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/

Happy New Year!

Hey guys!  Hope you had a wonderful holiday season!!  I'd just like to give a quick FIRST update.  Kickoff is a week from tomorrow and everyone is psyched for it!  We're all patiently waiting for the game, and while we wait the Game Design Committee (or GDC) has given us a little clue as to what the game will be.  Every year the GDC releases clues to stir up conversation in the FIRST environment.  This year, the first clue was a picture of Little Eva, the singer of locomotion.  Although there has been a lot of speculation on what this could mean, I have two favorite ideas.  One is that the correlation between locomotion and the game is that our robots will be towing something.  Possibly a cart?  Anyways, that's an idea that a lot of people believe.  I also have a long shot idea.  On the robotics forum "Chief Delphi", there was one person who posted an idea that everyone kind of disregarded.  He said, "EVA can also stand for Electronic Video Assistant. Couldn't it be possible that it has something to do with robot vision? they've been trying to get teams to do more with vision for awhile now, maybe we're required to do it in endgame or something. Or better yet, earlier people were mentioning a major game change before end game but after auto, maybe the screen darkens in front of the drivers and they have to use their vision code to see what's going on."  I really think this statement has some merit.  There has been discussion in FIRST about wanting to make the game more interactive, making teams utilize video feedback.  Granted this idea is a long-shot, and we won't know until the game comes out, but I think it has potential.  So any FIRST-ers out there reading this, comment and let me know what you think!  I'd love to hear ideas :)  Until kickoff, happy waiting!

Information from: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=88030

Seiman's Award

Every year there is a competition where high school students can enter innovations that they have created for a chance to win $100,000.  This is a competition where great minds come together.  This year, the winners were two junior boys who worked together to create a voice-recognition algorithm.  This algorithm allows computers to "hear" the voice of a speaker and interpret the emotion being portrayed.  It utilizes frequencies and previously defined voice clips in order to determine what emotion the speaker is feeling.  It is currently very accurate in deciphering happy and sad, but still struggles when emotions like fear and anger are added into the mix.  The pair has big plans for this new technology.  One use they have in mind is at call centers, where extremely upset customers can be identified and sent to a real person more efficiently.  Additionally, they have plans to make a watch for autistic children.  In their minds, these watches will read what the speaker is portraying and display a face on the screen that will match the emotion.  The inspiration from the two boys came from the movie iRobot, where a robot identifies fear in its user and acts to protect the person.  The two students that can be credited with this amazing innovation are Matthew Fernandez and Akash Krishnan. 

Information from: http://www.npr.org/2010/12/08/131913220/Team-Wins-Siemens-Prize-For-Speech-Analyzer

Team Paragon Updatesss :)

Hey everyone!!!! So there's not too much going on at robotics now, just trying to get ready for the season.  Everyone is getting their last bit of hours in for travel requirements, and as always, the focus is fundraising, fundraising, fundraising!  Last week was a good week, but we need to keep it up.  So I'm asking everyone who sees this to come to our first annual pancake breakfast.  It is from 8-11 am December 12th at the Elks Lodge in Windsor, on Deerfield Ave.  It is $7.00 for adults and $5.00 for Seniors (not the high school kind) and kids under 12.  It's sure to be a blast!  Come and support Team Paragon in our fundraising efforts! :)

Nanotechnology!!! IBM Nanophotonic Chip

The world of nanotechnology is totally cool!!!  Obviously over the past few decades there has been an enormous jump in the world of computer technology, hence the need for a project on the race for technology.  IBM has made a great deal of jumps in the world of technology, and this is yet another great move forward.  The idea of connection through light has been tossed around some, but IBM has revealed a gel-silicon chip that uses light to send signals.  Although the technology to implement this new innovation is lagging in production, it is soon to come.  The great thing about this technology jump is that it is pressing for more to come.  It is challenging innovators to keep up, which is huge in the race for technology.  Because, no matter how much of a competition it is, the race for technology is all about working together and different countries pushing one another to find the next big thing.  In the end, everyone benefits.  These chips in particular are expected to begin shipping next year, and will very much increase the speed of computers for the future.

Information from: http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-12/ibm-unveils-nanophotonic-chips-could-lead-exascale-computing-revolution