Attendance: Everyone except for Chesnee and Robert were present.

Accomplished:

Today was a parent-teacher conference day so we decided to meet for a few hours. Ben, Dr. Cahille, Casey, and Aiden worked on fixing Solaris from the last practice. The slides system will not go back down so now, we are just barely fitting under the sky-bridge. To fix this, we are re-positioning the servo so that it will go down.

Attendance: Aiden, Daniel, David, Ben, Owen, Jayden, and Jacey

Accomplished:

We decided to meet from 11 AM to 3 today on a Saturday. We are working on getting the autonomous program perfected and we are also getting more driver practice in. Jacey is going over everything that has been added to the Engineering Notebook. In two hours, Ben was able to build a small robot now named Squirt. The sole purpose of this bot is to have a feeder bot on the field with Solaris during practice matches. Due to losing the motor mounts, he used zip-ties to attach the wheel motors. A very special thing about this robot (other than its entire existence) is the wheels. There are two mechanum wheels and two standard wheels like we used on Sasha last season. Squirt can do nothing except move around and push stones to us. We have gotten quite a few laughs while watching it run, as it does not always drive as planned.

Attendance: Everyone was present except Aiden and Jacey.

Accomplished:

We are working on the same driving patterns that we were struggling with earlier in the week. Everything seems to be improving and we think we will have most (if not all) problems fixed within the week. Minor problems with the Engineering Notebook have been fixed and the brochure is almost done. Robert is still working on getting the pictures presentation ready for the competition.

Attendance: Everyone was present today.

Accomplished:

Today Robert decided that we should make a slideshow of pictures we have taken at meetings, different events, etc. Everyone else worked on the engineering notebook or the brochure. Robert worked on the slideshow and the drivers (And Ben) went downstairs.

Attendance: Daniel, Ben, Aiden, Robert, Jayden

Accomplished:

Today Jayden, Daniel, and Robert worked on the Engineering Notebook. We are going over the entirety of the notebook to see if we can find any flaws, fix them, or anything other sections that we can add. Aiden is assisting Ben by resetting the field as we continue to test the autonomous. Ronnie came in today and helped us on the arm for a bit. We discussed other options that were possible during autonomous and what are limits are, at the same time trying to score as many points as possible. After a while we decided that the red side auto was consistent enough so we switched over to the blue side and started testing on it. We spent a lot less time by just changing directions but using the same auto program that we used for red side. At the end of practice it was safe to say that the autos were complete and we were satisfied with them.

Attendance: Daniel, David, Ben, Aiden, Casey

Accomplished:

Today we met at around 11AM. We also had a small group come in today. David is working on the CAD for Artemis (a new robot that we are creating that is not for the FTC competition). Casey is helping Ben work on the new autonomous program that he is creating using Road Runner. This time instead of using spline functions, he is now using line functions and 90 degree turns. Aiden and I are working on the Engineering Notebook and adding brand new sections and improving others in hopes of winning the Inspire Award at States. Ronnie will be coming in later to check on the new arm to make sure it will work well with the robot. He arrived at noon and watched Ben’s autonomous. He likes the new program and noticed how we had printed a new capstone that would be easier to place in the endgame period of a match. Last week, before we printed, we made sure the hole on the capstone would be a lot more spacious so we could make sure the capstone fit and didn’t fall off.

Attendance: Daniel, David, Ben, Casey, Aiden

Accomplished:

Today we met at 10 AM this morning because we have a lot to get down before the States competition in fourteen days. Dr. Cahill created a flowchart that we have been using to attack important tasks that need to be done now and what can wait. Ben has been working on programming a new autonomous using Road Runner. Road Runner is a library for FTC that allows for proportional integral derivative control, motion profiling and path finding. Ben is doing the best he can to work with this new library as it brings new difficulties and challenges as he is learning about it. Casey and Dr. Cahill worked on creating a new claw arm that we could use mainly in the autonomous. We should also be able to use it in the tele-op period as well. David worked on CAD while Aiden and Daniel worked on resetting the field as Ben ran tests. At around lunch time Ben and Dr. Cahill moved the power switch to make room for the claw arm. When they finally attached it, we set the robot on the field and Ben programmed buttons on the controllers so we could test them. The new claw arm worked without any complications but we had to change the position of the servo to suit our needs. We practiced what we wanted to get done during autonomous in TeleOp just to see if it could be done. It was successful and we called it a day at 3:30 PM.

Attendance: Everyone was present today.

Accomplished:

Today we all mostly worked on the engineering notebook. The drivers went downstairs with Ben. Jayden continued working on our brochure, and everyone else worked on improving our engineering notebook. When we say improving it, we mean going through, re-reading, fixing grammar, and rewording some things to make it easier to understand.

Attendance: Everyone except Matthew

Accomplished:

Today we worked on the brochure using Adobe Spar. While progress is slow, it is going well. Our main objective is getting our drivers trained and getting our programming in perfect condition. The amount of work our drivers are putting in is astonishing and we are climbing fast in skill.

Attendance: Everyone was present today.

Accomplished:

Today we are doing the same thing we have done almost every day this week. Jayden is continuing on working on the brochure and Ben has finally gotten RoadRunner working. Everyone else is working on the engineering notebook, except for Chesnee, who was working on improving our presentations to the judges. Overall this has been a very productive meeting where everyone was working on what was needed.

Attendance: Everyone was present today.

Accomplishments:

We are doing about the same things that we did yesterday. The drivers are working on improving the robot, Ben is trying to get Road Runner up and ‘running’, and everyone else is working on the Engineering Notebook or the brochure. We have a brochure from another team that we have been using as a guide, but we are also adding in our own things too. Dr. Cahille found a quote by Warren Buffet that says, “Surround yourself with people that push you to do better. No drama or negativity. Just higher goals and higher motivation. Good times and positive energy. No jealousy or hate. Simply bringing out the absolute best in each other.” We thought this greatly displayed Gracious professionalism and decided to go by it every time we meet and in our lives.

Attendance: Everyone was present today.

Accomplishments:

Today was the first day back at school since we qualified to go to the state tournament last Saturday. We were having a few problems with our Autonomous program, so Ben is working on that. He has also came up with a program called Road Runner. It runs on drawings instead of a program. We are going to decide later if that is what we want to do instead of our original program; it depends on whether or not it works more efficiently.

We have decided that we really need to “beef up” (Mrs. Jacobs) our Engineering Notebook. At the Charlotte competition, there was a judge that asked us about our sustainability plan, which we did not have. As a result, we started working on one today and will have it completed within a few days. We also decided to make a brochure to hand out to teams at States. Jayden is going to work on that, while the drivers and Ben work on the robot downstairs. Everyone else is working on the Notebook.

We had our second state-qualifying competition on February 8 in Charlotte at Kennedy Middle School. There were a total of 24 teams there. We did not spend the night like we did in Asheville; everyone got there around the same time. The team checked in and turned in our notebook. Then we immediately unpacked and got our pit (Pit 5) set up. A very generous team called the Robocougs allowed us to take a half of any empty table, so long as they could use the other half. This gave both teams a massive amount of operation room. Next, we went and passed all of the inspections without a problem. Our Judges’ Presentation went extremely well; the Judges seemed to take more interest in our team and what we did. They asked more questions this time, and we had the answers to all of them.

We ran a few Autonomous test runs with Solaris on the practice field. Directly after the Match alliances had been posted, our first alliance partner Circuit Breakers (Team 11717) came up to us and we started to form a game plan for the match.

Attendance: Everyone was present today except Jacey

Accomplished

Today each person was working on something different. Ben and Aiden are downstairs working on autonomous so that it turns the foundation sideways. Jen, a parent volunteer, was working with Casey on proof reading things in our engineering notebook. Chesnee was working on the outreach section along with Jayden. They got it finished, and Jayden had to leave and Chesnee got the agenda caught up. Daniel, David, Owen, and Matthew, were working on expanding the ‘Strategic Plan’ page. Owen explained in depth the problems we had in the beginning, and Daniel and David were writing how we brainstormed solutions. Matthew was typing up what we tested and our trials and errors. Over all this has been an incredibly productive meeting.

Attendance: Everyone was present except for Chesnee. Casey arrived late and David left early.

Accomplished:

Today everyone was in groups working on different things. First off we had to do some work on the robot, we fixed the lift claw, which kept messing up at the tournament. We also had to replace the foundation claw with the one that we were using on Watson because it was more efficient and worked better.

Once the robot was finished and ready to drive, the driving team headed down stairs to drive. Ben went with them and improved the autonomous. The notebook team (Jacey, Casey, and Robert) was setting up a schedule on how we were going to get everything accomplished that we needed to get done. Matthew worked on making buttons, and Owen was working on CAD. Everyone else was working on coming up with a page on our plan of attack.

