking and rethinking and editing, a week of hard sitting-down brainwork, and I am proud to announce two wonderful submissions for the Chairman's Award and Woodie Flowers Award. Nevermind that last sentence being awkwardly constructed.
So I finally submitted the Chairman's and Woodie Flowers essays today, and the website for the website award, to much applause and relief. I have until 11:59 to realize I spelled a word wrong and go fix it. Other than that, I just have to wait for the judges to announce that we won... and make that Chairman's Award video....
On a similar note, the animation team finished and submitted the animation they've been hardly working at... err, working hard at... for the Autodesk Excellence in Design Award. You can check it out at riotcrew.org - and see our website too, if you haven't in a while. While you're there, consider voting for a robot name - Wicked Kickah' is in the lead, I believe. That or Fluffy.
I know that quite a few of the people who get this will want to stop reading about now, so I'll keep the rest brief. Besides, I'm starting to fall asleep and forget it all.
We'll be practicing at Hamlin for the next few days, after getting our robot fixed. A few other Maine teams will be joining us.
Brief. Like I said.
That's all folks - aside from the spirit crew working diligently on bling, with a loverly smelling adhesive....
Till next time,
Kyle Burnham
Team Manager
PS. If anyone would like to see either essay, feel free to ask me. I'll be putting them up on the website after the competition. I'll be putting this email up on the website now though, under "news" with the other emails.
Blue blue blackish blob
What happened at robotics today? THATS WHAT IM HERE TO TELL YOU!!!!!!!!!! ok so first off in the front room the tunnel was fit to the bump more betterer. Andy worked more on the programming.Work on the clamp system was done. Hats where worked on by the spirit squad. Coffee was made by Hunter and Hunter also made a truck to put in the animation... speaking of witch that was worked on today also my the mayains. Alex tryed to learn toxik and wrote this email !!
(P.S alex wrote this email !!)
THANK YOU FAIRCHILD FOR YOUR VERY GENEROUS DONTATION!!!
Robots 2010 whoopie!! (there are two for emphasis)
hello all this is a member from a time long long ago now in a galaxy far far away. Tonight at the dark abyss of the bot building, the lift mechinism is being refined, and the mid feild rift is being ass
embled. the interweb page is having the photographic bugs surgicly removed, as well as video archives being updated. a very large thank-you to chuck's mom for bringing in pizza bagels in for us...and if you do not have a jethro hat then contact kandi-lee hoy. Jim Milan and his wife had a very nice quiet dinner in the back corner of the manurfacturing department.
regards and thank you from,
Chef Herr Jot
Chef Mr. J
EMAIL!
For those of you that missed the meeting tonight, you sure missed a whole lot. Someone came in and gave out free money! Okay, so that didn't happen, but imagine how cool that would be! Just leaving the shop with pockets full of free money... Anyways, I'm a little off topic. Jeff, Lil Helper, Eric, Joe, and Patrick started work on the bumpers, which involved cleaning off Jeff's table by the door. Nothing goes on there but bumper paraphernalia until further notice. Jake worked on the control station for a while, and then went to work wiring the gyrometer and other Andy-related things to the robot. Jim tweaked hisawesome hanging mechanism to fix some small problems that we saw last night. Thanks goes out to Graceson's mom for bringing in the awesome cookies! Kandi worked in the middle room with Kyle and Parker on different word combinations to hold up during competition. The animation team worked in the back room to add final details on the animation. Michael, Parker, and Kyle worked on the planning for the Chairman's award in the middle room. Also, people need to get their rooms picked ASAP or Ms. Gwozdz will pick your room for you.
We have liftoff
Team,
Last night our robot elevating itself for the 2 point bonus at the end of a match. Video is on youtube. Click here to watch. Be sure to check all the videos of this year and previous seasons. You can search for riotcrew58 to show them all.
Bob Libby
Tonight
What happened:
Jake wired the encoders, while simultaneously teaching Eli and Eric how to do so.
Joe (L.) waxed off the control system
Patrick cleaned just about everything (thank you)
Jim & Gilead padded the frontal defense panels
The mayans played with lighting and textures, in order to make the animation pretty.
The 8th grade crew finished the mentors page.
The hanging (lifting, yes…) mechanism was operated successfully as well
It was so distracting I forgot to write the email until it was too late to come up with something creative. Thanks for bearing with me.
- Eric
Week 4 - Almost Done
Team,
Week 4 is in the books and we accomplished a lot. The robot is almost done. The pit crew assembled all the components on the robot and will complete the wiring/pneumatic installation today. When this is completed, the programming can be downloaded and tested.We should be working with the finished robot by Friday.
The website continues to be updated. The web team has spent a lot of time on the site and it is looking good. Please take a look at it when you have time. www.riotcrew.org
The animation team had a professional animator come in to give them some guidance and input on the storyboard and process. Many thanks to Randy Cooper for his help.
The week 4 slideshow has been posted on youtube. You can view it here. To see more videos of the team in action search for riotcrew58.
