FIRST Robotics - 2023 Week One Report (Getting Serious)

This year's Challenge has similarities to prior "pick and place" games.  In fact, our team might be a bit ahead of the curve as we have done some fairly ridiculous things in the past that have now become relevant.  Mr. Clamps grabbed big boxes.  Our 2020 robot had an auto leveling function.  Last year's Hank the Tank had an elevator and intake flipper mechanism even though there was no good reason for going this route.  And The Year of the Vacuum Bot....of that we will not speak other than to say we have built a multi articulated arm that can handle two different objects.

By Thursday we had a design:

And we have swerve drive, well, swerving....

That of course is just a temporary wood frame.  The goat, well that's complicated.

In our four sessions per week mode about half the actual work gets done on Saturday.  We get the kids for 6 hours instead of maybe 2.5.  And they are in theory rested, not dragging in after a school day.  For a team that in years prior has been between 20 and 25 students it was remarkable to have 34 students and 10 adults on hand.  Lots of hands getting lots of things done.

With the drive system now coming along very nicely it was time to build the competition frame.  In the early days of the team we worked in an old three story building.  Our goal was to build strong enough that we could drive the robot off the roof, hit the ground and keep going.

Not quite there yet....

OK, factor in these outside steel gussets, also the solid spacers inside the frame, and when we add a steel base plate and bolt the solid aluminum mounting plates for the drive modules....yep, that's about three stories tough...

The game this year involves grabbing things.  One lightweight and a bit fragile, one heavier, tough but a weird shape and slippery.  Our team prototyping this has gone through three versions to date, and has ideas for several more.  Here's a lateral slide pneumatic grabber:

This particular geometry was not ideal but gave the team ideas for the next iteration.  

The grabber will be mounted on an articulated arm as seen in the initial sketch.  Suggestions from our mechanical design gurus prompted a switch away from a Big Ol' Gearmotor based system to one that runs with electrically powered linear actuators.  Here's the test bed.  The tape marks are the various pick up and drop off zones.

Lots of things could happen.  Heck, will happen.  But with a solid drive base under us we can start driver's training in a week or so.  And we have at least proof of concept on our other major systems.  Of course there is a ton of software and sensor work ahead.  And even for the things that look to be figured out the Devil resides at his usual address.

Winged Vandals of Wisconsin

Fanciful paintings depicting the Fall of Rome often show barbarians toppling ancient columns.

It appears something similar is happening today.  Check out these holes in the tops of the porch support columns.

And a few blocks over, another example.

What gives?

Here's the culprit:

Yep, woodpeckers.  I've seen them hammering away at these columns presumably in search of bugs.  So what puts the idea into their little bird brains? 

There is a fair bit of speculation on this matter.  Obviously the tree like shape of the pillars sets off some kind of trigger for them.  Usually, but not always, this is seen on older houses where peeling paint might look like the openings to worm holes.  In some instances maybe there actually are say, ants living in there.  There is speculation that the faint hum of  electrical hookups makes some houses faintly vibrate in a fashion that gets their hopes up.  In the winter months there would be few if any actual insects moving about in there.

My own theory?  Bang your head against something hard thousands of times a day and you have the Mother of all Concussions.  Note the blank stare of the Feathered Vandal pictured above.

Joseph Fortier

I had not intended giving Joseph Fortier his own article, in some ways he belongs in my "everyone else" category that you'll see in a week or so.  But I found his story interesting.

His ads tend to be smaller and less decorative than some of his competitors.  But they contain some useful information.  As it says, he started his store in 1875.  In fact there is mention of his building an addition for this in July of that year.  But by November he moved off of Central street and over to Spring as it says into "Hinckley's Old Stand".  Or technically Goddard's although he'd only owned it a short time.  1875 was a confusing year in the tale of Chippewa Falls pharmacies.

He did not stay in the drug store trade very long.  By February of 1877 a firm called H. Bosworth and Sons took possession of the establishment.  These guys were not local, being instead a wholesale drug company based in Milwaukee.  Perhaps Fortier ran up too big a bill with them?  Or perhaps they were backing him as we have seen in the O.C. Thomas story.

Both before and after his few years as a druggist Fortier was an interesting guy.  He was a physician who came to town in 1871.  In 1874 he was one of the five founding members of the Chippewa Falls Medical Society.   In 1878 be briefly moved to the rough and tumble town of Deadwood, Dakota Territory.  By the early 1880's he was back and confining himself to medical duties.

The story of early hospitals in Chippewa Falls is a bit out of the scope of my survey of early druggists but it is worth noting that in 1888 he and another physician named Dr. J. Hund started the Chippewa Falls Hospital and Benefit Society.  This was a subscription service - think of it being like an HMO - where members had to buy a ticket.  It was based in the building of St. Luke's Hospital.

In 1893 Fortier moved to Chicago.  Sometime later he moved again, to practice medicine in West Superior Wisconsin.  He died there of "apoplexy".  His obituary says he was born in Montreal, got his MD at age 21 and practiced continuously unit his death at age 62.  He was said to have been a Civil War Army surgeon and to have left a 9 year old son.