Attendance: Everyone was present except Owen and Matthew

Accomplishments:

Ben was working on changing the Coasting of the robot to stop whenever we used the regular driving because it didn't do any strafing. Daniel, Aiden, and Jayden were downstairs driving with the new program. Everyone else was upstairs either working on improving our engineering notebook, or working on making buttons to trade with other teams.

We are all working very hard to do the best we can so that we can have the best engineering notebook and win the inspire award. Our main goal for this week is to get the engineering notebook to show how we deserve that award. Everyone is working their butts off, and we are very excited for the match at Kennedy Middle School in Charlotte. Our goal is to have the best engineering notebook, so that we can qualify for state.

On Saturday, February 1, 2020, we had our first state-qualifying tournament of this season. Everyone decided to spend the night in Asheville so that we would have plenty of rest. At 7 in the morning, everyone arrived and we were assigned to our pit: Pit 13. We checked our team in and turned the Engineering Notebook and got everything unpacked.

We did several tests runs with Solaris on the practice field. We did not do much driver practice; we were more concerned about our Autonomous Programs working. We did not encounter any problems during that time. However, we realized that everyone in the Pit area needed to have safety glasses on, and we did not have enough pairs for the entire team. Sarah Cantrell and Matthew rushed to a nearby department store and picked up a few pairs. On their way there, they got trapped in traffic. This was particularly alarming because we had our Judges’ Presentation soon (8:50 AM), and we did not know if they would be back in time. To make sure Matthew could make it, they rushed back to the school and Ms. Cantrell dropped him off with only two minutes to spare. We hurried about halfway through our presentation, then the doors opened and we had to go into the Judging room. Everyone shook the Judges’ hands and introduced themselves, making sure to speak clearly and maintain eye contact. Next, we had our actual Presentation. We did fairly well and were able to answer all of the Judges’ questions. No one forgot their part. The team showed off both Watson and Solaris and explained how they each worked.

We were in the very first qualifying match of the day. Our alliance partner was team 11528 Bots of Prey. Our opponents were teams 16416 Alphas in Beta and 14667 Robo Goats RoboKnights. This match went beautifully (aside from one problem), and we came out on top with a total of 46 points. About halfway through the TeleOp period, the Robo Goats’ small and speedy robot slammed into the front of ours. This caused the battery to slide out of its cradle and knock into the power button while still remaining connected. As Mrs. Jacobs said, we were, “Dead in the water”, because the power switch had been flipped. Thankfully, we still pulled ahead with our points. After the match we rushed to the Pit area and attached a rubber band around the cradle to make the battery stay put.

The next few matches went by without a hitch. We slowly climbed our way into first place, with team 5881 Tungsteel being in second behind us. We won every match with a minimum lead of eight points. Our highest score was 95 points in the eleventh and fourteenth matches.

After we realized that we would need to choose in the Alliance Selection, everyone on the team started to discuss who we wanted to partner with. Ben and Jayden talked privately some (as they are the team captains). After much discussion, we still had not chosen between Tungsteel (second place) or RoboKnights (sixth place). Right as the Judge called for everyone to bring their robot to the front with one team member, the team captains decided and Ben brought the robot forward. Because we were in first, we were able to graciously ask who we wished to partner with first. At this point, no one except the team captains knew who was going to be chosen. We asked team 8569 RoboKnights to join our alliance.

Attendance: Owen was not present.

Accomplished

Today is our second to last day before the competition. Today’s main objective is tying up loose ends and getting everything ready for the competition Saturday, half of the team is working on the robot and the other half is organizing the notebook. The notebook is almost done and we are just trying to get everything situated and put together. Matthew, Casey, and Chesnee are working on the Engineering Notebook. Aiden, Robert, Daniel, and David were working on getting Solaris competition-ready. Jacey and Mrs. Jacobs are going through everything and getting the documents that did not need to be printed in color completed.

Everyone is a little stressed out, but excited for our first state-qualifying tournament this weekend.

Attendance: Everyone is present today except for Robert

Goals

Continue to practice driving so drivers get used to new, higher gear ratios on the motors, finish organizing Engineering Notebook, practice judge’s presentation

Accomplished

Today most of our team's efforts are going to the nate book and filling in holes and correcting mistakes, so far we have made good progress and our drivers and Drive coach are working to improve their skills before the competition.

Attendance: Ben, Daniel, David, Jacey, Jayden, Matthew, Aiden, Owen.

Goals: Organize Engineering Notebook, practice Judges’ Presentation, get in some driver practice.

Accomplishments:

Today we got a considerable amount done on the Engineering Notebook. Mrs. Jacobs explained to the team that the Marketing section needs to be compiled together with the Budgeting and Fundraising section. Many other things in the engineering notebook were accomplished such as the table of contents being close to completion and David typing up a page of all of our goals. Owen worked on typing up the teams history of CAD and getting an image of Solaris’ 3D model. Ben worked on the autonomous programs for Solaris while Aiden, Daniel, and Jayden worked on practicing driving. Matthew was here for the last 30 minutes of Robotics, so he spent the remaining time working on his part in the presentation.

Attendance: Ben, Daniel, Jayden, Jacey, Robert, Chesnee, Aiden

Goals

Practice the Judge’s presentation, work on organizing Engineering Notebook, review award information, practice driving.

Accomplished

Jacey was working very hard on organizing the Engineering Notebook with the help of Chesnee, and Casey. Chesnee finished the Budgeting and Marketing section and typed up a budget page: a summary of the whole budget history. Aiden, Daniel, and Jayden were practicing driving for the coming competition. They are able to consistently score above 70 points with both Autonomous and TeleOp periods. We got our highest scoring as well: 85 points! It would be 95, assuming that our Alliance partner parked on the line. Ben continued to work on refining our autonomous programs. Everyone is anxious to get everything ready for the upcoming tournament.

Attendance: David, Daniel, Aiden, Casey, Ben, and Jayden were present today.

Goals

Order new spare supplies, complete biographies (including photos) for Engineering Notebook, review Engineering Notebook (with an eye to the checklist), finalize capstone carrier, finalize new capstone, trial two skystone pickup, make trading buttons (as possible).

Accomplished

David worked diligently reviewing the Engineering Notebook for errors and issues. He was able to fix a lot of problems. For a time, he worked on making buttons for the competition. Then Matthew took over this job, making nearly one hundred buttons before the machine jammed. The button-maker has been messing up periodically throughout the day, so we think it has just quit working for good now. Mrs. Jacobs is going to take a look at it and maybe call the company it came from to see if there is a way to fix it.

Attendance: Everyone

Accomplished

Today we scheduled a meeting on Saturday to get things ready for next week.We are all working very hard, and are excited about the upcoming competition. Chesnee and Ms. Cantrell finished a detailed budget spreadsheet, Jacey and Matthew worked on the Engineering Notebook, then Chesnee helped when she finished the budget. Ben was fixing the servo that turns the claw arm and re-programming it. The rest of the team did timed trials. We also worked on the Capstone, and we are building a place for the Capstone to go inside our robot.

The Capstone has been redesigned several times during this meeting. We have printed and dismantled a few different copies. This is because we are trying to find a way to easily put it on a Stone and then put the Stone on top of whatever tower we have built on the Foundation.

We have decided to use Google Sheets to organize what money we spent this year. Thankfully, we had all of the receipts from part orders and purchases separated into folders and organized. We resolved to use Sheets because it would be easy to put the items bought and costs into different columns. The program would then add up the total costs for us, which is a massive burden off of the team’s back. We included every item along with the costs of them and the shipping and handling prices.

Jacey Stroup

I am still working on the Engineering Notebook. It is really a never-ending job, because you cannot declare the Notebook as officially “complete” until you are done with the FTC Robotics season. Even though this can be exasperating, I know it is going to help us a lot. Even though our Notebook is slightly shorter than last season’s (due to font point and style changes and other things), it still looks good. We have more sections that are needed; we also have a better organization system. We have included more information on our failures, successes, and methods this year. Unlike the previous Notebook, we had much more explanations as to why we changed things with the Robot or other things.

We have decided that we are going to meet as much as possible next week. We have been doing this to a certain extent for awhile now, as we have been meeting on weekends and break days as well as nearly every day during the week.

Attendance: Everyone

Accomplished

Chesnee and Ms. Cantrell worked on finishing the Budgeting on Google Sheets. Chesnee was able to put together a pie chart showing where we spent our money this year. (See below.)

Owen was able to complete the CAD designs for Solaris and send a picture of it via email to Jacey. She will be adding them into the Notebook.

David, Matthew, and Owen gathered bios from Dr. Cahille, Mr. Morehead, and Mr. Mullendore. David did an extreme amount of work to the Team Summary page; he got it up-to-date and made it longer. It now meets the recommended length of one page.

