FIRST Robotics 2025 - Report Two

When doing my weekly updates on the hectic FIRST robotics build season I sometimes go back to previous years....where were we at?  How confident did I sound?  It can be sobering...

So here's a few images from Week Two (of practically speaking, five) to get 'er done.

Base frame and elevator assembled.  Additional supports and braces were added the next session.

In the background are various other things including the field element we interact with and the two main manipulator devices in prototypical form.

In the software room a version of Helios, last year's robot, is our test bed for new and updated electronics, and to go forward with more sophisticated vision tracking.  Note the camera looking back at you.  The robot being mobile, and still under iffy control, it has temporary bumpers made of some foam we did not select for later use.  I call this "Helios the White", and was pleased that at least a couple of the students got the Tolkien reference.

This year the robot weight limit is 115 pounds.  We are at 85, but don't have everything piled on the scale yet.  The nuts, bolts, wires, and who knows what else always add up.  Stay tuned, you'll see this view again.  We've been burned before, so our scale now has a sign on it:

We'll have some fun Youtube video up in a couple of days, showing our prototype mechanisms takin' care of business with the objects they are designed to handle.  Perhaps the best way to close out the week is with an elevator now ready to be rigged with cable and motors...

Murder in Old Chippewa Falls - Part Four, Escape, Capture and Trial

Let's continue the story of Felix Fourboul Jr. and Senior, and Murder in Old Chippewa Falls.  For those coming in late:

Part One - The Wrong Corpse

Part Two - The Suspect

Part Three - Arrest

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When Sheriff Lund turned up at the Chippewa County jail on Monday November 4th, 1905, one of the inmates - who was also awaiting trial for murder - asked him if he'd seen the big hole in the wall.  Indeed, the jail now had a new exit.  What it did not have were Felix Fourboul Jr. or Orrin Fuller.  

Evidently somebody had slipped them a hacksaw, possibly through an opened window.  Over an undetermined period of time the duo had sawed through a bar to the extent that it could not only be dislodged - giving them access to an outside wall - but then used to chisel away at the stone of a window sill and create a hole big enough for them to get through.  Hmmm....maybe this is why Felix seemed so cheery when he appeared in court two weeks earlier!

Fuller was felt to be the brains of the operation.  But in another puzzling detail, he was in jail only for a relatively minor forgery charge and would have soon been released.  Outside help was strongly suspected.

Despite an intensive search neither man was located.  Indeed, from the lack of mentions in later years of the paper I suspect Orrin Fuller got clean away.  It was easier to vanish 120 years ago.  Being a forger probably was a big help.

The trail went cold for years....

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There were of course plenty of rumors.  One early suspicion was that Felix had gone north to the Indian Reservation where he would be protected.  One commentor said that any attempt to take him from there would be met "..with a Winchester...".  I used to work near the LCO Reservation.  I'm inclined to agree with this idea.

In actuality Felix Fourboul wandered here and there.  Through North Dakota and up into Canada.  Eventually he ended up in the small town of Sioux Rapids Iowa.  Going by the name "John Compton" he used his previous experience working at the brickyard to gain employ at a similar plant that made brick and tile.  He was "hard working,  industrious and of good habits".  But evidently greed got the better of him.

The account in the paper is a little vague, but it sounds as if Felix still harbored thoughts that his father had done him wrong financially.  So he wrote to the Executor of Felix Senior's estate asking for any remaining money.  As it happens, this was John Therriault, his former employer who knew him well.  This started the wheels of justice moving, and through the cooperation of the postal and law enforcement folks in Sioux Rapids, Felix was apprehended on July 18th, 1910.  He cooled his heels a while in their local jail, where it was said that "He was visited by several women and girls who shed copious tears over his hard fate."  Again with the Bad Boy allure....

Fourboul was returned to Chippewa Falls where he went on trial in January of 1911.  On the 18th of that month he was found guilty and sentenced.   

But was justice done?

The Chippewa County Courthouse as it appeared in 1911:

Forgotten Brewery Caves - Underneath Madison Wisconsin

Brewery caves in large cities are not as interesting as those from smaller places.  In part because so few of them are accessible.  In a place where reckless visitors abound, caves were sealed up early and effectively.  But that does not mean they are not down there...

Consider Madison Wisconsin.  Founded in 1838 it became the capital of when the Badger State attained statehood a decade later.  And of course, legislating is a thirsty business.  Breweries started being built in 1848, but the two under discussion today were just a bit later.

The Capital Brewery was established by a Wm Voight in 1854.  Joseph Hausman bought it in '64.  It was located at State and Gilman.

