Lynbrook Robotics

Meeting Minutes – January 31, 2012

Michael Lin — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 04:05:10 +0000

Start: 7:00pm

Mentors: Mr. Lowd, Mr. G, Mr. Lomazov, Mr. Harrison, Ms. Chu, Mr. Xie, Fernando

Members: Eva, Akshat, Rishabh, Mishan, David, Patrick, Reo, Raphael, Jackie, Anurag, Nikunj, Abhiram, Christine, Michelle, Manoj, Matt, Tony, Ali

Officers: Alric, Jocelyn, Michael L, Lucy, Robert, Eric, Annie, Brian, Miles, Diane, Aneesh

Member Meeting – Jan 31, 2012

Lynbrook Robotics FIRST Team#846

Start Time: 7:00 PM This Agenda is closed to editing at 6:30pm.

Only 35 days till Stop Build Day

Download the Encrypted Manual!
1. http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/competition-manual-and-related-documents?id=452
2. svn checkout http://frc2012-gamedocs.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ frc2012-gamedocs-read-only
  SVN version maintained by D.Giandomenico (trial effort)

Officer Reports

Treasurer; Secretary;

Notes: DRI = Directly Responsible Individual

Old Business

Mr. Lowd’s talk of fun (7:00pm)
1. Christian Science by Mr. Dooley
Sweaters [DRI: Alric] (7:04pm)
1. orders placed (36 total)
2. have not received tracking number
T-shirts [DRI: Alric] (7:05pm)
1. still collectin checks
2. they go for $25
3. may switch companies, if we go with a cheaper company will ask for a cheaper check
Flag [DRI: Eva] (7:20pm)
1. two choices
  1. old one
    1. monkey sitting on text
  2. new one
    1. moved monkey down, text on the side
    2. move text so shorter text is on top of the longer text.
2. Review text and space formatting
3. double sided, regular flag, etc.
  1. for details contact Eva or Alric
4. 3×5 flag
  1. 3×5 or 4×6, supposed to be long
5. Traditional Flag with border, 3×5.
6. Getting design by Matt and Alric.
  1. Need vectors for the boarder
Newsletter [DRI: Vincent] (7:06pm)
1. Build Season: Vincent & Jocelyn
2. Rm. 612: Rishabh, Jocelyn, Eric
3. Student perspective of team: Mishan, Anne, 2 undetermined others
4. CalGames: Angela
5. Community outreach: Michael L
Awards (7:10)
1. Entrepreneurship [DRI: Diane]
  1. Have made some progress
  2. almost done with business plan
  3. almost done (75% done)
  4. need help with numbers, will contact Miles Chan
2. Woodie Flowers [DRI: Annie]
  1. Still working on it with Eric
  2. getting a draft done here
3. Website [DRI: Michael L]
  1. February 11th is deadline
  2. Website changes [DRI: Vincent]
4. Chairman’s [DRI: Jocelyn]
  1. Gave the team the information to us already
    1. Finished! Thank you Jocelyn good job!
  2. Video [DRI: Michelle, Christina]
    1. have list going around
CNC Software [DRI: Mr. G] (7:12pm)
1. will not be seeing software until February 6th
  1. learning how to use G-code
    1. Anurag, Akshat, Eric, Michael L
  2. Mechanical setback
    1. coolant pump failed
  3. Making good progress
  4. Still have a 30 day trial on another program
    1. no idea how to use it, launched it never learned to use it
2. If you want to get involved just jump in!
Photo Journal [DRI: Eric] (7:41pm)
1. member list completed
2. text, space, and font formatting to be updated
3. order is fine
4. added and corrected titles for mentors
  1. will send out a spreadsheet for reviews
5. updated the advisors list
NYC Regional update (7:17pm)
1. Have charter bus quotes
  1. ask where luggage is stowed, know the quality of the bus
2. check how many vehicles
3. Hotels and air fair – done
Rm. 612 work (7:39pm)
1. times that we will be in
  1. start 3:30pm
2. work that has been done
  1. meeting in room 612 everyday
  2. worked very hard and long
  3. CAD Design have been working
    1. drawing machinist drawings
    2. Group working on machines

End: 8:02pm

Meeting Minutes – January 24,2012

Michael Lin — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 04:11:13 +0000

Start: 7:01pm

Member: David, Akshat, Rishabh, Joshua, Akshay, Michelle, Christine, Matt, Eva, Anurag, Reo, Raphael, Sahil, Maitryee, Aneesh, Ali, Nikunj, Abhiram, Michael C, Daniel

Mentors: Mr. G, Mr. Lowd, Fernando, Mr.Xie,

Officers: Alric, Michael L, Vincent, Eric, Robert, Annie, Lucy, Brian, Miles, Diane

Member Meeting – Jan 24, 2012

Lynbrook Robotics FIRST Team#846

Start Time: 7:00 PM This Agenda is closed to editing at 6:30pm.