This is absolute the last chance to order tshirts. If you are a team member, your shirt is provided. If you would like shirts for family or friends please let me know ASAP at coach @riotcrew.org
Bob Libby
Video of the first 3.5 weeks
Robotics
Email by Ewok
-Current weight of the robot: 101 lbs
-Jeff, Jake and thier crew have been working on "shoreing" the robot, to make it structurally sound. Making sure that nothing is loose, or leaking.
-Jim Milan got us a lighter gear for the kicking mechanism, that should save us some overall weight. He is also working on our lifting mechanism, it will hopefully be ready soon.
-Jim K., Jim H., and Scott worked on a peice of the kicker.
-Kandi and her crew have expanded our army of wepuls. They are also working on our "Go Riot Crew"/"Go Maine" cards, and a "Welcome to the US" card for the Australians who will be attending the competition this year.
The middle room was working on updating the team's webite.
-To qualify for competition, your grades must be passing, this is an extra-caricular activity.
-We are in need of food for this Saturday, bring your family fav. Email Kandi at beachmom561@msn.com, we are also in need of plasticware, drinks, and desserts.
Make sure you order your T-Shirts before Friday, the order goes out after that meeting.
Robotics
Daily Log - Today us explorers found a volcanic ruin stationed near a large lake. The ruins resembled a series of buildings in which a strange species lives upon. They are red creatures with flaming heads. They appeared to be building a machine that is to preform an important task, a set of chains was being places on a motor connected to a lift mechanism. A kicker was placed on the front of the machine and worked exceptionally well. Old computers where they made house life structures through a program called Maya. The animations are were being placed together to form a larger animation as a whole. The life forms appeared to be updating a website explaining the progress of their machine, observers noticed that they were uploading videos to You-Tube in order to imbed the video into the website. These life forms are highly intelligent and know much about present day tech. They are consistently taking visits to the frozen corner of the little cave-shack that contains food and drinks, they look hungry as they scavenge for any additional food located in the cave. So this Saturday we will need a variety of food that would comfort the species. Like a family traditional food, a good dessert or some drinks. Random snacks will do as well.
Third week in expedition, February 1st, Isaac Krestal
'Bots, Burritos, and Bob
Personal Log, HMS Riot
Normally, I relay the events of the day in some semblance of chronological order, but today I am listening to my stomach, and skipping straight to lunch. Thank the Gods (and the people at Amigos) for the delicious lunch Amigos made for us, and the wonderful drinks and deserts that were graciously given to us by the families of those aboard our fine air-ship.
On the Main deck we pieced together more of the 'Bot, putting the kicker on and dismembering the prototype frame. The deck chiefs fabricated a good portion of the battlefield, putting together a good half breadth-wise (two bumps and half the Tower), which we moved back and forth across the deck several times. We can effectively practice for the war ahead.
As the bowels of the ship became filled with the Joyful light of food, I saw the Overlord Watts flee the seen with two tacos in his hand. I followed him, and I'm sure I saw him working diligently on his maniacal plans to profile all the Robots in the land and use the Army of Mini-Jethros to take over the City of Manchester. I'm torn between telling the Admiral or letting
I spent some time staring at the shiny pictures our magicians had put on our Website with thier magic. Others of the magicians, using the magic known to the ancients as Maya, worked their conjuringenclosed per usual in their shifty room.
On a side note, Admiral Bob took up the shop vac to show the non-coms how cleaning is done, but Baron Prueser claimed non-coms meant something else.
With all that said and done, and some more too, I need some rest. We'll see how the 'morrow holds out.
-- Science Officer Ariel Stagg
Personal Log, Supplemental
I just heard a loud "bang" and rushed out of my room. I saw the deck chiefs standing around the bot, cheering!
The Kicker is a huge success! It would clear the length of the field with the force it has. Well, maybe not quite, but it sure works well!
Ariel Stagg
Science Officer, HMS Riot
graceson's robotics email
At robotics this week/day we are working on important things like creating the field elements so are robot can hang from the towers. The website group is fixing the website and the animation group is adding textures and making the elements work. And that's pretty much all we did this Thursday.
Riot Crew T-Shirts (And other stuff that happened at the meeting)
The build team worked on finalizing the kicker motor mount. Jacub worked on wiring the robot. The Field elements are almost done. Many thanks to Jim Kenney for making various parts for the kicker such as the motor mount. Jim Milan worked on the lift mechinisim. The website team worked on an email thing and added new pictures to the website. The website was fixed by Bob or Harel after it was broken by Zac or Harel. Bob also took pictures which will be on the website soon. If you haven't been to the website recently then visit it at http://riotcrew.org. The animaters worked animating the animation and some worked on animating in Maya. Saturday we are getting food from Amigo's. Thank you Eric's dad for supplying the food. The T-Shirt design is done. T-Shirts are being ordered, if you would like one email Bob atcoach@riotcrew.org. T-Shirts are $10 each.
Guess who?
Hello, Tonight was a typical meeting at the robotics shop. Jacub worked on and finished the wiring for the base of the robot. Mr. Newell went to Home Depot to get a latch for the kicking mechanism. Jeff and his team constructed more field elements (bumps and goal). Sean Mannning and his group worked on updating the website. New prototype designs for the kicker were also designed and tested. The animators worked on putting their creations together to make a final product. To you from us...