Robert and Casey got information on possible awards that we could win together. However, due to Casey just recently breaking his thumb, Robert did most of the typing itself while Casey gave him the information. Due to his injured thumb, Casey may not be able to be a driver at competitions, but Ben might have extra time to make one-handed controls.

Jacey looked over everything and worked on the Marketing section. She also put together a strategy sheet and a sheet that we will pass out to teams at Competitions so that we will be able to know what their robot can do, should we be partnered up with them in an alliance.

Attendance: Matthew, Owen, Chesnee, Aiden, and Jayden were not present today

Accomplished

Today was very similar to the other recent practices we have been having. We did a lot of driving practice and a lot of working on the Notebook. We have just under two weeks until our first State-Qualifying Competition, so we are really striving to get ready.

Unfortunately, we started having problems with our Blue side Autonomous Program. Strangely, Solaris has been able to continuously grab and detect a skystone, but not deliver it. Sometimes the skystone falls off of the Foundation as we start to try and reposition it. Repositioning is another problem we were having; sometimes we could not get the Foundation over the tape line, and sometimes we would get it in but then knock it out again as we went to park under the SkyBridge. Also, we keep having problems parking under the Bridge. After numerous adjustments and fixes, we finally narrowed the problem down to just having to adjust a few small things with the program itself to fix the issues.

Jacey Stroup

I am working my hardest to get this Engineering Notebook in the best shape it can possibly be in. I still have to add in some pictures and things. I also have to complete the Marketing section, seeing as we just had a meeting for such. We discussed things about scouting at competitions and I plan to make a scouting sheet. I have been assigned to be part of the scouting group at competitions.

Attendance: Everyone except for Chesnee and Owen was present today

Accomplished

Today was a Saturday, but we decided to have practice anyways due to the quickly-upcoming tournament. In our upstairs practice room, we played a live feed of the State Qualifying Tournament that Cardinal Gibbons was hosting.

Some of the things that we noticed about the competing teams is that many Autonomous programs were not at their best. We are very happy that our own program is up and running smoothly. We had several practice rounds with both Watson and Solaris. Solaris is more efficient that Watson, and that is why we are using that robot at the competitions.

We ran Watson around in the hallways some today to get some driving practice in. It was very interesting to learn how far away the robot could roam without disconnecting.

Jacey Stroup

We had a very enjoyable day today. We got things done and I was able to work on the Notebook a good bit. Some of the live stream from Cardinal Gibbons was watched today, and it was very interesting.

I took a video of one of the matches that we ran with both Watson and Solaris. During the Autonomous, Solaris was able to place a Skystone, reposition the Foundation, and park under the bridge. Watson was only able to park under the skybridge. Solaris was able to stack a two stone tower, and then a four stone tower, during the TeleOp period, while Watson accidentally knocked down his tower; however, he also positioned the foundation into the spot so that we could move it during the Endgame Period. Solaris and Watson both repositioned the foundations (also known to the team as “the waffles”) and parked on the line.

Attendance: Everyone

Accomplished

• Owen worked on CAD
• Aiden, David, and Daniel drove
• Ben, Robert, and Casey worked on Autonomous
• Jacey and Matthew worked on the Notebook and had a marketing meeting
• Chesnee put glass on thing???

Attendance: Everyone except Jacey and Chesnee was present today

Accomplished

Ben and Matthew worked on perfecting the Autonomous program for Solaris. There is a very good chance that we will use the robot for official competitions, so it is very crucial that we get this done.

In place of Jacey, Mrs. Jacobs put Aiden and David to work on the Engineering Notebook. Aiden typed up a long entry for January 15, while David typed a lengthy one for today. Jacey will read over everything they added when she returns so that there is no grammar errors.

Owen got to work on our team’s website, which was dreadfully out of date. He added in parts of our Engineering Notebook to their corresponding dates, and he also organized it beautifully.

Casey and Robert made scouting sheets for competitions. They included things such as What can your robot do during the Autonomous? And What can your robot do during the TeleOp?

Robert also worked on getting a list together of things that we need to take with us to competitions. We have to have screws, bolts, allen wrenches, and everything that we use every single practice. This means we also have to take a rolling stand; we might also be getting a set of portable tool boxes soon.

David Briceno

Today Ben is working on his 33 point Autonomous program for Solaris. His plan is to use OpenCV on the phone to recognize the Skystone and pick one up and carry it over and place it on the foundation/waffle. Then after that he plans on moving Solaris back to pick up a second one and place it on the foundation. Then he wants to move the foundation into the building site and park under the bridge. Ben is working with Matthew downstairs with Solaris and the rest of the team is upstairs working either on the Engineering Notebook, Website, or a Scouting sheet and list. Aiden and I are working on yesterdays and todays entries. Owen is updating the Team’s FTC website, and basically just adding in things that are needed and bringing it up to date. Jayden and Casey are working on a Scouting sheet for competition, which is basically just a list of what other team’s robots can do throughout the autonomous, tele-op, and endgame. Robert is working on a list or tool/supplies and extra parts we need to take to the next competition in case something happens.

Attendance: All in attendance except Chesnee

Accomplished

While Ben continued his work on Solaris’ Autonomous Program, almost everyone else did driver trials to see who would drive Watson at competitions, if we would choose to use him.

Matthew and Jacey continued to work on the Engineering Notebook; they also discussed more ways to improve the Notebook. Things that were mentioned were:

• Doing the Xs’ (and if they’re really necessary)
• Having set days where we only work on the Notebook
• Having more entries from more people

Aiden Leon

Today during robotics David, Daniel, Robert, Owen, Casey, and I all participated on driver trials for Watson with Jayden organizing/managing them all. Out of all driver trials today the best team was Daniel, Casey, and I. During the trial, Daniel was using Game Controller 1, Casey was using Game Controller 2, and I was the driver coach. Daniel and Casey managed to stack six blocks in the 2:00 minute period with my assistance. When the team stacked the six blocks, they did not do an Endgame period; they only stacked blocks.

The robot used for the driver trials was Watson and the controls go as following. Game controller 1 controls the movement of the robot. Game Controller 2 controls the stacking system and intake system. The job of the driver coach is to tell the two drivers what to do and how to do it. For the driver trials we had an organized chart of who was going to be paired up with who. The list also explained who was going to use the two controllers during the trial and who was going to be the driver coach.

All of today Ben worked on the autonomous program for Solaris. Ben used a Java library called “Easy OpenCV” to detect the difference in colors between the skystones and stones. “Easy OpenCV” is a simplified version of “OpenCV” and it was specifically made for First Tech Challenge. Once the robot knew the positions of the Skystones it would drive and pick the stone up and place it on the build platform. Solaris was able to detect the color difference between the Skystones and Stones by using the phone camera which was using “Easy OpenCV”. The software “Easy OpenCV” is used specifically for computer vision. We found it was much faster and more accurate than “Tensorflow” and “Vuforia”.

Attendance: Everyone was present today including Chesnee

Accomplished

Matthew/Jacey worked on Notebook

Everyone else did Driver Trials for Watson (Competition)

Today was a very productive day in Robotics. (Jacey needs to know what happened in the Driver trials.)

Jacey Stroup

Me and Matthew worked on the Engineering Notebook and we also discussed how to improve it for our upcoming competition (on February 1). Jayden gave us his input that we should add the ‘Xs’’ to the Notebook as we did last year. This means that I will put black boxes with Xs’ in them in the blank pages of the Notebook so that we can show the Judges that we know that there is a blank space and that we meant for them to be there.

Attendance: Everyone except for Owen, Chesnee, and Robert was present today

Accomplished

Jayden, David, Aiden, and Daniel worked on getting in some driver practice today. Jayden and David were drive coaches while the other two were doing the actual driving.

Jacey worked with Mrs. Jacobs to complete the Team Autobiographies, which were not added in at the time of the Scrimmage. They were able to get everyone’s (some people like Aiden and David gave oral autobiographies and they were copied down) except for Casey’s, which Jacey has written down on a sheet of notebook paper at home and will type it up later. They were also able to get most of the individual team pictures, but some are still missing and will be added in later.

Attendance: Everyone except for Owen and Robert was present today

Accomplished

• Jacey/Matthew/Chesnee talked about how to recruit more team members for next year
• Daniel/Casey practiced driving Watson the entire time
• Aiden was taught how to drive Watson so that he could be a backup driver
• Jacey/Matthew/Chesnee worked on the Engineering Notebook

Attendance: Everyone except for Aiden and Daniel was present today

Accomplished

We did much driver practice today. Things are running smoothly for the most part, save the occasional mess-up on the Autonomous Programs.

Our presentation is finally near-complete. Matthew edited it so that it is now shorter than ten minutes (which is about how long it was at the Scrimmage), and also fixed the part in the About our Robot section to be about Solaris instead of Watson.

Jacey and Chesnee worked on the Notebook. Jacey showed Chesnee some of the stuff that need to be improved, such as a select few meetings and the Marketing section.

