Robotics for Next Year

Since this year's robotics competition is over I'm looking towards next years competition. Next year I am going to do the high school competition known as VEX robotics competition (VRC). In VRC the robots are made out of metal instead of plastic. The fields are also twice the size and it has been around longer than VEX IQ (the competition I did last year) so there is more teams that are really good. This will not only be my first year doing VRC but the robotics school I'm at first year as well. So it will really be a challenge but that means I will learn more. The challenge for 2016-2017 is called Starstruck. In Starstruck you are paired up with another team to fight against another pair of teams (an alliance). Teams score points by throwing stars and cubes to the other side of the fence and the opposing alliance will throw them back to get points for them. Teams can also score points by hanging their robot on the poles in the corners. Since teams get points by denying the other team points the competition will be very back and forth and competitive.

VRC Starstruck Feild

VEX Worlds

This past week I went to VEX Worlds in Louisville Kentucky. It was held at a huge exposition center where the Kentucky Derby is held. We flew into Kentucky Tuesday and tried to work on our autonomous program (where the robot drives its self) but the carpet floors at the hotel made it in consistent. The next day we actually went to the event. We signed in, passed inspection, and set up our pits (the area where you hang out between matches). We tried again to work on autonomous but it kept failing and we were really uncomfortable because the air conditioner was not working. The next day the qualifying matches finally started. We had three matches that day and we did fairly well. By the end of the day we were ranked in the mid twenty's. It was Friday when I realized that the rest of our matches would be with terrible teams. This meant that we would have to completely carry the teams we were with because the two teams in an alliance get the same score.  We had some terrible matches that day. One team we were paired with didn't have a working robot and couldn't even make it up the ramp. The worst part is that they refused to use the placebo robot (a robot that can be used by teams as a backup if there robot doesn't work) because they wanted to drive their robot only. The next matches were still pretty bad but by the end of the day we were ranked 37th. This was a little scary because we only had two matches to go and only the top 40 teams made it in finals. The last day was Saturday and our first match went well. We got paired with a team that used the placebo robot but since other teams past us we got bumped back to 38th place. For our final qualifying match we actually got paired with a good robot. However the drivers were elementary kids from China even though they were in a middle school division. We didn't have enough time to practice so we didn't know what to expect. When we had the match they hogged all of the balls but didn't shoot any of them. Since we could not score much with the balls that were left we had a terrible score. That match put as in 42nd place but three other teams dropped out of finals so we ended up in 39th place. In our final match we did okay since the team we were paired with was okay. After all the matches were done we were the 15th alliance or 30th team in the world.

Prepareing for Worlds

After US Open there was only ten days till worlds. In that time me and my team had to get enough practice in to do well, write an autonomous of about 100 points, and get a good presentation ready so we could have a shot at design award. This was a daunting task. We first just practiced until we reached the 160 mark with an alliance. Then we started the autonomous which is where nobody drives the robot the team programs it to drive its self. To make the program consistent we started to implement something called an x, y and theta system. An x, y, and theta system uses trigonometry and the sensors on the robot to figure out the x and y position of the robot on the field. Since we were not very familiar with trigonometry it took way to long but we got it done. Once it was done, writing the autonomous was a piece of cake. I had almost programed half the field when I realized that I wouldn't have enough time to climb the ramp. I then tried to make the autonomous faster and also have a different faster strategy so I could get up the ramp. But that took time and now I'm not even half done and we fly to worlds, held in Kentucky, tomorrow. It looks like I will have to try to program it at worlds which might work because worlds is a four day event. We also have to drive practice today and at worlds so it is gonna be close. I am so exited for worlds and can't wait till it has started.

US Open

Last week I went to US Open in for my robotics competition. The competition was in Council Bluffs, Iowa probably because of the cheap venue. I qualified for US Open back in October in my first qualifying competition where I had a completely different robot. I left for Iowa Wednesday morning arrived in Omaha, Nebraska in the evening. It was a short drive to the hotel in Iowa and on the way the roads seemed so empty for someone used to LA traffic. When we got to the hotel we were surprised to find that the hotel we were saying at was right next to the convention center where the competition would be held the next day. There was even a covered walkway connected to the hotel straight to the convention center so we didn't even need to go outside. We then went to a steak house across the river from Omaha where we had a panoramic view of Omaha and delicious Omaha steaks. The next day we unpacked our robots and headed to robot inspection. We checked out okay and starting looking at the other robots there. They weren't to impressive for a national event but that was because all the good teams were only going to worlds. The matches started out bad for my team because in the first two matches our robot broke. The next matches were a lot better and by match three we were in first. We continued like this until the end of the qualifying matches where we got paired for our final match. In the final match teams one and two get paired up, teams three and four get paired up etc. The team that we got paired with had a very long robot so we both couldn't get up the ramp. They also threw their balls so they tended to miss. In the finals match before us the alliance scored an impressive 125 points. Finally it was time for our match and we did pretty good but our alliance partner missed three balls. We scored a total of 116 points but if we didn't miss those balls we would have scored 128 and won. On the way back that night we had a connecting flight through Minneapolis. Our first flight was a little late and the tram at the airport was broken. Not only that our first flight landed on the opposite side of the airport as our other flight and we had to run all the way there. We barely made it on the plane and we were exhausted. By the time we got back home it was pas midnight and I went to sleep.