A rather short distance away was a brewery started by Barnhard Mauz, or Mautz in 1865.  This was at State and Gilman and went through the usual ownership changes, ending up being owned by a guy named Hess.  Hausman bought out Hess in 1883, giving him two breweries about a block apart from each other.  Now, on to the issue of brewery caves.

There is an odd article in The Capital Times in 1923.  In part:

It is of course mixing up the functions of a brewery and a distillery, but hey it was Prohibition and they were getting nostalgic.  It goes on:

There are few contemporary references to brewery caves in Madison.  The city is built on an isthmus between two lakes, so it would be a place where ice houses would be practical.  And while I don't know the geology of the place I can report that it is pretty flat, none of the nice handy sandstone cliffs you have in other parts of the state.  Oddly one of the few references I have seen comes from right here in Chippewa Falls, where an early visitor to the Leinenkugel's brewery cave compared it favorably to that from the Rodermund brewery of Madison.  This was a different place, along the lake shore on Lodi Road.  Where their "vaults" were is a mystery, but they are also mentioned in news articles regards a bankruptcy sale in 1875.*

So returning to State Street,  lets take a look.  Chronologically of course.

State Street in 1867.  Mautz marked with red arrow and Hausmann with blue.

These early Bird's Eye views tend to be a bit idealized.  Here's a more realistic 1885 look:

Both establishments look to have grown, with Hausman in particular now occupying most of its block.  For even more detail, an 1885 Sanborn map:

Notice that the Mautz brewery is now gone, replaced by a stable/livery run by its last owner, a Mr. Hess.  Often the Bird's Eye views are a bit out of date.

So, are there indeed deep tunnels zig zagging about under State Street, linking these now vanished brewery sites?  Maybe.  If there is bed rock on the site and proper tunnels they are almost impossible to collapse.  Especially if you don't want to also collapse the buildings and streets above!  In many cities there are "Urban Explorers" who post camouflaged accounts of their underground adventures.  I've seen nothing relating to these tunnels in such fora.

So perhaps we'll never know.  Here's the site today, standing in front of the former Mautz brewery, looking down State Street past Hausmann's, and with the State Capitol in the far distance....

I have a certain ability to "sense" things underground, but it doesn't work from a Google Earth image.

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* The lake front has been heavily modified since the 19th century.  My guess is that Roderman's beer vaults were probably near, or under, the bridge where Johnson street crosses the Yahara river.  

FIRST Robotics 2025 - Report One

And so it begins.

I probably won't hold to a linear narrative of this year's build and competition season, things happen at variable speeds and on multiple levels.  But for the moment, lets look at a few pictures from the first week of the build season.

Monday

Remarkably the first prototype for our main "manipulator" was virtually designed in the 48 hours after kickoff and a temporary plastic prototype cut during the school day.  It of course needed bearings, wheels, axels, etc, but by the end of our first work session it had been assembled and tested to very promising results.

While designs are being finished there are always multiple things that must be done.  Every year we have to construct elaborate field elements to practice with.  This year there is steel pipe involved.  Our team is fortunate to have a significant pool of adult volunteers.  About a half dozen who are in the trenches almost every session, and another half dozen for niche jobs.  Here "Grandpa Ken" is helping with field element construction.  

Tuesday

We have the three 8th graders on the team often working together as a unit.  Here they are taking one of our left over bumper sets - kitted out with a base and wheels - to explore geometry of a catchment device.

This year's game involves putting sections of PVC pipe onto various levels of iron pipe.  Quickly and accurately.  And as we shall see....there are obstacles.

Thursday

Said obstacles are these big, clumsy inflated balls.  They need to be removed.  So, will the device used to manipulate the pipe sections somehow deal with these?

Well that's encouraging.  The device in use above is designed to place the PVC pipes.  For actually picking them up another device is being prototyped.  It will scoop 'em up off the floor or off a shelf and hold them steady for the smaller grabber.  Testing on that should happen on Saturday.

Here's the two gadgets, one half finished, in their working configuration.  Stay tuned.

So to make a long post shorter, the team is off to a good start.

Murder in Old Chippewa Falls - Part Three, Arrest

 Continuing the saga of Felix Fourboul, Jr. and Sr.  For the earlier installments:

The Wrong Corpse!         The Suspect

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With discovery of the body, Felix Fourboul Jr. was immediately re-arrested.  The evidence against him was strong.  He'd already pled guilty to stealing money from his father.  He claimed they'd later met near a structure variously described as The Stand Pipe or The Water Tank.  Probably this was the water tower on the East Hill.  A struggle ensued.  Supposedly a grief stricken elder Fourboul went away from it to an unknown fate.  While the younger man went to his boarding house and hid until full darkness, to avoid having to answer questions about his minor injuries and the blood on his clothes.  Here's a map showing the relevant locations, including where the body was found months later.

