Sertiney Carter

Game Review:

The pole is around 14 inches off the ground.

We can carry two game pieces at once.

During the end game, it is 20 points if we can hang our robot from the poles. 

A motif of the same or different colors with 3 pillars gets extra points. 

Our robot will have a paper airplane that can only be used for endgame, the closer we get it to the wall outside of the arena, the more points we earn.

Question- Will the paper airplane be with us throughout the entire game or will it be put in during endgame? 

Answer- The paper airplane will be with us for the entire game but only used in endgame. 

Game Manuals 1 & 2: 

2023-2024 FIRST® Tech Challenge Game Manual Part 1 – Traditional Events 

2023-2024 FIRST® Tech Challenge Game Manual Part 2 – Game Specific 

Pg 53 for types of rewards, manual 1.

Pg 71 for field.

10 Ideas:

1. A shovel in front of the robot to move one of the pillars, that way we do not have to carry both in the claw.

2. We're going to make the team prompt related to our team name, like a treasure chest or a sea shell.

3. How are we going to save space while having a large/ big claw? 

4. Where is the hook going to be on the claw to hang from the bar?

5. We need to make sure our robot is small enough to fit under the bars so we don't waste time trying to go around them or lifting the middle bar.

6. We need to program an effective autonomous, and find a way to do the most in such a short time, how do we accomplish that?

7. How will we effectively launch the drone and have it stay on the robot when we can't use anything to hold it down?

8. What are some ways we can use the camera during the game?

9. Can we take the airplane off of the robot and put it to the side of the arena until we are ready to use it or does it have to stay on our robot the entire time?

10. What will we use to launch the paper airplane?

Scoring Strategy:

Autonomous

• Depending on what team we are on, if we decide to be on row two the plan will be to use the sensor that is on our robot to see where our Team Prop is. After we correctly place our purple pixel we will move to where the board is and place the yellow pixel on the backdrop. My team's plan will be to make a robot small/short enough to go under the poles so it won't get stuck.

FTC Test Bed:

The Slim Battery is the battery we will be using for our robot.

Control Hub is where all of our sensors and motors will be hooked up so it gets our commands of what to do.

Color Sensor V2 is what we use to see what colors are around us, and can program it, so in autonomous if we are looking to get more pixels we can program it to pick up a certain color.

The motors are to help command what way the robot is going.

Touch Sensor is used to make the robot stop when it is pressed on.

FTC Design:

https://sites.google.com/midlandisd.net/the-mcqueens/home/engineering-2023-24/design

Engineering Notes 9/26/2023:

Today I worked on putting the motors on the robot, we had to adjust the wheels on the robot as the motors were too close to each other, so when we couldn't plug in the wires one didn't fit because there was not enough space for it. After that, I worked on the shovel that we put in front of the robot to move a pixel around so we don't have to carry both on our claw. I assigned Hannah to help me with the motor problem, which I mentioned earlier. She also helped me with the claw by hot-gluing the sides onto the shovel. One of our teammates, Allison, was absent. Our other teammate, Emily was stolen from us to help with the build of the field, by our teacher, Mr.Newman.

Engineering Notes 9/28/2023:

Today I worked on figuring out how to make the arm and where to put it on the robot, did not really get far. I attached two rods on the robot's base that were in the middle, next class, I plan on seeing if I can get/make the arm on it.  Got distracted with the media side of the competition. Helped with the final product of the T-shirt design. I also looked up a motor that could move the claw in all directions so it would be easier to control, I did not find what I was looking for. I instructed my teammate, Hannah, to work on the T-shirt design and send it to our teacher when it was ready so we could have the shirts in time for the competition.  I had Allison work on the sticker design so we could pass those out at the competition, and Emily worked on finding ocean-related treats to put in the goodie bag.

Engineering Notes 10/02/2023:

Today I worked on attaching the motor and gears that we would be using to lift the robot, and the black thin square things to the robot for the battery (which I put velcro on to make it stick to it), and the drive hud. We came across a problem when my teammate Hannah, who helped me with the robot, tried to put the drive hud on, as it could not attach as we put the thin black square thing on the wrong way, and before we could fix it class ended. Lastly, before we left for the day we attached the power switch to the side of the robot. I had Emily and Allison work the team prompt, the blue and red treasure chests. The treasure chests are going to be made out of popsicle sticks that were cut to be 3.5 inches, so they are within the rules of the game. They finished by cutting all the popsicle sticks to the desired size and started to glue them together with hot glue. (Pics of what I worked on)

Engineering Notes 10/04/2023:

Today I worked on putting the drive hub on the robot, we moved it so it would lay flat on the robot's base. Me and Hannah also worked on keeping the robot within the correct size, because when we measured it, it was a lot bigger/longer than it was supposed to be. So to help fix the size one of the things we did was take off the shovel, remove the rodes that were in front of the robot and put them under it, however before we attached them we switched them out for rodes that were longer so they would keep the pixels from going under the robot. I told Allison and Emily to continue to work on the treasure chests, they got as far as sanding the popsicle sticks down, gluing them together, and painting them blue and red. Hannah and I stayed after school today to finish putting the new rode on the back of the robot however we put it on the wrong way, so we will fix that next class, we then started to put the sides of the treasure chests together when we put the black foam on the bottom to keep it from collapsing, but that's when I noticed that one of the width were less than 3 inches so we are going to have to remake them.

