Blog

Shockwave, a promotional t-shirt shooting robot, was awarded the Abbott Invention Hall of Fame Award at the 2011 FIRST Silicon Valley Regional.

Team 254 is willing and able to bring our T-Shirt cannon to many events, including but not limited to:

• Sporting Events
• Spirit Rallies
• Community Events

The T-Shirt Cannon can be branded to meet the promotional requirements of any sponsor.

To Request to have the T-Shirt Cannon appear at your event, please contact our PR Director, Godwin Vincent.

On August 7, several members from our team had the opportunity to participate in NASA’s Diversity Day. As a NASA house team, Team 254 was able to present three robots; Overkill, Skyfire, and Slipstream to NASA engineers and staff who stopped by our booth.

Mani Gnanasivam, James Holden, Andrew Torrance, Namit Mishra, Nick Gunady, Jack Lee, and Chris Sides attended.

After setting up the booth, the team members fielded questions from curious onlookers. Many NASA engineers were asked what program Team 254 used to design the robot, which programming languages were used, and other technical questions. All the team members answered questions asked by the dozens of people who stopped by the exhibit. After lunch, the members demonstrated Overkill’s frisbee and hanging abilities. Andrew Torrance explained multiple times to the crowd the the rules of last year’s game and Overkill’s scoring abilities. After presenting, we packed up and relaxed at the lab.

 

Over the past three days, Team 254 has had the opportunity to visit two of its Gold level sponsors, BAE Systems and Ooyala, and demonstrate the fruits of its labor.

BAE Visit

On June 5, a multicultural group of five students and one mentor celebrated diversity with BAE at the BAE Systems Diversity Fair. The students participating were Nagy Hakim, Scott Cardona, Richard Lin, Abhi Kumar, and Louis Lin. Mentor Dennis Jenks provided Team 254 with the amazing opportunity to come to the fair. People in the event included many BAE engineers and programmers, who added excitement because students had a chance to talk to others who work in the same fields of interest.

Students transported two robots, Overkill and Shockwave, to the event to exhibit the team's work and extend appreciation for BAE's consistent support throughout the years. Many of their employees came out to visit the team's pit and talk about the robots' designs and controls. After opening ceremonies, Shockwave fired a barrage of T-shirts into a crowd. Later, drivers and operators demonstrated Overkill's driving and frisbee shooting capabilities.

At the conclusion of the fair, Dennis led the students on a private tour around BAE's impressive facility. Four tour guides exhibited the workings of BAE, including military vehicles, machines, simulations, and controls.

 

Ooyala Visit

Today, the team visited one of our Gold level sponsors, Ooyala. Our programming mentor Patrick Fairbank, who works at Ooyala, set the day up so the team could demo Overkill. The team visited their office, located in Mountain view and set up. There were about 40 or so members of the company that gathered around asking questions about the various subsystems and function of the robot.

Many members of the company also played Ultimate Frisbee after work on  a team. These members lined up on one end of the space set up while Abhi Kumar and Richard Lin drove the robot around, picking up and shooting frisbees towards the employees(At a much lower, catchable speed). Meanwhile, Nagy Hakim answered questions about the robot. At the end of the demo the team members stuck around for pizza and presented the award to Patrick for Ooyala's sponsorship.

Team 254 thanks BAE Systems and Ooyala for their continued support in the robotics program.

Yesterday, Mark Leon and Drew Price arranged for the current Zero Robotics Winners to tour the NASA Ames Facilities. Team 254 represented the NASA Robotics Alliance as part of the tour. The 20 or so members of their winning team filed in to the lab and were given a presentation by Abhi Kumar and Richard Lin as to the history, function, and current robot of the team. Afterwards, Abhi and Scotty Cardona demonstrated the robot's shooting capabilities and hanging prowess. To finish off the tour, Mark took the group upstairs and talked more about the NASA Robotics Alliance and the summer Robotics Academy. As the members left, we brought Shockwave out onto the field and answered final questions for the group.

Thursday: Day 1

On Thursday, students were up bright and early, leaving for the Dome at 5:00. Students waited in line for the event center to open up, as getting to the stands first is very important for scouting. Students ran to the seats in the Archimedes division. They sat next to Team 987, The High Rollers, who we won the San Diego regional with. Practice matches continued throughout the day, and the Cheesy Poofs played one, which they won. Their first match was qualification match 16, which they lost 162-170. Part of the intake polycarb got stuck in carpet, and dangled below the 30 point level. If it hadn’t, Team 254 would have won 172-170, but the day goes on! Team 254 then went on to qualification match 24, which the they won 190-58, ironing out the kinks from the first match. They went on to match 34, and unfortunately lost 107-115.

After the matches concluded, the students walked to Joe-Bucks, a phenomenal BBQ joint near the hotel. There, they met Team 233’s mentor Mike D, who helped liven up the night. The students walked back to the hotel, where they relaxed in their rooms and went to bed early, as the next day they’d have to wake up early again.