Only 35 days till Stop Build Day

Download the Encrypted Manual!
1. http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/competition-manual-and-related-documents?id=452
2. svn checkout http://frc2012-gamedocs.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ frc2012-gamedocs-read-only
  SVN version maintained by D.Giandomenico (trial effort)

Officer Reports

Treasurer; Secretary;

Notes: DRI = Directly Responsible Individual

Old Business

Mr. Lowd’s AWESOME reading [DRI: Mr. Lowd] (7:01)
Sweaters [DRI: Alric] (7:05)
1. Order placed
2. Under the $35 per person
Tshirts [DRI: Alric] (7:05)
1. Collecting Checks
  1. prices are up $20 per shirt
  2. doing some more research to find some more
  3. cost will be $25
2. Jerseys?
  1. not many that are interested
Flag [DRI: Eva] (8:00pm)
1. Ordered?
2. contacted companies, new companies refused to make a war banner
  1. Buy rip of flag (~$300)
  2. regular flag (~$200)
  3. buy regular flag, and make it into a war banner
  4. buy a normal flag
  5. make our own flag
  6. Robert will help out with this
3. print on vinyl, have white parts white, double length, etc.
4. Final Image: https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=dcqjgjph_32cswjsbqv
  1. hair is touching the edge of the border
  2. move text and put it along the edge
    1. Alric will do it.
5. will have finalized flag design by next week
Newsletter [DRI: Vincent] (7:06)
1. Articles are all assigned, sent out emails, set up documents
2. Mishan and Anne’s at the end of build season (right after)
  1. Deadlines: Feb 11th or 22nd
Awards (7:08)
1. Entrepreneurship [DRI: Diane]
  1. working on it
    1. content needs more work, basic sections are almost done
2. Woodie Flowers [DRI: Annie]
  1. trying find a website builder
3. Website [DRI: Michael L]
  1. trying find a website builder
    1. talking to Akshat, university student who does it for income, etc.
  2. Changes [DRI: Vincent]
    1. want to set up a server (rejected because of restraints)
  3. Build Season Log [DRI: Vincent]
    1. currently updated, want some more pictures.
    2. Team hard-drive need to be better cared for.
      1. in general whoever has a team item email out the team you have it (give and receive)
    3. Fernando’s ideas, time lapse
      1. put into the room (would be really cool!)
      2. made by JVC, waterproof
4. Chairman’s [DRI: Jocelyn]
  1. almost done, just needs Annie and Alric to add some information
    1. finish my next week or this Saturday or Sunday
5. Chairman’s Video [DRI: Michelle, Christine]
  1. finished a very brief storyboard
  2. need a special microphone (recorder)
    1. mainly interviews of members, officers, and mentors
      1. small sentences, similar to school of distinction
      2. will get a list of questions
      3. aiming for a very small documentary
    2. follows format of the essay formed by Jocelyn
    3. need to get footage
    4. Deadline: at the Feb 28, 2012
CNC Software [DRI: Brian] (7:23)
1. Mr. G
  1. talked with GibsCAM
    1. expect to get software by this firday
    2. post processor configured for our Tormach machine
    3. we can not configure it, they will configure it remotely
      1. asked to eat lunch with Mr. G
    4. will take a CAD model from inventor, export as STEP file, from that it will take a 3D model of the part, need to highlight features, and than the Tormach will create the highlights
Photo Journal [DRI: Eric] (7:27)
1. not much, organizing the photo
2. want the first page (with all the names) done by next week.
  1. with titles, grades, names.
3. deadline: Feb. 7, 2012
4. order by Feb. 21, 2012
NYC Regional [DRI: Annie] (7:32)
1. Student: $949.65
2. Adults: $1263.29
3. need by Wednesday
4. need to get airlines and parent meeting.
  1. get back at 10pm.
  2. reason because doing exploring, and later flight. (just a thought, may not happen)
    1. cost will go up, will cause more issues.
  3. adventure areas
    1. empire state building, air and space museum, walking as a mob, just being there is cool, tour buses, ferry tour, etc.
  4. research will be done tonight and will talk to Aneesh to finalize flights.
Got Western Digital Grant – Yay!
1. have not gotten money from foundation
2. have symantec, need to confirm

End: 8:10

Day 17 – Waiting (1.23.12)

vincentyao — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 23:48:32 +0000

Today, we decided to not have a design meeting. Although we are not where we want to be right now, we still ended up taking a day off. We are waiting for some of the robot parts that we have ordered for testing and using.

Some of us went to Michael C’s house to test out some of the paint. We tried out a couple different shades of yellow to see which color(s) would look best on our soon-to-come robot.

