FIRST Robotics 2025 - End of Season Left Overs

I take a lot of pictures during the robotics campaign.  Some are good, some lousy, some I can't even remember why I took 'em.  Here's a random batch....

Robot mascots.  Always fun.  This giant robot seems pretty happy go lucky.

These guys not so much.  But I do like the giant shoes and the fake cardboard "abs" on them.  

The Hammer of Persuasion.  In this fancier age where most of the holes are made with a computer operated precision cnc machine it's mostly for show now.

I probably showed these little protective caps before.  They served us well.  In one match a hard game piece fell about six feet and bounced off of this instead of clobbering the delicate electronics underneath.  Time and a few precious ounces well spent.

The first event really wiped me out.  Days on end with pulsing strobe lights and pounding music.  And at that one I actually had to think too, being a Judge and all.  For the second event just light hearted field reset.  Had my headphones on a lot and closed my eyes sometimes.  Here's the light show....and this was before the event even started!

Ouch.

Next up, we tidy up the shop and put the robot to bed for a while.  Not a long while though, we have lots of outreach and sponsor visits to attend to.  Stay tuned.

History Underfoot

A fun talk for the local community ed program.  History Underfoot looks at how archaeology can help us fill in the gaps in historical information...and sometimes correct errors.  I enjoyed dusting off artifacts and documentation from digs many years ago...

Whiskey flasks with eagles, flags and prospectors...

Doorknobs, marked bricks, crockery, assorted metal bits and bobs...

And china dolls.  Complete with moveable, now removed, creepy eyes....

Watching you..........

Oxymoron

Put this in the category of words that surprise me.  Oxymoron is a term somewhat in decline.  It is in some ways a more polite age.  Referring to someone as a moron is considered bad manners.  Except in heated political discussions of course.

But it got me wondering.  What does oxygen have to do with morons?  No, not like this....

The term refers to a seeming contradiction.  Pick your own examples but the one that got me pondering this was "political science".  Politics has plenty of emotion and conniving.  Science?  Not so much.

So here's the story.

Oxymoron is a surprisingly old word (1650's) and is an example of itself!  It comes to us by the combination of two Greek words, oxys and moros.  Moros of course means "stupid".  It has survived intact from ancient times with the occasional flourish such as Bugs Bunny's Bronxian euphemism "What a Maroon".  

Oxys means sharp.  So combining Sharp and Dull in one word creates the implicit contradiction that defines an oxymoron.

So where does oxygen come into all this?

It actually wandered in late.  Once chemistry emerged from the mystical alchemy days there was quite the effort to define and explain things.  A couple of chemists discovered oxygen at about the same time in the late 1770's, with a Joseph Priestly referring to it as "dephlogisticated air".  Phlogiston was a hypothetical fire-like substance felt to be present in matter.  It all dates back to the Ancient Greeks who had this notion of the universe being made of earth, wind, fire....and water.   Priestly and company had not quite shaken off the Alchemist era I guess.

A Frenchman named Antoine Levasseur proposed the alternate name Oxygen.  He believed that this new stuff was essential in the formation of all acidic compounds.  Oxys as it happens had alternate meanings to the Greeks.  Sharp, sour, acidic all in one word.  One must assume they had a few amphorae of wine go bad on them.

The people who had started using oxymoron over a century earlier had no concept of oxygen at all.

So go ahead, use oxymoron any way you like.  It can mean Sharp/Stupid or Sour/Stupid.  The latter is more common in all ages of history but the former a more useful rhetorical device.

By the way, Priestly's biography is pretty wild stuff.  Invented carbonated water and helped found Unitarianism.  Supported French and American Revolutions.  A mob burned down his house house in England and he had to flee to America.  

FIRST Robotics 2025 - End of Season

As I've mentioned, our robotics season has had some challenges.  The kids probably bit off more than they could chew regards mechanical and software complexity, resulting in a 3-6 record at our first event.  On the positive side of the ledger, the sheer audacity of what they were attempting was recognized with a special Judge's Award.

In the following weeks the team worked very hard, even over spring break, and basically solved all the technical issues.  We went into the second event feeling quite a bit more confident.

Snazzy lookin' robot and custom designed and fabricated control board.  

And the robot delivered.

That's us lined up in the far position.  This was before our last match.  We'd made it through the qualification rounds with a 7-2 record, best in team history.  As the number 4 alliance captain we picked two other robots that complimented our abilities.  We won our first match, but went up against the number 1 alliance in the second round.  The better team won.  In a double elimination format it is two and out.  Alas.......for this all important match one of our alliance partners broke down with no time to repair.  A fill in from the available robots was hastily thrown out there.......and also broke.  Yep.  The robot in the foreground stayed in that spot the entire match.  At this level of competition you can't win with 2 vs 3.  

I had a perfect seat for the whole show.  Field reset is a fun gig.  Kick back, watch the action, then go our and replace those pipes and dodge balls where they belong.  I was working with fun people.

Yes, a few of the game pieces got clobbered by high speed interactions with robots.....

There are lots of fun matches to go back and watch.  Maybe we liked this one the most.  The second year in a row where we defeated the number one ranked robot.  Perhaps we enjoyed doing this just a little too much?  And for the second year in a row?  Nah, we also won the Gracious Professionalism award....for the second year in a row.  Grace in adversity and class in victory....

In watching the video you don't really have to understand the rules.  Suffice to say we are in blue bumpers with number 5826, and are variously referred to a Avis or Avis Automata.

FIRST Robotics 2025 - Going pretty well...

A full day of field reset duties at the FIRST robotics tournament.  I learned some things from my previous arena side gig up at Duluth....the noise, strobe lights, general excitement in the air can be very tiring.  So....

Hearing protection.  Necessary as my station is right in front of a big speaker.  Not shown, comfortable shoes and a full water bottle.  Feeling far more human.

The team is doing rather well at the moment.  Here's a nice match from late in the day:

More robot stuff tomorrow, but it will likely be Monday before I can post more updates.

Tournament Time. Again.

Just finished up our practice day at the second robotics tournament.  We are down in Lacrosse, one of our favorite places to compete.

The robot is happier, and should do better than last time.  It's solid and the programmers have dialed things in better.

My view of things is different this time.  I'm volunteering as Field Reset, a job that basically involved collecting up all the game pieces the robots have put here and there - on purpose or by accident - and getting them back in the right spots to start another match.

Here's a few pictures of our day.  

This is the field from way up high, before the action starts.

Here's ground level.  The game pieces are those big green bouncy balls and those hard PVC pipe sections.

Sometimes the robots have issues.  The stray parts found on the field are put in this box.

And here's the team set up for a practice match.

How will we do tomorrow when the real matches begin?

Multifunctional Robot

Just a day or so before it is robot tournament time again.  Complicating things is a blizzard that will roar through right in the time window we need to travel.  Late season blizzards, yuck.

We've gotten the robot as ready as can be:

It's been a long haul this season.  We've never attempted a robot with this level of automation on board.  When it works, it is quite something to see.  A bit scary to be honest, it slams those game pieces down with a degree of emphasis that borders on brutality.

Hope nothing jogs loose on the slow, slippery road to Lacrosse.....