The current crop of students has talent. That's good, but also makes our job harder. After three afternoon sessions they are about where we figured they would be at the five day mark. So, we make the challenges harder. A quick report from each of the three sub teams.
Software
We will have near total turnover on the software side of 5826, so this is key. They were started out with little robots, these guys have very similar programming parameters to the big stuff. You can tell this is not a Builder, we don't go in for open toed footwear as there are plenty of aluminum shards flying around!
It's a little hard to "show" what they are doing, but in addition to the standard programming curriculum they are working on our big project for robot school By the end of next week we hope to have a robot that can detect colors, drive to the correct color box (as designated by audience) grab the box and bring it to a designated unloading zone. All autonomously of course.
Media/PR
Two video projects underway. One is a promo video for business leaders who are worried about where they will find future employees with skills and work ethic. The second video is more specific. It will record our past headaches with belt drive systems and our current efforts to improve. It's for a engineering firm that makes conveyor belts. They'll show it to their engineers and no doubt quite a few suggestions, and maybe some sample materials, will be forth coming. Everything jammed up again...
Build
3D modeling software work has been outstanding. Actual useful parts are being designed and printed....by kids who learned the program in the last 72 hours. We also had some of them do the classic exercise of retro engineering a Lego. This is harder than it looks. I did this one when I took a class at Tech school Mine did not turn out this well, and it took me way longer. "Click"!
We currently have two robots active. The previous competition machine and another for use as a test bed. That's the one we will be modifying to grab boxes. Here it is. And the boxes, too.
We are also building a third robot. This will feature some very exotic drive units called swerve drive. It allows movement in all directions. We have gotten progressivly better at custom frame building using aluminum tubing. One key is shown here. Wrap a tie down strap around it to hold it super snug before riveting it together.
Quite a bit more is also going on. We are gaining abilities with sprockets and chain drive. They've had to trouble shoot and repair the old robot, which is showing its age these days. We've had teaching sessions on material science and on fastener methods. And a daily snack challenge. As in 2019 the rules are: solve the challenge or the instructors get all the snacks. A recent challenge was to tell us the weight of a cylinder 1.5 inches wide and 4 inches long, if it were made of different materials. Lead, brass, aluminum, granite, bamboo. They got them all, mostly by modeling the shape in software and swapping out various materials. The modeling program then tells you the weight, center of gravity and all sorts of other information.
I'll try to post once more after our final session in a week. It's an open house and we hope to have our videos premier and to have the build and software teams come together to make our box collecting robot work.
Outstanding, amigo. Any local SJWs making your job more difficult? I sincerely hope not. Keeping kids motivated is tough enough without external nonsense about entitlement. Good luck.
ReplyDeleteFIRST robotics is an area where people of assorted political inclinations come together and work well. There's a bit of required training to be a District volunteer or coach, and it had a bit of the current nonsense baked in. But there was actually some merit to it. It shows you where the minefields are.
ReplyDeleteMy fellow coaches of the progressive sort probably see public education as being under funded and not able to dish up what is in effect a free AP Engineering program. Those of us on the more conservative end see the schools as being distracted by things not central to actually learning things, and that it is more a matter of not using available resources well. These are both valid perspectives and are compatible.
We work very hard to recruit girls to the team. Frankly this makes the team stronger. We also aim for diversity in other areas, and I'd say reflect our community accurately.
FIRST is practically speaking a prototype of an engineering firm. Various divisions (software, mechanical, admin), budgets, HR issues, deadlines. We get them ready to step up to that world. This is a world where the math is color blind and where the right answer matters. It is also a world where we should try to get along and be civil in both the personal and community senses of the word.
Teach kids to think straight and they generally make wise decisions later in life.
TW