Day 15 – Catching Up (1.21.12)

vincentyao — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 23:52:45 +0000

Yes, we are a bit behind. Our new “Trac” system says that we are about one week behind. Not good. This morning, we met at Lynbrook to get as much work done as possible. The software guys reflashed our 2011 robot, the hardware guys tried to make a finalized version of our drivetrain, and the events guys finished up planning our trip to New York.

While all this was going on in room 612, Mr. Xie and Mr. G were giving lectures about software design. Mr. Xie went over drive train control. He talked about the differences between PID (proportional-integral-derivative) and Lead Lag control designs. Mr. G explained our current CAN Bus (Controller Area Network) system, and how information flows from the cRio to the 2-CAN, and then to the individual robot motors and parts. He also talked about our Jaguar speed controllers. Next, Mr. G went over some of the important points for newcoming programmers. This includes destroying previous commands, looking at previous years’ code, and learning from experienced programmers.

We didn’t finish all of the item on the agenda, because we ended up drifting to room 612 to get more work done. After a short lunch break, many of us returned to continue working. At the end of the day, the drivetrain was looking better and better. Only a few more tweaks left!

Day 12 – The Bridge (1.18.12)

vincentyao — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 07:59:55 +0000

Today, we finished building the team version of the bridge. Turns out, our bridge is just over 60 pounds, while the official bridge is calculated to be over 200 pounds. (We used the battery test given by FIRST to help calculate the weight.) This means that our bridge will not act like the official competition bridge. We haven’t decided how we are going to make our bridge more like the official bridge. We will probably end up placing some weights in specific places on the bridge, after we learn more about the real bridge’s characteristics. On the other hand, Mr. Peake, a mentor, mentioned that it may be to our advantage to practice using the lighter bridge. A lighter bridge would make it harder to balance.

At night, we had, once again, a design meeting. First, Brian showed the team a new tasks system, called “Trac.” This is a system for keeping software projects on track, but we will be using it to keep track of the entire build process. Next, we went over interesting things that were found on Chief Delphi. One was a ball intake system that would give the robot more space to suck up balls (found by Miles). Currently, because of the bumper rules, robots would only have ~12 inches to suck the ball up. However, with this system, the balls in front of the robot would automatically be moved to the intake area by three sets of deployable rollers.

Then, we had a discussion about our robot design. We are still debating whether to have the robot’s shooter point forward or to the side. Pointing it to the side would make it easier to fine-tune when aiming, since we would be using the driving system. On the other hand, if it were pointed forward, we would need to aim by turning in place, which, for us, is not as precise. Also, we looked at good positions, or (as we like to call them) “sweet spots,” that we would like to shoot from. Ideally, we would need more than one zone where we can consistently score from, so opposing teams would have a harder time defending. Mr. Xie also brought up the idea of having a basket/hopper to allow other teams to feed us balls. However, some people had doubts, since other teams would probably not aim for us, and instead aim for the hoop. Also, the robot-to-robot interaction could easily lead to robot damage, whether it is from the fired ball or from a collision.

After the meeting, some of us played around with the bridge to get an idea of its physics and properties. We ended up trying to stay between “balanced” and “unbalanced”. It was fun.

SVN Mirror of 2012 FRC Game Docs

dgiandomenico — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:19:23 +0000

FIRST Team 846 is maintaining an SVN Repository of the unofficial 2012 FRC Game Documents. The documents can be accessed using the SVN command:
svn checkout http://frc2012-gamedocs.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ frc2012-gamedocs-read-only
or with TortoiseSVN at:
http://frc2012-gamedocs.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/

Please direct comments or questions about this repository to FRC12_rules@lynbrookrobotics.com.

Day 11 – AMM (1.17.12)

vincentyao — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 07:59:25 +0000

Since it was a Tuesday today, many of us got out of school at 1PM. However, we didn’t just leave school. Some of us stayed and worked in room 612. We started on building the bridge. We also continued fixing up our CNC and made more calculations and tests.

At night, we were again at school. Funny how we seem to love school so much… We had our weekly Active Member’s Meeting (thus, the title of this entry). We talked about purchasing a team flag, the t-shirt and sweater designs, the upcoming spring newsletter, awards, and the trip to New York. More detailed notes can be found here. Interestingly enough, this meeting ended in just 89 minutes. Anyways, we were able to get much done in this short time period. Tomorrow, we will continue working on the robot design during the design meeting.

Meeting Minutes – January 17, 2012

Michael Lin — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 04:29:10 +0000

Start: 7:02pm

Members: Tony, Raohael, Mishan, Anne, Chrstine, Jackie, Rishabh, Sahil , Tony, Patrick Ishaan, David, Reo, Abhiram, Joshua, Michelle, Maitryee,

Mentors: Mr. Lowd, Ms. Leejung

Officers: Michael L, Alric, Jocelyn, Vincent, Robert, Eric, Miles, Brian, Annie, Aneesh, Lucy

Member Meeting – Jan 17, 2012

Lynbrook Robotics FIRST Team#846

Start Time: 7:00 PM This Agenda is closed to editing at 6:30pm.