Attendance: Everyone except for Chesnee, Aiden, and Daniel were present today

Accomplished

Ben, Jayden, and David made very minute changes to Solaris today, such as changing the back plating of the claw that grabs the stones. It was changed from just bare metal to having a few layers of duct tape to it to add more friction so that there is a less likely chance that stones will be dropped.

Jacey and Matthew continued working on the Engineering Notebook. They were able to finish up some of the previous meetings which were missing certain things. One of these was concluding the description of what happened at the Scrimmage.

Casey practiced driving Watson in the arena. He has become very efficient with this and could be one of our drivers at State-Qualifying Competitions.

Jacey Stroup

I worked with Matthew today to continue working on completing the Notebook. I think I will still need time to finish it up, but it is coming together quite nicely. I also took pictures of the team and added some to the Notebook.

Attendance: Everyone except for Chesnee, Daniel, and Aiden was present today

Accomplished

We had amazing success in our scrimmage last Sunday! We won all of the rounds except for the final one, the championship. We chose to use Watson instead of Solaris. Everything went great! The robot did not fall apart at all, which was a major improvement from last year’s competition. On the very last match (the Championship round), we got off to a good start. However, our alliance team robot broke mid-way through. Unfortunately, we lost that time. But we still got second place in the end! That means we came second out of twenty teams.

Our Engineering Notebook did not do as well as we had hoped it would, but that is fine because we know how to fix it. Some of the things we were lacking in was our Table of Contents (which was missing page numbers-Jacey knew this and said she has a plan to go back later and hand write all of them after the Notebook was really done.), the Team’s Bios (another thing Jacey has a plan for), the Judges Highlight sheet (Jacey said that she did not want to make one until the Notebook was finished), and the Business Plan, also known as the Budget Plan. The latter two were marked as missing. Mrs. Jacobs said she will help Jacey put together a Business Plan.

One problem with a Budget Plan is the lack of sponsors we have. Curtis Wright, Shelby Dental Care, and the PEAK Board here at Pinnacle are our only sponsors. So is Dr. Cahille in her own way because she is awesome and provides a lot for this team. Hopefully, Mrs. Jacobs and Jacey can put together a plan from that.

Attendance: Everyone except for Chesnee and Matthew was present today

Accomplished

We had an even better day than yesterday! Both Solaris and Watson are working smoothly and efficiently. The only major downsides to today were that one of our controllers broke (Dr. Cahill went out and bought a new one, however, so a major thank you to her!) and at the end of the meeting, Watson was unable to collect Stone because they kept getting stuck. We are working on this right now and should be able to get it done tomorrow. We are meeting at 9:30 A.M. to add the finishing touches, organize the Engineering Notebook (which Jacey stayed up till 10 P.M. tonight and last night to work on), and practice driving.

The team is feeling very optimistic this year. Laughs were passed around today. Everyone had a great time and jokes about our robot last year were exchanged.

Jacey Stroup

As I type this, it is 10:18 at night. But I’m feeling awesome! This notebook has really come together, and so have the robots. We’ve had hardships this year; from slides falling apart to deleting an entire CAD project, but we’ve worked through it!

I am very proud of everyone on the team this year. Everyone has worked very hard to get to the point we are at right now, and we couldn’t have done it without our amazing mentors: Dr. Cahill, Mrs. Jacobs, Coach Bill, Coach Kantrail, and Ms. Kantrail. They’re are absolutely amazing!

Attendance: Everyone except for Chesnee, Robert, and Matthew was present today. Matthew is out sick with the flu

Accomplished

Only a few days before the scrimmage at Elon University! We’re ringing in the new year with a seemingly renewed vigor, feeling happy and proud of ourselves. We have our lift system fixed to and X-Slide lift system, which works ten times (or more) better than our last one did. Dr. Cahill and Ben met at Dr. Cahill’s dental office where she works to use some of our community resources. They worked very hard and late on the robot. Our Autonomous programs are mostly done, and they work! Ben has his robot, Solaris, equipped with a collection system and a bar that will drag the building zone into the corner during an Autonomous period to score us 15 points.

We had a few problems with Watson (our main competition robot) today. For unknown reasons, we were unable to get the phones to turn on and connect. We had this problem the entire meeting until just after five P.M. that night. After that, we were able to stack seven Stones! Once we timed it, we could get four stack up successfully within two minutes.

Owen’s mother provided pizza for everyone on the team and Mrs. Jacobs left us cupcakes, fudge, and chocolate-dipped strawberries.

Attendance: Everyone except for Chesnee was present today

Accomplished

Today was a day during our Christmas Break here at Pinnacle. We decided to meet so that we could get ready for our scrimmage day at Elon University. We might be redesigning the slide system due to the ball bearings continuously falling out for an unknown reason. Hopefully, we can fix this before the break ends because we have a scrimmage at Elon University with other FTC teams. Jacey and Matthew were finally able to complete the judges presentation after looking over it again.

Jacey Stroup

Our Judges presentations are looking great! We didn’t have one last year, so I think having one this year will help us a lot with scoring high with the judges. Hopefully, this notebook will also look amazing.

We went over multiple things in the presentation. Below is a piece from it.

We are set to help the world and make it a better place with our outreach program and willingness to make a change in our community

• We have done a number of events to help the community such as
  • Rhythm and Roots Run
  • Livermush, Music, and Mutts Festival
  • Broad River clean up
• We are a team that is striving to increase our community awareness and develop our skills
• We are committed to promoting FIRST and science and technology in our area

Everyone on the team helped contribute to the presentation. Matthew and I edited and added the Team Members slides.

Attendance: Everyone

Accomplished

Today we are working on several different things. One is that we are repairing the lift system again. Last meeting, the ball bearings fell out for the fourth time. Everyone is becoming slightly exasperated with this, but we are searching for a solution to the problem. We think that the weight of the system was too heavy for itself, therefore causing the bearings to fall out.

Ben, Matthew, Mr. Morehead, and Robert are working on getting the intake system for the Robot precise, as sometimes it does not always work. We think this could be something simple with the motors; or perhaps it could be that the ramp the Stones have slide up is too steep or not slick enough.

Ben also continued the work of Solaris. He is trying to get the REV Hub energies running correctly. He and David are also working on an Autonomous dragging system so that we can possibly use the Robot for competitions. The Collection System has been added on successfully but we have not been able to test it yet.

Owen worked on the CAD for Solaris. He has added on everything that the real Solaris has on into CAD, and it is looking really great!

Jacey was the note taker for today.

Jacey Stroup

Today was a very productive day in Robotics. The lift system is being repaired, CAD is being handled, and we all had an awesome snack of Chick-fil-la and ice cream. I took notes and had Chesnee as my helper. She went around and asked everyone what they were doing and why. I think we have our Judges’ Presentation finally completed, which is really good.

Attendance: Everyone

Accomplished

We continued our work on the judges presentation today. Everyone is going to have a slide to talk about and explain to the judges. All of the members on the team contributed some today. We are going to cover the following in the slideshow:

• Our school
• Who we are
• What we do
• Our robot
• Every single team member
• Our strengths
• Our weaknesses

Attendance: Everyone except for Matthew and Robert were present at practice today

Accomplished

Ben and Owen showed everyone their ‘summer project’. They have found a video with a very fast robot and CAD designs of it.

We have decided that we are going to attempt to get Solaris, Ben’s personal robot, competition-ready. We are going to do this so that we have options for when we go to competition; i.e., we could use Watson at one competition, and then use Solaris at another.

Jacey has continued work on the presentation for the Judges. Everyone is hoping that we will be able to possibly ask a judge to come and look at our presentation and let us present it to them so that they can give us tips on how to improve it before the competitions. However, some people are worried that we are really pushing the deadline here and that it might not get done.

Jayden, Aiden, and Casey worked on putting together our linear slide systems, but they were unable to do so. After the last set fell apart because of the ball bearings falling out, we had to get a set that came with instructions.

After all of this, Casey, Jacey, Jayden, Aiden, and Daniel worked on the judges presentation.

Attendance: Everyone except for Jayden was present. He is playing in Charlotte with an orchestra

Accomplished

Today we are moving the box for the batteries to the right side of Watson. We are doing this so that we are able to attempt to balance out the weight of the Robot, which was uneven.

We are also going to modify the slides. During our last meeting (See: Meeting 26), almost all of the ball bearings fell out of their spots, which consequently broke the slides system. Casey, Robert, Chesnee, and Dr. Cahill are working to fix this.

David and Owen continued their work on designing the Robot, Watson, in CAD. Owen mentored David and Daniel on the use of CAD (Owen basically was giving David some tips, while he actually showed Daniel how to use it). Owen was almost done with this, except we are having to move things around on the Robot. This causes problems, because he is not able to keep up with the progress being made on Watson; we might look for possible remedies to this issue in the future.