Engineering Notes/Scrimmage- 10/12/2023: 

Today was the scrimmage, and our team got 4th place, our arm was not really working that well and we had trouble pushing the pixel because there were no sides to hold it when the robot turned, by the 3rd round we got an autonomous which really helped our score, most of our alliances did not really have much on their robot. Our team learned a lot like we could not have the power on the side of the robot because there's a chance that another robot might run into it. When we go back to school we need to fix the motor on the right side of the robot, change the claw (had a hard time picking up a pixel), add sides to the shovel, etc. 

Engineering Notes 10/16/2023:

Today Hannah and I worked on switching the wheels, we also decided to take the gear off of the motors and just attach the wheel itself to the motor with little in-between so we could have more control and speed. This made our robot uneven, and at an angle but it is ok because it does not look bad. We also decided to move both the motors from the front of the robot and the shovel back so the size would not be too big, however, it also made the front of the robot have sharp points, which is a problem because with the rules we might not be able to play because it could damage other robots and the field, so we will have to fix that as well. I gave Allison the job to work on the thing the drone will be launched off of, and Emily to work on the drone itself and see what design works best. 

Engineering Notes 10/18/2023:

Today I worked on the drone launcher, I made it kinda of work, the first rubber band broke because it was too small and I was pulling it too far so I ended up using the bigger size. I used the servo to release the rubber band but it kept getting caught on the rodes, so I'm going to have to change the design on it. Hannah worked on redoing the shovel as the pixels would slide under it now that the robot was at an angle, after Hannah was done with the shovel she began to work on the hook that our robot would be hanging from. Emily made paper airplanes in different styles in a bigger size this time, Allison did not do much today, however, she did get the paper that Emily needed for the planes. Hannah and I still haven't fixed the front of the robot problem (the rodes sticking out and being sharp) we plan to do that next class.

Engineering Notes 10/20/2023: 

Today I worked on putting the servo on the attachment for the drone launcher, we still have to program it, and after we finish the program we should be able to adjust the drone launcher accordingly. Hannah was in charge of making a hook and connecting it to the robot, however, she had a little bit of trouble because the motor for the claw was in the way so she had to move it down. Moving the motor did not really change/ add any new problems to the robot, Hannah and I want to work on using metal instead of plastic for the claw to make it more sturdy. We also discussed new ideas for the claw but were not able to come up with anything new. I gave Emily the task of working on our team website, and Allison was not in class today. 

Engineering Notes 10/24/2023: 

Today Hannah and I took the claw off of the robot and did research online to see if we could come up with a better design. We found a claw that we really liked that allowed us to successfully pick up the pixel. However, when we started to look for the pieces that we needed online we could not find them because in the video the name of the pieces were not stated. We needed four new pieces to make the claw that we wanted, two would have been to hold the servo in place while holding gears inside, and the other two would have been a mechanism that had a small gear attached to the end of it while being connected plastic. I gave Emily instructions to continue working on the website and Allison instructions to work on a new poster.

Link to the video of the claw we liked: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0kqT-_k3Mw

                                              Picture of pieces we needed from the video.                                                                             How claw would have looked. 

Engineering Notes 10/26/2023: 

Today Hannah and I worked on the hook we traded the plastic for metal. We then connected the arms wire to the control hub to test it out, as we were testing out the hook, we noticed that the robot would continue to disconnect from its wifi. So as a solution, we turned both the robot and the driver hub off for a little bit, and when we turned both back on and restarted the robot, it helped a little bit. Once we got the hook onto the pole it would hang from we saw that it was only picking up the back of the robot, so we moved the arm to the middle of the robot, and that made it pick/lift up none of the robot. We decided to not make our main focus on the hook today so we began to work on the claw. We did not really have any new ideas so we just modified the claw we already had and practiced how it would pick up the pixels and we came to the conclusion that the best way for the claw to work would be if the pixels were upright and were dropped at an angel. Emily came over and helped us put/attach the extension of the claw onto the arm. We attached one side making it secure however based on the the robot is designed we had trouble attaching the other side/securing it. Allison was absent today. (I forgot the take pictures of the arm so I will add those next time I'm in class.)

