Three... Is a magic number. :)

I'm pretty sure this season is moving more quickly than any other.  With all of the snow days, it's a wonder that we still are ahead of any other season.  Our prototype chassis has been newly updated with limit switches, hopefully making the arm control system more effective.  Mechanical is also making other changes to the prototype.  The arm is too heavy for the motors, so they are working on redesigning it in a less heavy fashion, which will give us an arm that can lift without slipping.  We also proved our tube-grabbing mechanism to be ineffective, so the mechanical kids are working on a more efficient grabbing system, one that won't just push the tubes around the field.  Electrical has once again cleaned their end of the room, waiting to be able to wire the rest of the robot.  They bought some way-cool LED lights, doing what they do best; spending money.  The admins, as always, are incredibly hard at work, improving the organization of the team and starting ideas for the awards to be given out during the competition season.  Web has redesigned the layout of the website, making it much more appealling to the eye.  The programming crew is always busy learning new techniques and working out kinks to mak ean effective drive system.  The entire group is in a state of constant learning, which is very commendable.  The team is moving forward at a rapid pace, despite the many build cancellations.  Hopefully by the end of next week we will have a name for our robot.  The name ideas range from silly ones like Snookie and The Situation to The Cyclone and Spider.  With the banning of diseases from the name pool, this year is sure to bring an interesting name to our wonderful robot.  If you have any name ideas, comment below and I'll be sure to put them up on the board.  Happy Building!

Wait. What just happened?

It is official.  Week two of build season has concluded.  It is amazing to see how far we have come.  There has not been a time that I've been on the team where we have had a running prototype by the end of week two.  Let alone a built AND PAINTED competition chassis.  The blending of Team Paragon and the Technowizards has been a blessing to say the least.  Now all we can hope for is a build season full of continued efficiency.  Through the past week, everyone has been working hard to keep the season moving forward, despite days lost due to snow.  Mechanical fabricated an entire working prototype, and came up with a very effective arm and grabbing mechanism.  Electrical wired the prototype (again) and kept working on batteries and whatnot, waiting for the envelope to build the electropneumaquarium.  Programming has kept the learning process moving strong, and made it so the team can drive our new mechanum wheels for practice with the prototype.  Admin has kept up it's work, sorting out financial business, working on the handbook as well as the pit book, and many other wonderful jobs that keep the team running.  Don't forget to check our ever-growing website at team-paragon.org!  And we must keep in mind that none of this could be done without our incredibly hard-working and always-patient mentors!  Let's keep it up Team Paragon!! :)

Where does the time go?!

Well, week one of build season has officially come and gone!!  I guess the old saying is right, "time flies when you're having fun".... or building a robot.  Since the kickoff video was released, FIRST Team Paragon (notice the use of Dean's Homework for any robotics nerd reading) has been working busily to complete a robot BEFORE the Hartford Regional this year.  For anyone not involved in robotics, six weeks seems like plenty of time to build a robot.  Sadly, this is not the case.  Six weeks is nothing as far as getting a machine working cohesively enough to complete a task goes, especially for a team full of teenagers.  Paragon actually had shirts made up that say "Will finish in Hartford".  HOWEVER!  This year is going to be different.  With the new addition of students from Cheney Tech, FIRST Team Paragon is doing better than ever.  After about three days of strategizing, the team came up with a pretty solid choice for robot design.  While mechanical immediately began prototyping and mocking ideas up in CAD, the rest of the team did basic preparation for the season.  Electrical cleaned and made battery leads, two very tedious tasks that have the ability to take up valuable build time.  Admin designed shirts and buttons, and made a new policy as far as picture taking goes (you take it, you resize and rename it before the night is out!).  Software has continued to learn and is exploring all of the new challenges that face the team in the upcoming competition season.  I can't give too much away, but our prototype is looking great!  The arm has been assembled in a way that will be greatly beneficial to this year's game, and our extended envelope (84 inches!) has given us a world of newpossibilities.  A chassis design has been decided upon and next to look at is the grabbing mechanism!  We're moving ahead at an amazing pace, and by the looks of it we will actually have drive practice before we ship!  Now we just have to hope that the rest of build season goes as well as week 1 and we need to keep in mind that none of it could be done without our extremely dedicated mentors!  So here's to an awesome build season!  Stay tuned for more updates!

Kickoff anyone?

So today was quite possibly the most exciting day of my teenage life.  What made it so special, you ask?  Well the answer is simple.  Today was the official kickoff date for FIRST robotics.  For any FIRST student, today was Christmas all over again.  We were given two clues this year, hinting at what the game would be.  The first as I posted before was Little Eva.  The second was just the FIRST logo, which is a special positioning of a triangle square and circle.  They're linked together so a lot of people thought that kind of tied in with the whole Locomotion idea.  However, today a lot of different theories were tied together in some unexpected way.  The name of the game is Logomotion.  Long story short, the robots have tubes shaped like the shapes in the logo that are to be scored on posts in scoring zones.  We have "uber tubes" for the autonomous period in the beginning where the robot runs purely by programming.  If we can score tubes on top of those during regular game play then they act as a doubling tool.  They're fantastic bonuses.  Scoring these tubes on their pegs in order of the logo is yet another doubling tool.  Then, in the very end of the game, robots are supposed to release mini-bots (how cool does that sound?!)  that will race up posts.  The first to reach the top receives 30 bonus points.  The second receives 20, third receives 15, and last receives 10.  I personally am psyched to see how these races turn out.  There are a possible 158 points available per alliance in this game, so there will definitely be a lot to take in during the matches.  And by the way, I was partially right with my guess as to the meaning of Eva.  I thought we would need to include some sort of video feedback, and sure enough we do, or at least have been given the tools to.  There are lines on the ground so robots can use light sensors during autonomous, very much like in FIRST Lego League.  Team Paragon spent the day learning the rules and strategizing how we would play the game.  We figured out that the most important parts of the game are speed, autonomous scoring, mini-bot scoring, and tube handling.  If we can get a robot that can master at least two of these things, we can pretty much look at a successful season.  And now the insanity begins.  We have six weeks to build a robot fit to compete.  We're all psyched.  This season is sure to bring on a lot of challenges, but Team Paragon is surely ready to take them on.  As Will.I.Am said today in the broadcast, "It's dope"  :)

Information from: http://www.usfirst.org/