Robert has been appointed as the official Co-Leader of the Engineering Notebook because Jacey really needed help with it.

Attendance: Everyone

Accomplished

Today, we started making buttons! (See below.) Mrs. Jacobs purchased one thousand unmarked metal pin-buttons. Matthew, Robert, Jayden, and Mrs. Jacobs cut out numerous tiny circles of paper with our logos on it in red and black. Mrs. Jacobs was awesome enough to go out and buy us a “button maker-presser”, as Jacey called it. Jayden and Daniel showed everyone else on how to use the machine. Also, Aiden dyed the floofy parts at the top of his hair a “chicken-flavoured ramen” color, as we have decided to call it.

Owen have started to finish up designing the Robot, Watson, in CAD. He is adding the finishing touches for the next few meetings.

Ben, Casey, Robert, and Mr. Morehead worked on the collection system for the Robot.

Attendance: We did not have school today. David, Daniel, Matthew, Ben, and Jacey were present

Accomplished

We decided to meet today despite the fact that we did not have school. We met from 1:30 to 4:30. We are working on completing the Watson robot after almost having a catastrophe with Sasha. We had to move a few very heavy wooden planks in order to access our playing field. As we were pushing them, someone’s grip slipped and the boards nearly fell onto our field and onto Sasha. Thankfully, Matthew was able to catch about 300 pounds of wood at the last second and heave it back so that it wouldn’t crush our Robot. So Sasha didn’t become a squashed pancake today!

Ben demonstrated sensors with his own personal robot to Jacey and Daniel. When lined up at a certain spot, it is possible for the robot (named Solaris) to scan the Skystones for the reflection off of the Star Wars sticker. When it finds the shiny parts, Solaris will stop in place. Ben also gave Jacey and Daniel a quick math lesson on some of the mathematics behind Solaris.

Matthew, David and Mr. Morehead continued working on putting Watson together. Jacey took notes and was educated.

Jacey Stroup

I was the note taker for today. After a demonstration of Solaris by Ben (which was awesome!), I was educated on some of the math involved in the programming process. Watching Solaris scan for the reflection off of the Skystone sticker was very cool. Now, we have to transfer that program over to our competition Robot, Watson. I also began work on our presentation for the judges at competitions.

Attendance: Everyone except for Jayden was present today

Accomplished

Today, Jacey had returned and reviewed everything that she had missed, which was a lot. She was also the notetaker for today. After explaining everything that went on, Ben went back to work on the autonomous programs, while Matthew and his dad worked on finishing Watson. Robert helped Jacey understand everything that went on, and he also helped work on the slides system.

Jacey Stroup

I’m back and it feels great! I was extremely behind, but thanks to Robert’s awesome notes and guidance, I think I’m all caught up.

The buttons we made look really good. I think that the ones Mrs. Jacobs ordered last meeting are going to come within the next one or two meetings, which will be really good time-wise.

Attendance: Everyone except for Jacey was present

Accomplished

Jobs

• Intake System: Aiden, David, Daniel, Matthew
• Programming: Ben
• Stacker System: Jayden and Casey
• CAD: Owen
• Floating and Documenting: Robert

Today, we’re buckling down and getting our stuff done. Owen’s doing extensive research into a building Capstone, Ben is programming, and almost everyone else is building. Robert is the note-taker today in Jacey’s absence. Our first FTC Robotics Team badge has been made!

Our Capstone circumstance is an odd situation. We need a Capstone that we can easily put on top of our tower without breaking everything. Ben was hoping we could shape it close to a skystone so we could suck it up as we would a skystone, then top our skyscraper. Owen thinks we could mount it on our Robot and slide it onto a stone somehow. This gets complicated when we take into account how we would mount it and the dimensions of the stone.

Jayden and Matthew are taping a hexagonal aluminum tube for the intake system. Daniel, David and Aiden are putting a servo motor onto the linear slide to connect the arm to pick up the stone. Casey is mounting the motors for the intake. Jayden and Matthew are now sawing off a part of the aforementioned hexagonal aluminum tube. Owen has added 8300 to our Capstone. Ben has installed sensors into a practice setting, in order to help detect the skystone better in the autonomous section. He’s hopefully designed a code to help detect the Stones better with these new sensors instead of a webcam, and in addition hopefully correct some possible alignment errors.

Attendance: Jacey was not present today due to unknown reasons

Accomplished

Today was a busy day. Ben continued working on the color-sensing software and Robert took notes for Jacey while she was absent. Owen continued his work on designing the thing that will grab the Stone once it has been pushed into the robot in CAD. He also taught David how to do this. After the last meeting’s catastrophe of him forgetting to save everything, he is being extra careful to not forget.

Next time, Owen is going to do extensive research on a Capstone for the team. It has to have our team number, and we have to be able to place it on top of a (Sky)Stone.

Our button design has been completed and turned into Mrs. Jacobs. She is going to order metal button bottoms (just the pin, no design), borrow a button-maker, and print out black and red copies of Chesnee’s design. They’re going to look great! We also have pictures of the buttons for the FLL teams here at Pinnacle.

Attendance: We’re missing Jayden and Jacey today. Jayden has a basketball game and we’re fairly sure Jacey has driver’s ed. Everyone else attended

Accomplished

Matthew and Robert worked on the engineering notebook, David and Casey worked on the mount staking system, Owen and David worked on the C.A.D. and the vision intake system with Aiden, and Chesnee worked on the button design. Everyone is being pretty efficient.

Ben is developing the vision software, and he has designed the robot to do actions when it sees the special skystone as opposed to the blank ones. Robert was curious as to why we’d need vision for a robot that we’d be controlling anyway, but he explained that the vision was mainly for the autonomous part of the competition. I guessed the table was giving Ben trouble for keeping the robot moving well, and I was right; Ben decided to take the robot downstairs for further testing. Robert ended up staying down there and helping him code a bit, and we developed some superior functions to help the robot find the skystones. It’s not perfect yet, but what is? Still needs to be improved, though.

Owen is designing the “claw actuator grabby thingy”. He didn’t save and lost all his progress somewhere around 3:50, but he has since learned from his mistakes, and is now doing pretty great at 4:09. The design for both teams have gone well. The end of the meeting now, and the claw has been completed.

David and Aiden are designing an intake system to take and then keep the skystone with the robot. In addition, after a redistribution where Matthew was stolen from me, Aiden was moved to the engineering team.

Chesnee is currently creating a pin that robotics group members are able to wear. We’ll wear these pins at competitions and hopefully on days we’re allowed to at school. End of the meeting now, and the buttons have been designed.

Daniel and Casey, now joined by Matthew due to a redistribution of our workforce, are now all working on mounting the intake system we so desperately desire. They decided to take the servos off the back since they needed room to put the linear slide. End of the meeting, and the linear slide has been completely attached.

Matthew Morehead

Today's goal is to get the block staking system that will be mounted on the back of the robot and get the collection system built and mounted but the likelihood of this is slim because we still need to build it all. Our meeting tuesday for peak went well and we were told funding would be possible we presented with Sasha, Watson, and Solaris. All of them were well perceived.

Robert Stockham

Matthew and I are working on the Engineering Notebook. I’m about to go head around, check everyone’s projects out and document them all. Update: Having done this, I am now waiting for any developments in any of the aforementioned subjects. Until then, I’ll take pictures of our extremely diligent team members. End of the meeting, and it was pretty successful! I took pictures, documented, while David and Owen designed a piece, we attached the linear slide, made pins, and developed the vision coding for the robot. Not too shabby

Attendance: Everyone was present today except for Jacey. Today was Robert’s birthday

Accomplished

We have continued work on the lift system (the one that will lift and deposit blocks), which might give us problems in the future. We are afraid that we will have trouble attaching it and that the ball bearings could fall out.

Everyone enjoyed a wonderful snack of pizza, provided by Robert’s mother for his birthday. It was somewhat of a more-relaxed day.

Robert took notes in place of Jacey.

Casey Greene

Roberts mom brought pizza. We had a really successful day and we got a lot done. We are still working on the mounting of the lift system but I think it is all going to come together nicely.

Attendance: Everyone except for Matthew and Chesnee was present today. Elayna Stephens is no longer on the team due to being unable to provide enough contribution for the team

Accomplished

Today Jacey and Daniel worked on the engineering notebook, Jayden and Aiden work on the lift system, we had Ben, Robert, and Casey working on attaching the bottom ramp of the robot, Owen and David are continuing to work on the 3D modeling of Watson. All teams are working very hard to get some progress done and are working relentlessly.

Casey is working with Robert and Ben on removing the battery holder and the electrical components to give enough clearance for the collection of skystones which will take place inside the robot. Our goal is to have a vacuum like collection system that will suck in skystones, into the chassis of the robot, one at a time and have an arm that will lift said skystones and be able to make towers with it. They are also attaching motors for the wheels that will bring in the skystones and attaching a piece of plexiglass to serve as a ramp.