Only 35 days till Stop Build Day

Download the Encrypted Manual!
1. http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprograms/frc/competition-manual-and-related-documents?id=452
2. svn checkout http://frc2012-gamedocs.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ frc2012-gamedocs-read-only
  SVN version maintained by D.Giandomenico (trial effort)

Officer Reports

Treasurer; Secretary;

Notes: DRI = Directly Responsible Individual

Old Business

Updates
1. Flag [DRI: Eva] (7:07)
  1. Sent it over to Diane, will get touched up by Diane, and will be sent to Eva later.
2. Tshirt [DRI: Alric] (7:08)
  1. Using last years design, modify benefactor list
    1. T-shirts will be $18
  2. Show Eric’s friend’s design
3. Sweaters [DRI: Alric] (7:15)
  1. collecting money tomorrow, no check = no sweater
4. Newsletter [DRI: Vincent] (8:16)
  1. CalGames experience (Angela or Lucy)
  2. Room 612 and equipment (Rishabh)
  3. Build season (Vincent, Jocelyn)
  4. New Member (Mishan, Anne, +2 more)
  5. BAE + Intuitive (Michael L)
  6. Deadline: Feb 7, 2012
5. Awards (7:15)
  1. Entrepreneurship [DRI: Diane]
    1. deadline was last week
      1. want to meet MR. Agrawal by Saturday
  2. Woodie Flowers [DRI: Annie]
    1. worked on woodie flowers
    2. email will be sent out by Thursday (1st draft)
      1. have an outline ready, needs to be pieced together
  3. Website [DRI: Michael L]
    1. Changes [DRI: Vincent]
      1. adding and updating the content
  4. Chairman’s [DRI: Jocelyn]
    1. almost done, need to interview some members
      1. will interview after lunch meeting
  5. Chairman’s Video [DRI: Michelle, Christine?]
    1. waiting for the outline from Jocelyn
    2. storyboard will be drafted by next week
6. CNC software [DRI: Brian Axelrod] (7:22)
  1. getting Gibbs Cam
Research & Shopping
1. New York Regional Trip [DRI: Annie] (7:23)
  1. Hotels [DRI: Annie] (Living Costs)
    1. Hampton breakfast + wifi
    2. Yotel wifi
    3. Double Tree breakfast + wifi
    4. Holiday Inn wifi
    5. Gem wifi
  2. Signups
    1. will be set up during lunch meeting
  3. Map [DRI: Akshat] (7:25)
    1. Annie will help out
    2. http://g.co/maps/a7jqb
  4. Air Fare [DRI: Aneesh]
    1. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc=key=0AlZBC0inNggfdDdMOUZMSDFwY2x2NkNnY0ZvWC16Wmc#gid=0
  5. Transportation
    1. Penn station (JFK to jamaica station to pennstation to hotel [penn station to hotel = walking])
      1. get 60% discount
    2. coach buses = $1000
  6. Restaurants
    1. Will be picked later.
Robot Design
1. Not to be discussed during AMM

New Business

Photo Journal [DRI: Eric] (8:10)
1. Hope to complete by First competition
2. Alric and Annie will be writing the 2 paragraphs on the cover

End : 8:26pm

Day 8 – CADing the Drivetrain(1.14.12)

vincentyao — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 06:33:20 +0000

We met early in the morning today to discuss the drivetrain. Instead of diving in and CADing everything right off the bat, we had a more detailed discussion about what we wanted in the design. By the end of the meeting, we had started on a preliminary model for the drivetrain.

Day 7 – Group Discussions (1.13.12)

vincentyao — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 05:51:46 +0000

Update on CNC: We are almost finished. We have finished assembling all of the major parts of the machine. All we need are the power supply, the computer, and two pieces of tape.

In today’s design meeting, we split up into three groups: trajectory, drive train, and aiming and positioning. The trajectory group calculated formulas to test the optimal angles and velocities to shoot the balls at. We wanted to design a single shot that would work for two different scenarios: when our robot is against the fender, and when a defending robot is between ourselves and the fender. When we are up close, this shot would bank off of the backboard and score. When we are separated by a robot, then we would be able to make a swish.

The drive train group finished with three different designs in mind. However, we simplified the results and decided that using idlers to cross the barrier would be the best way to go. The idlers would hit the barrier first, causing the robot to tilt up. This would make it easier for the wheels to go over the barrier, since there would be lower contact point between the wheel and the barrier.

The positioning group had the idea of using the forward and back controls to aim. This would lead to better resolution than turning in place. However, this would mean that the shooter would need to be positioned facing the side.