FIRST Robotics - Ready or Not.....

Five months of pre-season prep.  It's never enough.

Saturday was our Kick off for the 2023 season.  We hosted a gathering of our team and two other "neighbors" to watch the big reveal video.

We had something in excess of 60 people on hand.  Current students, alumni of several teams, coaches, parents, a few kid siblings.  They needed feeding so we had Venisonfest 2.0.

Much time was spent in small groups discussing rules and design options.  It was interesting to mix members of the teams for this.  With five groups working we had to hijack every white board on the premises.

I'm not sure why mascot costumes fascinate me but it is just how it is.  I guess I'm not alone in this.  Various parts of the 5826 costume were being worn for no darn reason at all.

Oh, this year's challenge.  As it is not my job to figure this out I have not actually read the detailed rules yet but here is the reveal video for a general overview.

 Expect weekly FIRST robotics updates for the next three months.  

Reaching for the Brass Ring

On my dad's side of the family they were all farmers.  Certainly back in the Old Country and on into their days in Minnesota.  As I've mentioned in past bits of family history they immigrated so early that when they turned up it was still a Territory, and that they had to skedaddle at the time of the Sioux Uprising.

Life on the farm changes, but slowly.  My memories of going there as a small person center around the brick farm house - built in the 1870's - and the gigantic barn, parts of which went back to the Civil War era.

Just inside the front door of the barn was a special area set aside for bulls.  They were kept away from the rank and file milking cows.

I remember that they had brass colored rings in their noses.  I was told that in a pinch you could grab this and make the bull - within certain parameters - do what you wanted him to do.  I on occasion would reach up, grab hold of the ring and look Mr. Bull right in the eye.  His return glance was not friendly.  It gave me an odd sense of power wielded precariously. 

Before the farm was sold my brother and I, with assorted sons in tow, went to clean out scrap metal.  The kids helped with the work.  Then they got the money when we hauled it to the recycling yard.  Mostly it was tons of steel and iron, but here and there were bits of "the good stuff".  Bronze, aluminum, etc.

And there were even a few artifacts worth keeping.  Recently when doing a bit of New Year inspired tidying up I found this:

Absolutely one of the bull nose rings.  They are sturdy things with a hefty set screw holding them together.  When the ring is opened the exposed ends are pretty sharp.  This gives you a general idea of how they were put into the bull's nose but it is best not to ponder details.

In my mind "reaching for the brass ring" has always been linked to the little vignette I've just described.  But actually this is not so.  In oldy times merry go 'rounds would sometimes have a ring grab station so that riders in the outer tier of horsies could reach out and grab a ring as they went past.  Most were iron but a few would be brass and would get you a small prize.  Or maybe just another ride on the carousel.

Woke Fantasies Streaming Forth

You should hold political beliefs that are in accord with how you see the world.  I'll do the same.  Discussion is often interesting and a way to expand one's viewpoint.  But argument never really changes minds and is not a productive use of time.  This general approach means that I  appreciate perspectives different from my own, and while I might consider them curious or perhaps even misguided I don't regard them as "invalid".  

I guess that is at the core of what has come to be called "woke".  As the term has increasingly been used in a derisive sense even my Progressive friends seem to be using it less.  But the concept - that if you are a heteronormative person of a particular pigmentation and chromosomal makeup you de facto CANNOT have a valid perspective on some questions - remains.  For our culture this is unfortunate.

This has increasingly been seen in popular entertainment.  

To be clear there is merit in looking at under represented groups and cultures of current and past society.  And even in recasting roles from Greek theater or Shakespeare or the Marvel Comic Book universe with different sorts of actors.  But all such efforts are ultimately judged by box office receipts, and increasingly, when these are just poorly done, over messaged dog's breakfasts, they lose money.  You can lecture people on how you think the world should be, but it only works if you can get them into the theater seats.

This is all a leadup to my opinions on a couple of Fantasy series now on streaming.  Amazon spent something like a billion dollars creating a Lord of the Rings prequel called "The Rings of Power".  And Netflix just came out with something called "The Witcher - Blood Origin", a prequelish sort of entry that expands their interesting "Witcher" series.  Originally this was from Polish source material and starred the very watchable Henry Cavill.

It's winter and I'm a bit under employed, so I tried to wade through both of these series and in each case stalled out after a few episodes.  They have things in common.

1. Fantastic visuals.  The CGI, makeup, and general production values are astonishing even on my small screen.

2. A loose connection with their successful predecessors.  Amazon did not get straight up rights to Tolkien's pre-LOTR works, just a general go ahead to use some characters and concepts.  Their writers are not in the same universe as JRR Tolkien, and do not even approach the lesser but still notable talents of Peter Jackson.  And as to the Witcher prequel it was apparently so bad that Cavill took a look and decided he was done with the franchise when his current contract ran out.