Friday: Day 2

The students woke up around 4:30 and went off to wait for the stadium to open up. In line, they hung out with Team 233, Team 987, and a couple others. They got the same seats as the day before, right next to 987. The first match was another qualification one (#63). Team 254 won with 152 points compared to the 87 the opponents scored. Team 254 didn’t manage to cling to the 30 point level, but they still won. The next match was 79, which the teams won 164-77. The Cheesy Poofs hung at the 10 point level, as their teammates hung at the 30 point level. Match 91 followed, and resulted in another win, 172-152. Team 254 pulled off another 30 point hang this match. The final match of the day was match 102, which the team miraculously won 179-69. This match, one of The Cheesy Poof’s alliance partners didn’t function, so the Poofs won a 2v3 match. After the matches, the students made a quick trip home to change, and went out with Team 233, the Pink Team to a Chinese restaurant. There, they also met up with Team 1515 and 1717. The team had an all you can eat buffet, and had a great time.

Saturday: Day 3

Saturday, the Cheesy Poofs got an extra hour of sleep. They waited in line with Team 233 again, playing music and singing together. They got the same seats as before, but didn’t scout, as the decisions were figured out the day before. Team 254 had one qualification match left, which they unfortunately lost 109-157. This resulted in 5 wins and 3 losses, and a final rank of 24th out of 100. Team 254 was picked by Team 2468, and ended up having Team 11 as the final alliance partner. The team won their first Quarter Final match, scoring an all time high of 236-175. They went on to win the next quarter final, 220-206, pushing them forward to semi-finals. They lost their first semifinal 203-222, but spirits remained high. But unfortunately, Team 254 also lost their second semifinal match 216-266 and were eliminated.

The students then went on to the Einstein field to cheer on the winners of each division. They also helped continue the tradition of competitive paper airplane making. Afterwards, they packed up crates in the pit and returned to the hotel.

Sunday: Day 4

In the morning, Mike D. from Team 233 went room to room and woke up the team, singing and chanting students awake. Team members packed up their bags and went to the land prepared for the baseball game. They walked to the Cardinal’s stadium and watched the Cardinal’s vs. Pirates game. Then, Team 254 left for the airport and returned back to sunny San Jose, California.

Qualification Matches

Qualification 16 Loss 170-162

Qualification 24 Win 190-58 Video

Qualification 34 Loss 125-107

Qualification 63 Win 152-87

Qualification 79 Win 164-77

Qualification 91 Win 172-152

Qualification 102 Win 179-69

Qualification 131 Loss 157-109

5-3-0 Record in Qualifying with 18 Qualifying Points, Ranked 23 of 100 Teams

Elimination Matches

Alliance: 254, 11, 2468

Quarterfinal 4-1 Win 236-175 Video

Quarterfinal 4-2 Win 220-206 Video

Semifinal 2-1 Loss 222-203 Video

Semifinal 2-2 Loss 266-216 Video

Eliminated in Semifinal 2-2

This past weekend, five of our VEX teams attended the VEX World Championships in Anaheim, California.

Our five teams were distributed among five separate divisions and played ten matches each. Qualification matches began on Thursday afternoon, continuing through all of Friday and concluding on Saturday morning. Our teams met varied levels of success during qualification matches; the level of competition at Worlds was incredibly high. When matches concluded on Saturday, team 254D ranked highest, seeding 16th with 7 wins, 2 losses, and one tie. They were also the only team to be selected for eliminations, which happened in the afternoon. In divisional quarterfinals, 254D, with the drive team of Eli Wu, Andrew Torrance and Goutham Gnanasekaran, faced off against top-ranked Fuxing High School and former world champions, Green Egg Robotics. They managed to win an incredible upset in the first quarterfinals match, but lost the second match and in a stroke of bad luck lost the tiebreaker match when one of their alliance robots fell over early in the match. Despite this setback, we are all proud of having made it so far at World Championships.

Team 254 also excelled off the competition field. We were recognized during the tournament for the website award, which we tied with Team 1114 for 1st place in the world. In addition, our mentor Pat Fairbank, who has worked tirelessly over the year to ensure the success of our VEX program, was recognized for his efforts by winning the Mentor of the Year award, becoming one of only 2 mentors from around the world to win the award this year.

Next years' VEX game, named Toss Up, was also revealed at World Championships on Friday evening. Many of our team members have already gotten to work planning for this new game and thinking about possible designs for next season. The 2012-2013 VEX season has officially ended, but our team members are already eagerly looking forward to making the 2013-2014 season a great one for Team 254.

Manufacturing

Students started organizing new parts into their respective bins. Most of these parts will be spares for competition. In addition, a few mentors and students worked on deburring, polishing, and touching up parts which will be sent in for powder coating and anodizing.

Drivetrain

Students contine to fix the drivetrain. A dog gear broke yet again. Students worked on taking apart the drivetrain gearbox to replace it.

Intake

Students made new parts for the intake, including new mount side plates. Additionally, students began assembling the intake support gearbox.

Shooter

Students designed a one way valve in the shooter. This stop, made from a simple piece of bent polycarbonate, will allow the frisbee to leave the shooter in only one direction and prevent it from falling backwards. This stop is a simple mechanism to further eliminate possible jams that have plagued the robot for the better part of the season.

Other

Teams 973 and 846 stopped by to the lab for practing and tuning in preparation for the World Championship next week.

Shooter/Indexer 

Students and mentors worked diligently to replace one of the intake rollers with a BBD. Students also worked to troubleshoot an issue with the new intake hardstop that was causing hang-ups on the intake system.

Manufacturing

Working diligently to manufacture new intake gearbox plates to save weight, students cut stock metal to be milled in the CNC.