Engineering Notes 10/30/2023: 

Today I had Hannah and Emily work on the robot so they would have an idea of how to work together and what to do next class, as I would not be there, I had them work on connecting the claw to the arm, they took most of class to do that. However, once they were done they started to drive around the robot, they practiced opening and closing the claw, lifting and lowering the arm, and even tried to get the hook to stay on the Rigger.  We did not succeed because we have yet to change the motor for the arm, the motor we currently have does not completely lift the robot off the group. I was on the side helping when needed and caught up on missing robotics work. Allision was not at school today.

Engineering Notes 11/2/2023: 

Was absent, at a school event touring colleges. My team should have worked on switching the motor, practicing moving more with the robot, and cutting the sides of the shovel so they don't continue to drag on the field.

Engineering Notes 11/6/2023: 

Today I was the only member of my team at school, the rest of them were off doing college tours, so I had my teacher, Mr.Newman help me for most of the day. First I worked on zip tying some of the wires to the bottom of the base of the robot to get them out of the way. Then I worked with Mr.Newman to set the claw in the 0 position, once that was done we began to fix the program a little bit, and lastly we worked on trying to get the hook on the Rigger again but with the new motor. IT LIFTED THE WHOLE ROBOT!!!! However, we had to constantly press the button that brought the arm down, so we added a piece in the robot's code that whenever we pressed Y it would hold the robot's arm in the lowest form to keep it hanging on its own. Oh, and I also added a pole to the back of the robot to support its weight.

Engineering Notes 11/8/2023: 

Today Allison worked on getting better at programming on a website that teaches the program that we use for competition. Emily worked on building the right drone for our drone launcher, she made some in the colors red, blue, and white. Red for red alliance, blue for blue alliance, and white to practice on so we don't have to use our game ones and mess them up. Hannah and I for maybe the first 30 minutes of class practice driving the robot and putting pixels on the backboard. 

Engineering Notes 11/10/2023: 

Today my team did not have much to work on, we have all of the programming that our robot could need with its current features, so Hannah and I practiced moving the robot across the field and putting pixels on the backboard. We were successful a couple of times but the success was quick to go away because if the robot bumped into the backboard or was too close the pixel in our claw would not land on the backboard and the pixels on the backboard would fall off. We hope to practice more in the practice area tomorrow before the competition starts. We also worked on zip-tying all the wires to the robot so they wouldn't get caught on anything and mess up a round. After that, we began to pack everything we would need for the competition tomorrow and put it in my car. Emily worked on making more paper airplanes for us to use tomorrow since she won't be there to make them. 

Engineering Notes 11/27/2023: 

Today Mr. Newman stole two of my teammates, Allison and Emily, to help build legos for the upcoming ____ competition that our school will be hosting on Dec. 9th. Me and Hannah decided that we wanted to add a drone launcher to the robot and began to look up inspiration online, I found a video of this guy demonstrating his, and it worked pretty well. He made it with a 3-D printer, problem is neither Hannah nor I know how to use one. So for the rest of class, we worked together on TinkerCad to see if we could make our drone launcher like his. We didn't get very far. I also redid our team T-shirts as Mr.Newman decided to go with a different manufacturer.

DRONE LAUNCHER DESIGN: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myP1QPth3ZUDrone Launcher

T-SHIRT DESIGN: https://www.gandyink.com/my-gandy/saved-designs/426911

TinkerCad Link: https://www.tinkercad.com/things/aXj5TvCZLgu-epic-hango-borwo

Engineering Notes 11/29/2023: 

Today Emily and Allison continued to help Mr.Newman set up. I worked on making new business cards that we could put on our table during the competition. I also sent Mr.Newman the link to the poster so he could print that out, so it would be easy for our alliances to find us. After that was done, Hannah and I decided that we wanted the claw to reach the 2nd line, so we tried to add a pole to make the wrist longer, but it looked weird so we took it off. After that Hannah and I sat at Mr. Newman's computer to line up the business cards that only his computer has. It was very hard to get them to line up, we didn't finish. The plan is to make sure they are printed out next class with good alignment. 

Engineering Notes 12/1/2023: 

Today Hannah and I spent the class practising, finished printing out the business cards, and got our box ready for competition tomorrow. 

Engineering Notes 12/5/2023: 

Today at the start of class we went over the competition, we didn't do as well as we hoped, we went over how we did with each alliance, what was malfunctioning on our robot (mainly just that the drive control kept disconnecting,  and that the motor for the arm began to overheat). After that, Mr.Newman showed us a drone launcher that we liked and actually worked. So I gave Emily the task of recreating it, she spent most of the class building the drone launcher, and after she was done with the drone launcher she made paper airplanes that we could use because the past ones she made got messed up. After Emily was done with the drone launcher, we attached it to the robot, class ended before we could test it. Allison was absent today. 