3. Both put Diversity over Coherence.

In a fantasy production you get latitude.  But you just can't get away with tiny female warriors wielding swords, axes and miscellaneous weaponry with such kinetic energy that both their beefy male opponents and the laws of physics are immediately destroyed.  We have limits to how far our disbelief can be suspended.  A four foot tall female dwarf swinging a war hammer that would - were it were not an obvious Styrofoam prop - be about half her actual mass goes too far.

I'm vaguely aware of the concept of Intersectionality.  It more or less establishes a hierarchy of sorts.  "Intersectionality identifies multiple factors of advantage and disadvantage."  Practically speaking this determines who you can cast as Good or Bad characters.  If you mess this up you will be Cancelled, or as they used to say "Never work in this town again".

In the Fantasy genre this seems to mean the following:

All female characters may be flawed, but are always Good and Implausibly Capable.  In the modern era it is necessary to have at least one Gay couple in your script.  Characters of Asian heritage should be sprinkled here and there and it is still OK to have them in stereotypical roles such as martial arts/swordspersons.  This is less a Woke thing than a tug of the forelock to the all important Chinese market.  Black characters have been emphasized for so long that it is now considered acceptable to have them be either Good or Evil.  I call this the President Morgan Freeman Rule. Most really evil parts of course still go to White Men 'cause reasons.

To this latter point I was fascinated to note one actor who appears in both of the aforementioned productions.  A certain Lenny Henry is a wise Hobbit in The Rings of Power:

And he turns up as the main bad guy - at least in the first couple of eps - in the Witcher.  He's an elf this time.  Maybe he actually has pointy ears?

The fancy bling and the dark lighting were early clues as to his nature.  He's actually a good actor.  I'm glad he's finding work.

So my reviews of Rings of Power and Witcher - Blood Origin?  I can only base this on the episodes I saw before deciding to let them go on without me.   

Rings of Power is a complicated mess.  Too many characters, too many concurrent plots, and just enough connection to the beloved LOTR trilogy to be confusing.  Fabulous visuals notwithstanding I give it a pass.

The Witcher - Blood Origin does not have the same baggage of preconception, and keeps a simpler plot line.  It is also slightly tongue in cheek from the giddyup, the introductory sequence has a bard straight up saying "Oh, heroes uniting to defeat Evil?  Boring.  It's been done too often".  It then goes forward and tries to subvert the negative expectation.  It also has Michelle Yeoh who is playing a character way, way out in Mary Sue range.  She can perceive foes coming up behind her and smite them fatal blows behind her back without looking or even paying attention.  This would be, and in fact is, quite ludicrous but I give her a pass from her amazing tour de force in the recent "Everything Everywhere All at Once" where she becomes a character literally able to do anything specifically because she is in real life a person who does nothing competently!  She seems to be having fun in everything she acts in.

Just for the "Hot Dog Fingers" alternate Universe I'd give Ms. Yeoh a pass for a half dozen lesser efforts!

93 Million Miles.....

That's how far the earth travels in its orbit around the Sun.  Guess I'm feeling youthful for my age, because even with its occasional tough spots 2022 did not seem as if I were putting more than, oh maybe two or three million on the odometer.

The grandkids grew.  Physically of course but even more impressively grew in sophistication and general smarts.  I am with regret retiring most of my "Naughty Grandpa" schtick.  I can tell when they are humoring me.  First Little League game, first occasion to dance at a wedding and other milestones.  It is no longer possible to fool them by spelling things out, they've cracked that code.

Back to international travel.  A very nice month of archaeology in the UK and a bonus trip to Canada.  

Robotics takes up a fair chunk of time, especially in the winter months.  The 2021/22 season we were in "survival mode" due to assorted challenges.  Mostly but not entirely the tail end of Covid.  For the 2022/23 season we are resurgent with our biggest and I believe best team ever.  

So what's ahead for the new year?

January through March - lots of robot stuff.

April - a reset month but for diversions I'll be giving community ed programs on Roman archaeology, a definitive history of local movie theaters, and what I anticipate being a slightly off color survey of Obelisks around the world.

May - two weeks in the UK.  Alas I could not swing an entire month this year but it looks as if most of the notorious "Anaerobes" group will be there.

June through August - summertime and the livin' should be easy.  A family reunion, on our turf this time.  Baseball games and fishing.

Fall - robotics powers up again.  I've agreed to move our summer Robot School program into the fall after school format.  As FIRST robotics teams in general have to work to find quality recruits we are fortunate to have a Perpetual Motion Recruiting Machine.  Besides, its fun.  Also besides, I'm no longer even borderline capable with the technology of the high school FIRST program! 2023 should be the year I step back and mostly run "the farm system".

I'm planning on trying my hand at bow hunting next deer season.  I will have an opportunity to beachcomb for fossil shark's teeth.  I expect to make it to another birthday - the odds are good, its pretty soon - but despite growing old I intend to continue to resist growing up.

Happy New Year all.