News from team 1151

03.21.2004/Sun - The Hitchhikers gave an impressive performance at the Sacramento Regional, seeding 9th out of 32 teams. The robot met expectations, successfully pulling up on the 10-ft bar several times. In the elimination rounds, 1151 captained the 6th-seed alliance, choosing teams 1425 (Wilsonville Robotics from Wilsonville, OR) and 833 (HPA Robotics from Kamuela, HI). The alliance put up a great effort, but unfortunately lost to the 3rd-seed alliance.

On Friday, the team received Sacramento Regional's Xerox Creativity Award for the second year in a row for our twin PVC-pipe arms, 24" wheeled drivetrain, and completely modular design. This is a tremendous accomplishment for a second-year team.

And, congratulations to our sister team De Anza Robotics (DART, team 481), who won the Regional Chairman's Award, the highest honor FIRST bestows.

03.07.2004/Sun - The team returns from Portland's Pacific Northwest Regional with the Engineering Inspiration Award, the second-highest award FIRST gives. The award honors success in advancing respect, appreciation, and interest in the school and community. Criteria includes inventiveness of team's efforts to recruit students to engineering, the extent and effectiveness of community outreach efforts, and the measurable success of those efforts. This award officially qualifies the team to compete in the Championship Event in Atlanta, Georgia in April.

01.10.2004/Sat - Kickoff today in San Jose revealed this year's game: FIRST FRENZY--Raising the Bar. Robots play 2 vs 2 to herd 13" playground balls to human players, who must shoot them into one of the alliance's two goals made of PVC pipe. Each regular ball in the goal counts for 5 pts. Special bonus balls (0worth 10 pts if in goal) lie on ball-tees outside the middle of the playing field. Removing these balls from the tee during a 15-second autonomous robot mode will immediately release eighteen 5-pt balls onto the field; otherwise, the 5-pt balls will be released 45 seconds into the match. One goal is stationary on a raised 6" platform in the middle of the field, while the other is movable, beginning each match on the sides of the center platform. There are three 2x-multiplier balls, one on each movable goal and one on top of the center platform, that doubles the score of any goal which they cap at the end of the match. At the center of the field is a 10-foot high bar on which robots can pull themselves onto at the end of the match for 50 pts each. Matches are 2 minutes in length.

11.01.2003/Mon - Yesterday (Friday, 31st) Shawn (Captain) and Mr. Murphy (Lead Mentor) gave a presentation to the Berkeley Breakfast Club (BBC) courtesy of Tom Carson. The talk went exceptionally well, ending in a robot demonstration. Several interested audience members came by afterwards to ask questions or simply congratulate the speakers and many brochures were also given out. This talk could provide us with some important connections.

10.30.2003/Thu - Amazing news, 2 out of the 3 Ed Fund Grants were awarded, giving the team $2000 for competition and drive train experimentation. We have also heard news that the Ed Fund is planning to free up funds specifically aimed at robotics. We are now looking at $3000 more we need for registration, hopefully this will be brought in from sponsorship.

09.22.2003/Mon - Our team came in 7th out of 23 teams at last weekend's CalGames competition, the highest of any rookie team. We also pulled in 3 awards (rookie participation, highest seeded rookie, 1st place human player challenge).

09.17.2003/Wed - Yesterday (Tuesday, 16th), the Mechanical team nearly finished reassembling the robot and we drove it for the first time in at least a week at about 6:30 PM.

Today the team went down to de Anza High School (Team 481) to test drive the robot and calibrate the autonomous code on their field. We got a late start, showing up over an hour late, but used the remaining time relatively well, adjusting the code until we reliably drove up the center of the ramp. The team has plans to go to de Anza again tomorrow (Thursday, 18th) to perfect the autonomous code and get more driving practice.

Students who did not go to De Anza (only four of us fit in Murphy's car), helped to promote the team at MCHS's "Back to School Night" where fliers about our team and the CalGames were given out to interested parents and students.

09.15.2003/Mon - On Saturday (13th), a contingent of Hitchhikers drove down to Woodside High School to attend the CalGames orientation, and scope out the area in preparation for this Saturday's Competition. We are now aquatinted with the layout of the event and are prepared to run the Robot-Sumo competition -- the task our team volunteered to supervise. Rules to side events and other exact details are still unknown at this time.

There are two more meetings before CalGames. The team plans to finish a few robot mods, practice human player challenge, practice driving, integrate and update programming, and making an appearance at the MCHS Back to School Night. After the competition, the team will be focusing efforts on making robot presentable to past and future sponsors as well as attempting alternative mods (like pneumatic arms and gyroscopic sensors) for future reference.

09.09.2003/Tue - Sunday our newest website came online and today is the first update. Content has been added and under construction pages filled. On the mechanical front, we finally got our robot into driveable condition today and are working on our finishing touches for CalGames on the 20th (Sat). Wish us luck.