I see weebles
As happens every night we fondled with ideas, the kicker has become tha main issue. Eric and Ross measured and remeasured to get the kicker to clear the floor on the down pass. Jeff and the whole crew of carpenters cut out the remaining pieces to create a full model bump. Jim Milan attached his lifting mechanism onto the robot which will be a huge success. Jacub began to create the electronics box fot the bot, It seems as though we are sticking to the traditional wood look as always (which I love). The smarties in the back uploaded pictures to the website and created the landscape for the animation. Saturday morning, u know what that means. Please be here at a reasonable time in the morning. The earlier you arrive the more of a chance you have to obtain a parking spot. PLEASE Show up for team NOT food. Tomorrow we are having drumbsticks. Thanks, Garrett Libby and Dylan Brannen
Steampunk'd - Part Deux
Science Officer’s Log – Supplemental, HMS Riot
I am transmitting this log in the hopes the some intelligent being may discover that there is indeed life after kickoff.
Captain Jacub and Co along with the Baron von Prueser were able to wrest control of the computer from Galactic Zone 6 long enough to command it to compute to the last digit the area of a pie. When this was complete Captain Jacub maneuvered the craft all over the sector including over into over the warp in the fabric of space. The craft successfully completed these maneuvers without any loss of life, limb or the pursuit of happiness. Engage your view screen and play back the computer tape enclosed
Chief Engineer Step-hen von Martindale was able to get the weapon systems online and we were able to defend ourselves with the fiery balls of fire. These balls enabled The Riot to “Breakaway” from Galactic Zone 6 and score some points with the green skinned aliens of Rigel MMX.
I have the unpleasant duty to report that my meatball fell of my spaghetti, hit the floor and rolled out the door. I found it in the garden under a bush but it was nothing but mush. Thanks to the quick thinking of Chief Chef Kaaaaandi Li and all of her cohorts I and the entire crew were able to get more meatballs and spaghetti. I have recommended them for a commendation of honor for allowing the mission to continue.
“Torque” Williams of ships company will be excited to know that we received a shipment of goods from The Home Depot. These goods will allow Torque to assemble the pitch that we will complete on for glory and honor. Many thanks to Jim Ford and The Home Depot for this generous donation.
Signing off,
Ariel Stagg
Science Officer
HMS Riot
“It is a good day to die or eat or sleep or eat some more or whatever it is that you want to do”
Steampunk'd
Science Officers Log, HMS Riot
We've reached the end of the first week and the Crew of The Riot haven't manged to blow up our dirigble up yet with thier mechanical interludes.
The kicker we've prototyped to rain firey distruction in our breakaway from the opposing Alliance worked well with surgical tubing; a pnuematic version is in developement. Captain Jacub Abney Homer Winslow and Co. put shiny chains on the 4-wheel base while Jeffery "Torque" Williams worked on constucting playing feild componets. Baron Andy von Prueser, knowing best, continued his programming works.
Charles Edward von Kieser-Smith VII and myself worked on outfitting our band of rebles with a common uniform. Our designs were well-received, and should be finalized by the beginning of Week 3.
Many thanks go to Home Depot for aiding our efforts and giving much in the way of supplies to the resistance. Many thanks as well to all who brought food and nourishment. Thanks too, goes to the parent volunteers.
In the bowels of our ship the animation team used their scrying devices to bring up peices of a future world, while Graceson worked on mastering the art of Inventor, and the pages of the web were made more shiney.
I'd write more of the day, but the engine screams and the gears and goggles call.
Signing off,
Ariel Stagg
PS:
In other news, an obscene amount of people, most of whom apparently learned how to park from the back of a cereal box, proceeded to clog up every existing space in a 1/2 mile radius, including several that don't exist. The cause of this apperared to be a cheerleading competition, which is perticularly enigmatic since it would be physically impossible for that many peole to occupt a single high school at one time. Perhaps their society has yet to hear of carpooling. The situation became so dire that the police were called in. Also, I spent over an hour looking for a docking space before finding one over 5 blocks away! AAAAAAAGGGGHHHH!!! RRRRRGH!!!
- Princess Angelina Contessa Louis Francesca Banana Fanna Bo Besca III
The robot is coming together
Today although not many were present due to illnesses we began the production of a visible robot. Jake and Joe began the to construct the drivable base. Steve and Erick continued with the prototypes for the kicking mechanism. Jeff spent many hours at the shop today measuring and cutting out pieces for our goals ( Thank you Jeff ).
We send an huge thank you to the members of Home Depot for supplying wood for the construction of our game field as well as our robot. Tomorrow Saturday the 16th we are having PASTA, I am so excited. Please show up for the team not just the food.
I had almost forgot that we have decided on what we would like the robot to do. We have thrown the whole under the tunnel thing out the window and strictly focused on going over the bumps. We have also come to conclusion on our drivable base. We have gone from a six wheel drive to the traditional four wheel tank drive... I believe? Yea I am almost certain. I really wish I could ask Andy because we all know he knows best.
I ask that all please place tools in the right area, losing things in the shop is not common. I thank you for listening and I am signing out.
Garrett Libby
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