The decomposed state of the body made identification difficult, but based on clothing, tattoos and a repair of one shoe, it was determined that this was indeed Felix Fourboul Senior, and that the cause of death was blunt trauma to the head.  One bit of testimony that raises questions was when the very perceptive servant girl at the boarding house was asked if she thought Felix Jr. was having "intimate relations" with his land lady, Mrs. Alice Bertrand.  She thought that was likely...

The Coroner's Inquest laid out the facts quite clearly.

Felix Junior would certainly be facing trial in this case in short order.

Or would he?

FIRST Robotics 2025 Kicks Off!

A bit of a retro experience for me.  After roughly five years of either great luck or iron constitution I finally got Covid.  Nothing worse than a mid level cold and higher level boredom, but I was not able to help out in the week preceding the big game reveal.  Perhaps for the best, I'm handing off the day to day stuff anyway.  

So, what do we get to build this year?  In roughly five weeks?  By the official Kickoff I was back to full strength.  So here's the Reveal:

So it will be once again a "pick and place" game.  We do relatively well at these.  But yikes, it is complex.  This is not the year to attempt a "Swiss Army Bot".  Decisions will be Necessary.

We had a fun day, hosting basically all the other area teams at our HQ.  We had the auditorium and the Big Screen ready.

After a bit of lunch the students were split up into groups.  I rounded up every white board on the premises so each could use one to brainstorm.

This left time for the coaches - technically called Mentors in FIRST - to kick back and chat.  We've been working towards a more cooperative regional group.  What the kids are doing is Not Easy, and in some cases one team may have ideas, supplies or just encouragement that their neighbors might greatly appreciate.  

Our kids think they have it figured out, at least to the extent of what they want to accomplish.  In some ways this is a difficult phase, they want to grab the wrenches and start building.  But we've seen on previous occasions that the initial impression of how the game is played can be deceiving.

More, much more, in the weeks ahead.

Murder in Old Chippewa Falls - Part Two, The Suspect

Here is a photo of Felix Fourboul Jr.

Beyond the physical image its hard to really get a clear picture of the young man.  Reports often conflict with each other.  His step mother, while describing her husband in glowing terms, referred to Felix Jr. as "a bad boy".  But he does not seem to have been in any legal trouble before the events under discussion, and at one point was said to be engaged to be married to a local girl.  The appeal of Bad Boys to women is of course well known.

There is a sub text here, one that makes me wonder just how much Felix Jr. had to do with his father and his step mother while growing up.  He was born to an Ojibwa woman.  She died when he was about two years old.  He stayed variously with his father on the South Side of Chippewa Falls, and at "Bob Creek", a property up north on the Flambeau River.  He attended country schools and later the Indian School at Sparta.  Although a common practice at the time, the reputation of Indian Boarding Schools has not been good in retrospect.

Felix Jr. worked steadily, if at an assortment of jobs that suggests he did not stick with things well.  The sugar beet factory, a canning plant, and for a time with his father at the brickyard.

Evidently the major source of conflict between father and son was money.  The first Mrs. Felix got a land grant that went to her husband at the time of her death.  This was for valuable farm land on the Flambeau River, presumably at Bob Creek, which Fourboul Sr. sold.  His son thought he deserved a share, or maybe all of it.

On the day of Felix Fourboul Sr.'s disappearance it seems Jr. visited the brickyard boarding house and took a sum of money.  I've seen both $18 and $30 mentioned in articles.  When the father went looking for his son there was an argument and a fight.  Junior says his father beat him, and that when he was down on the ground his father became remorseful, fearing he'd killed his son, and ran off, perhaps committing suicide later.  The weights tied around the body could fit with that, but blunt force injuries to the head of the corpse, and the fact that it was found a short distance upstream from the bridge made this a difficult story to believe.

When Felix Jr. went home to his boarding house he apparently hid in a shed until dark so that blood on his clothing would not be seen.  This did not work out as planned, and he had to try to explain his disheveled state and the bloodstains.  He said variously that he'd been involved in a horse and wagon runaway or in a fight with his father.  

Oddly he did not want the 17 year old servant girl to help with any clean up.  The next morning he bought some cleaning solution at the drug store and asked his land lady for help.....

When Fourboul Sr. was reported missing and foul play suspected, Jr. was arrested.  Eventually he pled guilty to theft of the money and was released.

His boarding house still stands at 124 South Rural Street, just a short walk from where his father's body was eventually pulled from the river.

If you are catching up Here's part One

Next time:  The Arrest