Aiden, Jayden, and Mr. Kantrail worked on the left system for us. They are currently using 3D printed pieces to complete the assembly for the lift and using the pieces to hold in the studs to act as a support.

Daniel

Today Jacey and I assigned the script parts to each member of the team that will be there at the PEAK Meeting next Tuesday @6:00pm. I made a list to remind us of what we need to take to the meeting like batteries, the robot, lander, etc. I helped Dr. Cahill with cutting a piece of plexiglass that the Watson team (Ben, Robert, and Casey) are using to act as a ramp to collect skystones. I went around asking everyone what they were working on and I documented it.

Jacey Stroup

I worked with Daniel to assign script parts for the PEAK Meeting this coming Tuesday at six o’clock. I took this home and worked on it there, too. I learned earlier this week that I would be unable to attend due to having to start my six hours of driving for drivers ed. Even with this being in the way, I am still doing all that I can to help get the team ready to present. Daniel was my assistant with the Engineering Notebook today. I greatly appreciate the help he provided. He and I were the note-takers today. I borrowed Mrs. Jacobs phone to take pictures of everyone working busily at their tasks.

Unfortunately, we have lost team member Elaya Stephens. She was unable to continue contributing to the team and therefore is no longer a member.

Attendance: Everyone who is supposed to come on Tuesdays was present

Accomplished

Today we worked on several different things. First, and possibly one of the most important, we talked about presenting to the PEAK School Board. We are doing so because we have a dire need for their continuing support of our Robotics team. At the meeting, we plan on doing a demonstration of Sasha, presenting our team, this year’s challenge, and promoting FIRST. Without the support of the Board, we won’t have a team. This means that doing well at this meeting is very crucial to our ability to compete for our school.

Matthew and Aiden did a tremendous amount of work on Sasha to get her ready to demonstrate. They had to fix the collection system on the Robot, due to it becoming detached several meetings back.

Jacey and Daniel began to put together a script for what everyone would say at the PEAK Meeting. In the script, we are going to talk about how important Robotics is to the STEM youth community, how beneficial FTC is, and how Robotics contributes to the maturing and aging of students who participate. There’s a joke from Mrs. Jacobs in there too: “Being in Robotics tries to teach us to be more organized, but Mrs. Jacobs says it’s more like trying to herd cats!”

Ben worked on Watson the Robot today. Casey assisted him. We are trying to have a working competition Robot by the end of November. Because of the numerous things we have to consider in competition this year, we are slightly concerned with this goal being a tad bit unreasonable, but with a lot of effort and hard work, we think we can meet it.

Jayden decided to have some fun with the attendance today. He made everyone have a special name, such as Bobert (Robert) and Aiden the Wizard. We had everyone from Benneth to Lady Jacey in Robotics today!

Jacey Stroup

I was the note taker today. Daniel and I began to work on putting together a script for the PEAK Meeting next Tuesday, which I should be able to attend. We want to demonstrate Sasha to a large crowd of people who may have no idea what FTC Robotics is or what we do here. We are going to assign people parts at our next meeting this Friday. One of our team captains, Jayden, will be unable to attend the PEAK demonstration. We are unsure as to whether or not Elayna is still on the team; she seems to be thinking that she is ‘taking a break’ from Robotics. We don’t exactly allow this, so the situation’s outcome is to be determined.

Daniel Briceno

Today Jacey and I decided to come up with a script that we could use to speak to the audience at the PEAK Meeting next Tuesday. As we made our script we kept in mind that we are here promoting our robotics team, talking to an audience that possibly has no idea what FTC is or what this years game is, and why robotics is important and how it is more than just building robots and getting them to move.

Aiden Leon

On the 12th of November the FTC Robotics team are are going to show what our robotics club/robots can do and what we’ve done in the past. The FLL Robotics team will also be there showing the same thing to the PEAK board. We should choose someone to publicly speak and we should all work together to figure out what he/she should say.

Attendance: Everyone who is supposed to come on Tuesdays was present, along with new team member Robert Stockham

Accomplished

Today we split into our normal groups of jobs. Daniel and Jacey worked on the Engineering Notebook, Jayden and Chesnee worked on the linear slides, David and Owen worked on 3D modeling the robot in SolidWorks. Ben, Casey and Robert are working on fixing the motors on Watson to keep them from bending on the ends that don’t have the wheels on them. Lastly, we have Aiden and Matthew working on finding companies that we can send promo letters to get funds for our robotics team. Mr. Mullendore, Coach Bill, and Mr. Kantrail all came in today like all the other Fridays, bringing in parts we might have needed and helping our team out. The 3D printer has been having technical difficulties the past couple of weeks, so today we test printed a chess piece and we have fixed our problem having no errors in our print.

Daniel Briceno

Today I worked on the Engineering Notebook with Jacey and I wrote the summary for today’s jobs and what goals we focused on. I helped Aiden work on his entry and I helped count the total amount of batteries on the team. I loaded up the tiles in Coach Bill’s car that we used for the Fall Festival when we represented the robotics team.

Attendance: Everyone who is supposed to come on Tuesdays was present, along with new team member Robert Stockham

Accomplished

Today, we welcomed a new member to our team: Robert Stockham. He is a Sophomore in tenth grade here at Pinnacle. We are very excited to have him on the team; Jayden has been trying to convince him to join since the first day of school! Jayden wrote down the list of jobs today. Matthew, Daniel, and Aiden were assigned to fix Sasha after her collection system became detached the other week during practice. Ben and Casey were finally able to get a successful Autonomous program up and running, and have begun working on another one. We have realized that we are going to need multiple programs for this year’s competition. Jacey worked on the Engineering Notebook (or as Ben put it, “her thing”), and also took pictures. Jayden showed Robert around and made sure he knew what everything was. Owen and David continued their work with CAD. As with last week, only two people are allowed in the downstairs at a time.

We are having several problems with Sasha. During practice a week ago, her ‘arms’ that extend the basket for our collection system detached from the actual Robot itself. The chain connected to the gear that raised the system also came undone.

Attendance: Everyone was present except for Elayna and Chesnee

Accomplished

Today, we didn’t have school, but we still decided to meet. We took our ‘serious’ pictures with the entire team, and we also took ‘ridiculous’ pictures. In the latter, we dressed up as characters from Star Wars. We had outfits for everyone from Queen Amidala to Darth Vader. Some of us were able to bring their light sabers from home, and Dr. Cahill provided the costumes. Matthew and a teacher here, Mr. Rowe, had a light saber duel and we all went to see Mr. Ledbetter. We also worked on preparing Watson. The team captains made the decision to only have two people in our downstairs room at once. Dr. Cahill took pictures and sent them to Jacey for her to add to the Engineering Notebook. Last night, several of our team mates demonstrated the robots at the Fall Festival. Numerous children took an interest in our team and the FTC Challenge this year.

Jacey Stroup

I was the note-taker for today. We had lots of fun dressing up in Star Wars costumes and somewhat-gently stabbing each other with light sabers. I video-taped part of a duel between Mr. Rowe and Matthew, which was highly entertaining! We discussed our goals for this meeting and got right to it.

Several of us (including myself) worked together to put a massive metal rolling frame together so that we could have a backdrop for our team pictures. After the main fun was done and had, we put on our costumes.

Attendance: Everyone except for Daniel, Aiden and Casey were present

Accomplished

Daniel had to go to the orthodontist, so he was unable to attend today. Aiden was sick and Casey was on vacation. Elayna and Chesness had to leave early because they are on the yearbook team, which also meets on Tuesdays. We decided to have a meeting this Friday when we don’t have school from 12-3. Six people can attend: Jacey, Jayden, David, Daniel, Ben, and Aiden. This Thursday, our school is hosting our annual Fall Festival. We were invited to do a demonstration of our robots there. Six people are able to attend: Jayden, Ben, Matthew, Owen, David, and Daniel.

Today we discussed about our future as a team. Within a few years, we will lose Jayden and Daniel due to their grade. The majority of our team consists of ninth graders, with the youngest three being in seventh. Our team captains (Ben Caunt and Jayden Robbs) came up with a plan to limit the number of members at each meeting. A problem we have noticed constantly this year is that we have way too many people with nothing to do, so they just sit there and occasionally become very annoying to the people with an actual job. The captains proposed this plan: Only the people on the Building, CAD, and Engineering Notebook teams attend the Tuesday meetings. We took an anonymous vote and the majority agreed to the proposal. Members not on those specific teams can attend, but they would be working on the Robot itself and learning about it instead of doing that job. Even if this means they’re holding a flashlight while someone is screwing something in, they still have to be working. Too many hands on one project can mean disaster for the entire team.