Engineering Notes 12/7/2023: 

Today Hannah and I began to test out the drone launcher while Emily continued to make paper airplanes so we don't run out. We added the program for the drone launcher so the servo would release the drone, we made sure that the servo was in the starting position when we began the program so it didn't release at the wrong moment. The drone will launch when I press "A" on the remote. We did run into the problem that the rubber bands would keep breaking so we asked Mr.Newman to order more. Other than that the drone launcher is ready for comp, and I believe that Allison was still absent.

Engineering Notes 12/11/2023:

Today Hannah and I continued to work on the drone launcher and drove the robot around to test it out, we noticed that if we went too fast the wrong way or turned too fast then the drone would fall out, we talked and couldn't come up with a good plan to keep the drone from falling out. I had Emily make paper airplanes out of different types of paper, we tested them all out and liked cardstock the most before it was brought to our attention that we could only use regular paper, so we looked up the rules in the manual to double check. Allison helped get the paper and then it was the end of class.

Engineering Notes 12/13/2023:

Engineering Notes 1/10/2024:

Today I worked with Emily to learn how to make our paper airplanes, and Hannah worked with Allison to help get her familiar with the robot and any upcoming problems that she should be aware of and the best ways to fix them. The main thing that Hannah and Allision worked on was the drone launcher, by figuring out the best way to keep the paper in the launcher. I stayed with Allison until I made two paper airplanes, the first one was back but the second one looked better, after my 2nd paper airplane, I took a video of Allision making a paper airplane for future reference, or in case we need an airplane during a competition and we do not have one. After that, I went over to help Hannah and Allison with the drone launcher. We couldn't practice because our Drive Control was dead so we plugged it in to charge.

Engineering Notes 1/12/2024:

I was absent today, I was sick so I wasn't able to make it to school today, and probably won't be back until the 19th.

Engineering Notes 1/17/2024:

I was absent today, still sick.

Engineering Notes 1/19/2024:

Today Hannah and I worked/practiced driving the robot around and made sure that everything was working correctly, the robot continued to disconnect from the drive hub/control because of the battery part that is connected to the control hub so we put a zip tie on the wire to keep it in the correct place, and after that we no longer had the problem of disconnection. Emily continued to make more planes for the upcoming competition and Allison helped her.

Engineering Notes 1/25/2024:

Today Hannah and I went to the counselor's suite the print out our team number and a few more pages of business cards, after everything was printed out correctly and we cut everything out the way we wanted, we began to laminate them. By the time we were done, it was the end of class. Emily and Allison worked on making more drones and tested them throughout class to make sure they worked correctly/fly straight so that when we use the drone launcher we can have an accurate landing/placement of where to put the robot.

Engineering Notes 1/29/2024:

Today I had Emily work on what we're going to do with our competition space. In the beginning, we came up with a plan/the things that we wanted in our space. After Emily had a good idea she went off on her own to work on it, Allison was not present in class today. Hannah worked on our portfolio for the majority of the class, she also attached our team number on the side of our robot. I removed the screw that was on the drone launcher that held the paper airplane in place for zip-ties instead, I saw a team use them and liked it. After I took the screw off and put on the zip-ties I tested it out and it worked pretty well. 

Engineering Notes 1/31/2024:

Today I worked on having a digital version of our control hub, labeling what motors, and servos go in which port. After I finished that I helped Hannah with what information she needed to add to the board that would be set up in our area during the competition. I had Emily make origami sea-themed, and make a list of the things we wanted for our marketing on Amazon, and Allison was absent. 

Engineering Notes 2/2/2024:

Today I worked with Hannah to get all of the information on a doc so it would be ready for printing and putting on the poster board.  We only had enough time to put the put the info. on the doc, next class is when we plan to put it on the board and practice presenting. Emily continued to make origami and Allison was not present today during class.

Engineering Notes 2/6/2024:

Today I planned on coding our autonomous that put the pixels on the backboard, however, the drive control was dead. So, instead, I used my time to complete the engineering portfolio, making sure it's ready for comp on Saturday. Allison helped Emily with the origami. Hannah worked on printing out all of the information that would be on the board, after everything was printed out she then cut the information to put on the board. 

Engineering Notes 2/8/2024:

Today I worked on the atumomues that would put two pixels on the backboard, I didn't finish but made good progress. Hannah Looked over the Engineering portfolio and then printed it out. Allison worked on making sketches of the robot. Emily made more origami.