It was very windy and chilly today when we visited the Fish Hatchery to present the third version of our prototype and test it out. We met with Mrs. Kerstin Cody and Mr. Jake Osborne, who brought us to the shad pool and let us set up the FISH. Here is the prototype we brought:
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6 days until States! We still have a lot to get done, but today was quite a productive meeting. On Project side, we modified our script a little bit and will finalize it on Friday. Our prototype is coming along nicely and we have another meeting with the Fish Hatchery this Thursday to test our new design. Our bragboard is also updated.
In Robot Game, we tested out our programs and fixed the flaws that we found with both the robot and the programs. We found we have a faulty gyro sensor on one of our robots, so we ordered a new one, which will hopefully arrive on time. Now we just have to practice, practice, practice and hope nothing else goes wrong with the robot. Happy December! Today marks two weeks until States, and we are working hard! In Project, we continued modifying our prototype, as well as brainstormed some ideas to improve our presentation and make our game show more realistic and exciting. In Robot Game, we continued working on the long program that scores us a lot of points. We made a strategic decision to not use our manure launcher since it takes so much time to set up. This allows us to take off the obstructive wall that we have to carry to the Training Area and hopefully complete some of the missions in that corner of the board, like Panda and the Zoologist.
Let's keep working Crocobots! Today we regrouped after Thanksgiving break to begin working on the things for States. In Robot Game We've made sure our Shark and Dog program work properly by adding in a section of code to check if the robot is hung up on the fridge and adjust accordingly. We've also completed our wall climb program that was not quite complete in time for Qualifiers. Now, we're working on revamping our long program to release the honey and drop the Pig in the Farm Area in addition to doing Milking and dropping the wall and other models in the Research Area.
In Project, we started modifying our prototype to get it closer to a working product that can be installed at the Fish Hatchery. The prototype has 3 main problems: the belt gets wet, the belt spins too fast, and the hopper hasn't yet been designed. Our new design will raise the belt up higher using another set of PVC pipes and connect it to the waterwheel through gears. This allows the belt to stay dry and also gives us the possibility of using different gear sizes to slow the belt down. Today we held a fun celebration meeting for our win at Qualifiers last weekend. We brought lots of snacks, including cookies and a wonderful pumpkin pie, and watched funny SNL skits featuring Hans and Franz and the motivational speaker Matt Foley. We also played a few games of Mario Kart together. Later on, we discussed what things we need to do between now and States, which is just under a month away. We'll take a much-deserved Thanksgiving break and will begin working again next week!
What a day! We arrived at Assabet Valley RVTHS in Marlboro bright and early, not knowing what to expect at the unfamiliar location. It was a lot smaller than we had anticipated: only 24 teams were there out of a possible 40 teams and the Robot Game competition matches would be held right next to the pits.
However, the day did not start out well for us. Our robot specialists Jackson and Dennis were at the practice tables furiously trying to fix some flaws in our programs while the rest of us set up our pit area. In the first robot match, both our essential programs ran backwards for some unknown reason and we scored nothing. Our sister team, the Hippogriffs, actually scored the highest out of the 6 teams in the first round with 35 points. Our second match went a lot better with a score of 73 points. Unfortunately, we forgot to place the prosthesis on the pig after retrieving it, costing us 9 points, which was even more painful for us when we didn't score nearly as well in any of our other seed matches. In our third match, the EV3 firmware on our robot crashed right after the match began, forcing us to take another scoreless match. Things weren't looking too good when we took a break from Robot Game for our judging sessions. Whew! Today's meeting was a whirlwind of activity as we worked our hardest at finishing up both Robot Game and Project for our competition tomorrow. On the Project side, we read through the script a few times and made some final adjustments. In Robot Game, we furiously troubleshooted our program that uses the Gyro sensor to complete the Milking mission and deposit a wall at the Research Area as a backboard for our manure launcher. We also worked on timing and strategies on what to do when a program goes wrong or time is running out. Good luck to all the other teams competing tomorrow!
Today we kicked off our final week before competition with a very productive meeting. We held a mock Core Values judging session set up by our mentor Moriah. The challenge was simple: using paper and a short length of masking tape, build a bridge across two boxes and then build a tower on top of the bridge. Though we did not fully succeed at the challenge, we did realize that we would have to take into account the large size of our team when we solve challenges like this. The judging session was also a good review of questions that judges may ask about us, our meetings, and how we display the FLL Core Values.
In Project, we finished up our script and did a practice run. We'll continue editing it to make sure that we include everything we want to present, make it clear, and don't run over the 5-minute time limit. In Robot Game, we're finishing up the last of our programs and getting ready for some timed runs to figure out the best strategy for completing all our programs in the 2.5 minute time limit. We'll continue this over the last few meetings we have this week. Today we visited the Fish Hatchery for the third time to present our prototype to them, test it out, and receive some feedback. We met with Shane Hanlon, the Hatchery Manager, and explained how our prototype would work. Here are his comments:
- The increased frequency of feeding with the automated feeder would enhance the growth and survivability of the shad. - The belt on the feeder has to move very slowly to gradually dispense the food over the course of the day. Depending on the strength of the water current on the waterwheel, we may have to add a gear box to slow down the belt. - The belt has to be kept dry so that the fish food doesn't stick to it. Wet food is also less attractive to the shad and could encourage fungal growth Shane also explained to us that the main reason why shad and other fish are declining in the wild is because of the dams on many rivers that prevent their migrations. During breeding season, the shad have to migrate upstream from the ocean to breed in the freshwater rivers, but their way is often blocked by dams. Current solutions are only so effective, as they involve using an attraction flow to corral the fish into an elevator that then brings the fish up the dam. Often, the fish are faced with a lake at the top of the dam and have trouble navigating it to reach the rest of the river. When the fish hatch and migrate back downstream, the dams again block their way. Many of the fish end up swimming through the turbines and getting sliced up, resulting in less than 75% of them making their way through the turbines and back to the ocean. The shad are also faced with pollution, fishing, and natural predation that further increase their decline. The difficulties that shad face in the wild highlight just how important the hatchery's work is. The shad that our feeder is designed for are one of the only groups of shad that are being raised in captivity. Shane even mentioned that the current shad are an experiment to see how long they can survive in a hatchery habitat, something that hasn't yet been studied. The shad, however, won't be released like the other fish at the hatchery because they've adapted to the hatchery and won't do as well in the wild. At the end of our visit, Shane showed us the belt feeders that the hatchery are using for some of their other fish tanks. They work using a mechanical system set on a timer that slowly retracts a belt, letting the food that was on the belt fall into the water. The problem with these, however, is that they break after a while and are troublesome to fix. Our automated fish feeder just might do the trick! Happy Veterans Day! Today we didn't have school, so we held a meeting in the morning to start finalizing our project script and robot programs. For Robot Game, we worked on ironing out our program that pushes the cow model and drops a wall off at the Training Area to act as a backboard for our manure launcher. We also finally found a viable way to complete the wall-climbing challenge, using latches to hook the robot onto the wall and LEGO string attached to the motors so it can winch itself off the ground. We're really excited about this solution! On the Project side of things, we finished our first draft of the skit by adding in the "technical details" of our solution, the aptly-named Feeder Invention for Shad Habitats, or F.I.S.H. for short. We also began modifying our initial prototype to include a conveyor belt and 3D-printed gears. Tomorrow, we'll be presenting our prototype to the Fish Hatchery to test it out and get feedback from them. One week to competition, and we're pumped!
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AuthorWe are the Big Red Lightning Crocobots. This is our OFFICIAL blog! Archives
December 2016
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