We also talked about things we need to improve. Below is a list of things we noticed:

• Organization needs to improve
• We need to plan better
  • Develop a Robot model and stick with it
• Use more CAD
  • Build the Robot in CAD first
  • Don’t build and then rebuild
  • Allows for a comprehensive parts list
    • This allows for budgeting
• Make a timetable and stick with it
• Make sure everyone sticks to the teams they are assigned to
  • Everyone needs to own their job and do it correctly

Mrs. Slagle (Owen’s mom) came up with our list and shared it with Jacey. Jacey took notes today and copied the list onto the Engineering Notebook. The two also decided that they could improve these things for next year. Even with these necessary changes, our team is already doing much better than last year.

Over the weekend, several team members met and rebuilt Watson, our competition Robot this year, with Actobotics parts. This was because we decided that Tetrics was not the best parts to use for our Robot. The main drawback here was that Actobotics is very expensive. Ben was able to purchase a TileRunner Robot for his own personal use, and he says, “the TileRunner is not a good competition robot. At all.”

Jacey Stroup

I was the note-taker today. I also took pictures and assisted Jayden with the jobs list. I talked with Mrs. Slagle about things we could improve this year and next year. We all voted for the proposal Jayden offered, and the motion passed. People not in the Building, CAD, or Engineering Notebook teams will no longer attend the Tuesday meetings unless otherwise told or want to learn about the Robots.

Attendance: Everyone

Accomplished

Today we worked on several different things. Ben and Casey measured how long it would take for us to collect one Stone/Skystone (15 seconds). The entire Build Team (Daniel, Chesnee, Jayden, and Matthew) continued to work on the dragging servo motor grabber so that we can drag/push the Foundation of the Stones during the Autonomous and Endgame periods. David and Owen worked on the CAD problems we’ve been having.

Mrs. Jacobs asked Jacey to make a template for the FLL Team’s Engineering Notebook as a form of Outreach. Jacey has also helped the teams with their Notebook in the past. She gave them tips and helped type up the first six meetings for them.

Jacey was also contacted by the Cleveland County Memorial Library after the phone call last Tuesday. They said that they needed her to go and scout out a spot at the library where we could display our Robot this coming Saturday, but if needed, we could reschedule it. Jacey is unable to go, so she is going to contact them again and tell them that the meeting will have to be postponed and happen at a later time. Jacey also took notes for today.

Jacey Stroup

I was the note taker for today. I assisted Ben with the different groups within our team, and I also worked on making a template for the younger FLL kids that have their teams here. I have worked with them in the past, and I don’t mind doing this! This counts as Outreach within our school as well. I updated the Engineering Notebook and took three separate pictures for it. Apparently, I looked so concentrated while I was working, that Ben (who assigned jobs for today), put Do not disturb beside my name.

I walked around and took notes on what everyone was doing. Elayna and Chesnee worked on building the dragger for the Foundation, and Matthew and Mr. Morehead worked on finishing the ‘grab and pinch’ collection system. I went downstairs and watched while Ben and Casey measured times. I also looked at the Solidworks Owen, David, and Daniel were working on. Owen and David also worked on CAD.

Attendance: Everyone

Accomplished

Jacey took notes for today.

Several things went on today. One of these was two of our members, Jacey and Chesness, attempted to contact the Cleveland County Memorial Library to ask if we could do a display there with our Robot. Jacey was able to get through to a staff member, but the person who would normally handle this wasn’t there. We gave them the school’s number and Mrs. Jacobs email. They will get back with us in one to two business days. Jacey also tried to contact the Head Branch through email, but was unable to.

We also composed a shopping list for parts we will need in the near future. Matthew, Mrs. Slagle (Owen’s mother), Mr. Slagle (Owen’s father), Daniel, and Jayden worked on this.

Ben, Casey, and Mr. Slagle worked on finishing the collection system and adjusting the chassis of the Robot. Owen continued to work on the autonomous program as well as constructing a 3D object that we will need to print in the future.

We also discussed the Rhythm and Roots Run happening this Saturday. We have to be at the Don Gibson Theater at 7:30 AM to help direct traffic and runners. Nine of us are able to go (see below.)

Able to attend the Rhythm and Roots Run:

• Jacey Stroup
• Ben Caunt
• Matthew Morehead
• Owen Slagle
• Elayna Stephens
• David Briceno
• Daniel Briceno
• Aiden Leon
• Jayden Robbs

Jacey Stroup

Today I was able to contact the Cleveland Memorial Library. I wanted to ask if we could do an Outreach into our community and promote First by displaying and running our Robot there. It took four tries before me or Chesnee were able to get through to a staff member. However, the person that would normally handle this type of situation was not at the library today. The person I was able to talk to said that they would call/email us back in one to two business days. I gave them the school’s phone number and Mrs. Jacobs email (with her permission.) I also took notes today and talked about Marketing with Chesnee before she had to leave.

Attendance: Everyone

Accomplished

Matthew and Mr. Morehead started to build the ‘Grab and Pinch’ collection system today. They are making amazing progress and think they can have the device fully built and ready to attach by next Friday.

Our Marketing team met with Ms. Kentrail today. She explained what Marketing is, some ideas, and even Harry Potter got brought into the conversation. It was a very productive day. Jacey took notes.

Jacey Stroup

Today I took notes and had our first real Marketing meeting. We discussed a variety of subjects; from Outreach and sponsors to Harry Potter. (We talked about our House sortings. We concluded that I am a Hufflepuff.) The team decided to not go clean up the Gateway Trail and plans to reschedule later. Instead, we are participating in the Rhythm and Roots run, a local race here in Shelby. We will be directing runners and traffic like we did last year. The three hours we volunteer here also count towards NJHS or NHS if you were able to sign up in time.

Next week, Chesnee and I are going to attempt to contact the Cleveland County Memorial Library to ask if we could come for a few hours and display our Robots named Sasha. We would take Watson, but since he is our official competition Robot for this year, we decided to keep him safe back at school. We are going to bring half of our mats to the local Livermush festival in two weeks. Sasha will also be the display Robot there. We are going to promote First, our school, and our team there.

Attendance: Everyone was present except for Jacey

Accomplished

Today, we talked about what we are going to do in the upcoming Robotics meetings. Jeremiah Lowe also quit on the weekend. He only attended one meeting, so it’s not a huge deal. We planned out our plan to build the “Pinch and Grip” collection system that we decided we would use for the collection system. For our main Robot, named Watson, we determined the following:

• We need to purchase motors for the rubber wheel “Pinch and Grab” collection system.
• We need to fix the wheels so they are no longer loose and so they don’t fall off.
• We need to plan/create the Autonomous Program for Watson.

We also discussed about our future projects for Sasha. She is going to be our ‘Outreach Robot’ for this year. The below bullets points are our plans for Sasha:

• We need to test Sasha for driving to make sure everything still works.
• Do we need to change the wheels?
• Who is going to be in charge of maintenance?
• We might make a ball shooter to show off our skills.
• We are also thinking about making a grabber to hand flowers to people.
• We need bumpers to protect Sasha from the environment around her.

Attendance: Everyone is present except for David, Daniel, and Ben, and Elayna

Accomplished

We did not have school today due to parent teacher conferences, but the team decided anyway to meet for two hours. We have also lost two team members, Sierra and Zoie. They quit due to unknown reasons. However, we also gained someone. His name is Jeremiah Lowe. Jeremiah is a seventh grader here at Pinnacle, and he’s looking forward to being on the team. Due to our Marketing Team being practically decimated by the loss of members, Jeremiah has been assigned to that group. Our objectives today were to build the new pincher system, program it, and to have a Marketing Meeting.

Jacey Stroup

We lost two new team members, Zoie and Sierra. However, we gained one new one, Jeremiah Lowe. He has been assigned to the Marketing Team with Elayna and I.

The team decided to meet today despite not having school, as we did last year. I worked on the Engineering Notebook and explained to Jeremiah what Marketing is and what our team on it does. I also edited his biography and added it to the team’s collection of bios.

I drove the Robot, Watson, around for a few minutes to help Owen and Coach Bill with a few phone connection issues.

Owen Slagle

Today I worked on programming the pincher system. I was having some issues with the program connecting and downloading properly. Coach Bill helped me with this, and the issue has not been resolved yet. Jacey drove the Robot named Watson for a few minutes, and we were having trouble with the phones connecting. We were able to fix this problem.

Jeremiah Lowe

This was my first meeting on the FTC Team. I have been at PCA since it began, so I’ve been here for seven years. Jacey explained what Marketing is and assigned me to the Marketing Group. I also watched Casey and Owen as they worked on the programming. I am looking forward to helping with building and everything else on the team. I am very excited to be in FTC Robotics this year.

