Sure, We Can Build That - FIRST Robotics 2020 1.0 report.

(The first of assorted reports on the 2020 FIRST robotics season.  The 1.0 means week one of the season.  If there happen to be multiple updates in a week we might end up with things like 2.1 or some such.  It's hard to know what will be worthy of reporting and when.)

I led a contingent over to Minneapolis to attend the big Kickoff Nerdfest at Northrup Auditorium.  

This year's "game" was announced.  It involves various things a robot will have to do. Pick up yellow foam balls and deliver them to targets of varying difficulty.  Engage and spin a sort of "Wheel of Fortune" device to either turn it a designated number of rotations or make it land on a specific color.  (At FIRST tournaments you do see mascots and cheerleaders in all manner of crazy getups....will we see a few Vanna Whites?).  Here's the "reveal" video.

And the end game is to grab an elevated teeter totter and not only lift your robot off the ground but keep the bar level when multiple robots are hanging on it.  OK.  Not exactly what I had predicted.  In fact I'm giving myself a provisional "F" on this year's prediction but we did have three students - one a senior and two 8th grade rookies - that got enough details spot on to earn an "A".  Our team facebook page is worth a regular look btw, we hope for multiple updates and video each week.  You can see me go on record as being wrong, wrong, wrong on December 16th. 

Below is part of an ongoing series of brainstorming sessions.  The entire group of attendees (about 18 students) would meet, break up into three subgroups, come back together and present/react to ideas.  

Several observations.

I stayed out of this process mostly, it's their team, their robot.  So I was sometimes upstairs stowing gear for the process.  It was very encouraging to hear rounds of applause coming up the stairs.  This is a new thing this season and I like it.

Note the odd phenomena of young people who are happy to walk around outside in January wearing thin shirts but keep coats on when indoors.  This I do not understand.

They managed to break a white board.  I prefer to think of this not as an ill omen but as being akin to smashing a bottle of bubbly on the prow of a newly launched ship!

After six hours of this everyone was dogged.  I think 75% of the priorities are settled, pending the outcome of 48 hours to reflect before we meet again.  What they are proposing looks audacious....yet not too far beyond things we have managed in prior seasons.

So....can they build it?

They say yes.

Oh, and this year it's all metric, baby.

Updates on a schedule predicated on the unpredictable nature of things...