Attendance: Everyone is present except for Sierra

Accomplished

Today we talked about a new possible collection system. This system includes using two rubber wheels that would sink down onto the Stone or Skystone. The traction from the rubber would then pick up the Stone, and a bar over top of it would keep it centered. The team agreed that this is a smart and somewhat simple build, and that we will be building it this Friday. We also talked about FLL volunteering, and Jacey said she would go tomorrow and help with their Engineering Notebook. This is FLL’s first year of having to have a Notebook, so the teams here are a little in the dark about what to do.

Jacey Stroup

I volunteered to help with the two FLL teams on their next meeting. My thoughts on the new collection system idea are this: It looks like it would work, and it looks easy and simple to build and program. I think we have to have a color sensor as well because of the Skystones picture. Next week, we decided to do the following:

• Build the pincher system.
• Program the Autonomous Program for the new system.
• Have a Marketing Team Meeting.

Attendance: Everyone

Accomplished

Coach Bill was present for the first time this season today. We continued planning out our strategy for competitions. (See Autonomous Plan below.) During the Autonomous Period, we are concerned about colliding with other robots, mainly our alliance, due to the setup of the field.

Considering we have 46 inches in between the wall and the edge of our alliance bridge, we are worried about hitting our alliance partner when going through the Alliance Bridge. Coach Ketrail thinks we’ll only be able to pick up one Stone/Skystone, and if we try for two, we’ll end up hitting someone or something. This could lead to a penalty, which we definitely don’t want.

We voted on two different collection mechanisms: A ‘suck it up’ one, and a ‘pinching’ system. The vote was anonymous and all votes went to ‘suck it up.’ We got this idea from a 30 Hour Build video by Checkmate FTC 12384. Our building team started work on this today.

Autonomous Plan (Easy Plan)

• Grab one Skystone
  • 10 points
• Place Skystone
  • 4 points
• Grab one normal Stone
  • 2 points
• Place normal Stone
  • 4 points
• Reposition
  • 10 points
• Navigate
  • 5 points
• 35 total points-Total possible: 72 points

Jacey Stroup

We took an anonymous vote today on different collection systems. One system, inspired by a 30 Hour Build video by Checkmate FTC 12384, shows two wheels ‘sucking’ up a Stone into the ‘belly of the beast’ (AKA the Robot), and then there would be a simple pinching system that lifts it out and places it onto the Foundation. I’m not sure how we would place out Capstone with this method.

The second system is also a type of pinching system, but different. It would consist of two grabbers covered in rubber, that would be controlled by a servo motor. The grabbers would have some type of rubber on them, because the Stones are very slippery.

Attendance: Everyone except Owen and Matthew

Accomplished

Everyone got settled into their new job positions today. We are very pleased with having everyone assigned somewhere, because it means we can be more efficient. This is something with struggled with last year; we are hoping we can improve that this year.

Jobs (Frequently Going to Change)

• Rules Gurus
  • David Briceno
  • Chesnee Stewart
• Pit Crew
  • David Briceno
  • Aiden Leon
  • Casey Greene
• Building Team
  • Daniel Briceno
  • Chesnee Stewart
  • Jayden Robbs
  • Matthew Morehead
• Programmers
  • Owen Slagle
  • Ben Caunt
  • Casey Greene
• 3D Modeling
  • Ben Caunt
  • Owen Slage
  • Daniel Briceno
  • Casey Greene
• Electronics
  • David Briceno
  • Ben Caunt
  • Owen Slagle
• Marketing
  • Chesnee Stewert
  • Jacey Stroup
  • Jayden Robbs
  • Matthew Morehead
• Engineering Notebook
  • Jacey Stroup
  • Daniel Briceno

Attendance: Everyone except Owen and Matthew

Accomplished

Today we made several lists of jobs for our team. We assigned each person multiple jobs as to make sure that no one was overwhelmed with the work they were required to do. Everyone was assigned two-to-three jobs.

Jacey Stroup

I was assigned to the Marketing and Engineering Notebook jobs for this year. Marketing includes the following:

• Social Media
  • This includes Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter inputs from the team. If we can get this approved by the Board, it would be controlled and created by Mrs. Jacobs. She would get to decide who could post things about our team. Social Media accounts for the team require daily postings.
• Fundraising
  • This means the events we do to raise money for our team, like the Spaghetti Fundraiser we held at school last Thursday.
• Outreach
  • This means the events we do to reach out and impact our community. Last season, we did a trial cleanup and helped to direct runners in a race. We plan on doing more Outreach this year

David Briceno

Today we mostly spent the day setting Jobs and priorities for the whole team. Some of the priorities were programming, 3D Modeling, and the Building Team. My job is to be Rules Guru with other people, and to be part of the Pit crew, and to be part of the Electronics Team. The Rules Guru has to learn all the rules and regulations and the Pit Crew is in charge to take care of the robot during matches. We made a checklist for things to check and do after every match such as charging the phones and battery. I also showed some members of the soccer team the robot and the field as a way of Outreach and promoting FIRST.

Attendance: Jayden, Casey, Zoie, Sierra, Jacey, and Elayna were present.

Accomplished

Today we talked about our strategy for the Autonomous Period. Our programmers have to plan for multiple possibilities this year; this is due to the playing field setup and the tasks we can or can’t complete this year. Notes were taken by Zoie Stiller.

Autonomous Plan

• Grab one Skystone
  • 10 points
• Place Skystone
  • 4 points
• Grab one normal Stone
  • 2 points
• Place normal Stone
  • 4 points
• Reposition
  • 10 points
• Navigate
  • 5 points
• 35 total points-Total possible: 72 points

Zoie Stiller

Our plan is very detailed. We are first going to go after a Skystone because the first and second Skystones are 10 points each. We need the points and the support; oftentimes, if you get ahead in the Autonomous Period, it’s hard for other teams to catch up. Second, we would love but aren’t sure if will be able to, but we would love to get a normal Stone. Third, we would like to place at least one Stone. That would be four points. We also want to Reposition; that will be 10 points. Then we would try to Navigate, or park, on the tape under the Alliance Bridges. If we were to get everything, we would have a total 35 points.

Attendance: Everyone

Accomplished

We made a matrix for scoring today. Coach Kantrail assisted with this. Everyone has received both of the game manuals, and we have three Rules Gurus: David Briceno, Sierra Stamey, and Elayna Stephens. Their job is to know the rules inside and out, frontwards and backwards.

We made a chart based on point counts, efficiency, time, and difficulty. We decided that in our next meeting, we would talk more about planning and what we would actually aim to do.

Jacey Stroup

Today we talked about points and scoring. We decided that we needed to be more time efficient this year during competition and during the entire season. We also voted on a set of Rules Gurus: David Briceno, Sierra Stamey, and Elayna Stephens. These are the people we turn to when we have questions concerning competitions rules and requirements. However, everyone on the team is supposed to at least have an understanding of the game manuals.

Attendance: Everyone

Accomplished

We continued to discuss possible sponsors for our team. We came up with more Outreach options as well. Last year, we had problems with team members putting in more time for other activities such as sports instead of Robotics, so we talked about balancing everything too. We also welcomed a seventh grader named Zoie Stiller to the team!

We also conferred about possible challenges for this year and ways to score points.

Jacey Stroup

Everyone in the team talked about possible strategies for this year. I think we might have to climb, hang, collect, and park today. Below is a list of things the team thinks we might have to to:

• Hang
• Collect
• Pick up
• Park
• Deposit
• Climb
• Lift

If the challenges are anything like last year’s, this is going to be a difficult year to score points. However, with amazing programmers like Ben and Owen, I think we’ll do great!

We welcomed another new team member too! Her name is Zoie Stiller. She is in seventh grade, and is the youngest on the team. This team is slowly getting bigger and better!

Zoie Stiller

I like the team because the people are so welcoming. I committed to getting in touch with the Gaitway Trail. The team also has great leadership. Many people took control helped others. I just love the team.

Attendance: Everyone

Accomplished

We did everything on the agenda today. We welcomed one new team player, Sierra Stiller! We are very glad to have her on the team this year.

We decided that this year, we have to have sponsors. We listed possible ones and decided that Mrs. Jacobs would type up a letter to send to them. Sandy Stroup, Jacey’s mother, will send this out to the ones we choose. We also discussed possible Outreach chances.

Daniel Briceno

Today we discussed our game plan. I made an excel sheet today portraying what we went over how we were going to treat the next couple of meetings depending on what the game will be this year. Tomorrow is the game reveal and we cannot wait to get working on our robot.

Jacey Stroup

Today was our first ever meeting for the 2019-2020 FTC Robotics year! We talked about sponsor and possible Outreach opportunities. My mother had agreed to send out a letter to companies we hope will sponsor us if Mrs. Jacobs will type it up. We will take a full-team picture in the weeks to come that we can add into the letter.

Matthew Morehead

We considered sponsorships and Outreach possibilities on our first meeting. We welcomed Sierra Stamey to the team as well. I think this year is going to be great.