2009 FIRST Kansas City Regional

FIRST 2009 FRC Banner

Our work on the Nintendo WiiFit controlled Robotic Labyrinth project for Science City is taking a time out this week so we can volunteer at the FIRST Robotics Competition. Members of our Kansas City Robotics Society (KCRS) help as mentors and staff various positions at the competition. This year our Cowtown Computer Congress (CCCKC) group has some members helping too as we prepare for the grand opening of our Underground Hacker Space March 2 – 7.

This is my fourth year helping with FIRST but my first year without a team. I’ve volunteered the last three years as a mentor for Winnetonka High School Team 1752 but this year their school didn’t enter the competition. So, I wanted to capture some of the behind-the-scenes excitement that a casual observer could miss. Hopefully you can see how important it is for students to have an opportunity to participate in this great program.

Sights And Sounds From The Greater Kansas City Regional FRC Experience.

Opening day in Kansas City

A calm before the storm at the 2009 FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC), Greater Kansas City Regional February 26 through 28 at Hale Arena. FIRST means “For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology”. FRC is a varsity level sport of the mind challenging students to discover the rewarding life of engineers, scientists and researchers.

The Kansas City Regional was host to 61 teams from Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin

As the competition heated up inside, by Saturday we were treated to a blast of midwest weather dropping about 5 inches of snow outside.

Lunacy Around The World.

Each year a different challenge and theme is announced simultaneously around the world at the Kickoff Event. High school students learn about the game and with only six weeks to design, build, and deliver a robot for competition. This year’s challenge theme is Lunacy. The official rules and information is available from the US First web site. Each robot must conform to the official competition manual.

Every team receives a kit of parts that comprise standard components for their robots but much of the design and construction is up to each team to acquire additional materials and parts as needed. You will see as many different designs as there are teams competing. One of the best sources of information and support throughout the year is the online community provided by another FIRST team , Chief Delphi #47.

These robots are about the size of a washing machine and weigh close to 120 pounds. These are surprisingly sophisticated machines with computerized components helping them operate in autonomous mode and under a separate driver operated mode.

The Greater Kansas City Regional

When I tell people what an FRC regional competition is like I tell them, its like a rock concert, a professional sporting event, and a NASCAR race all rolled into one. You’ll see students and adults dancing in the isles when a time-out is called on the competition field. The competition is second to none as fans cheer for their favorite team’s alliance. Throughout the competition you will find yourself cheering for nearly every team out there. If you’re around the pits you’ll see as much activity as any NASCAR pit crew when these robots are repaired and tuned up for the next round of competition.

It takes a lot of planning and work to host a regional competition site. The venue is staffed by volunteers determined to make this a safe and enjoyable competition for all the students, teachers, mentors, parents and audience members.

The Kansas City Regional site has one of the most spacious settings in the country. There are wide isles for people getting around the competition floor, team spirit areas just outside the competition floor, plenty of seating in the stands, and a large practice area for the robots.

The isles in the pit areas can accomodate the traffic but you still need to watch out for robots being transported from the pits to competition and practice areas.

When problems arise that require serious machine work, the teams have an on-site machine shop available to help rebuild or replace parts they need.

On-Site Machine Shop.

Safety Is Taken Seriously

FRC is compriesed of a series of competitions within the competition. Awards are given out for a variety of acheivements, one in particular is the Underwriters Laboratories Industrial Safety Award.

With the powerful robots, power tools, and electricty around so many students and adults, safety is taken seriously. During the elimination rounds on Friday I volunteered  to make sure that anyone entering the pits had a pair of safety glasses on and made sure no one entered with open toe shoes.

Gracious Professionalism

If you’re around the FIRST culture you will hear about Gracious Professionalism.

A few years ago Devry University in Kansas City held a Robotics Bootcamp for area high schools. Some of the schools invited to the event have been bitter sports rivals for years. This caused genuine concern about whether violence would break out at the event. Its a shame this kind of atmosphere is prevalent and accepted in many schools today. The bootcamp event took place without any incidents, gracious professionalism was an important part of making this event success.

Strategy Among Alliance Members

One of the reasons gracious professionalism works so well is in the game’s design. It is easy to recognize the reason for cooperation among all the teams at a regional competition. There are six teams participating in each round of the competition. Team members are divided up among two alliances, the red and blue alliance.

While you are competing against members of the opposing alliance for a particular round, certain team members will probably be on your alliance in future rounds. Helping other teams to perform to their best ability will help your team at times throughout the competition.

Scouting to learn the strengths and weaknesses of your alliance members is an important part of the competition strategy.

Mentors As Team Members

The teams participating in the FIRST Robotic Challenge are high school aged students but an important member of many teams are their mentors. Many mentors are engineers, scientists, or other professionals from technical and non-technical fields of work. Parents may function as mentors but often mentors have no other connection to the students or school other than wanting to help promote inspiration in the fields of science and technology.

When I was in high school I was afraid to admit that I was interested in electronics because of the associated stigma and possible ridicule from other students.  FIRST is a great program because it celebrates those interests and gives the students a great avenue to share with others.  I wish there was a program like that when I was in high school!

Chris D. Locke
Senior Software Engineer
Garmin International

Helping as a mentor has many intangible benefits. The Winnetonka High School TeamTonka #1752 displayed this sign at their 2006 regional competition in Denver CO. They were originally discouraged from hanging this up but when I heard about it I wanted it to be displayed. It was a hit at their pit area and I’m proud of the work they did on their robot. It was signed by the team members and is one of my most treasured souveniers. It is touching looking over these names again knowing how many have gone on to college and universities. Especially those who went on to study engineering at the University of Missouri Rolla (now Missouri University of Science and Technology). I really missed not being a mentor this year.

What Does FIRST Mean to Parents and Students?

Hopefully you can begin to sense that this is not just another school activity or club, it is the beginning of a lifestyle that can be carried on throughout every student’s career. This is the first and perhaps the only experience many students learn about life in a creative and technical world awaiting after high school. This is an important time in their life to become aware of career possibilities that are within their reach.

Dean Kamen, mentioned in the last video, has contributed so much to our world. In addition to starting the FIRST organization he is probably best know for inventing the Segway Personal Transporter. His company DEKA Research is known for developing products in the medical field including home dialysis machines, medical irrigation pumps, the IBOT mobile self balancing wheel chair, among many other inventions.

“You have teenagers thinking they’re going to make millions as NBA stars when that’s not realistic for even 1 percent of them. Becoming a scientist or engineer is.”
—Dean Kamen

The FIRST Lifestyle

The FRC build season lasts six weeks through most of January and February but the momentum carries on much longer, often with weekly meetings through the end of the school year. For some students, summer time is prime time for car wash, garage sales and other fundraising opportunities. Preparation gearing up to the build season often starts at the beginning of the school year as students are busy learning new technologies.

During build season I’ve heard teachers tell about getting cell phone calls if they’re running a little late getting to school in the morning. Students are calling wanting to get into the building to work on the robots.

I have attended weekly meetings after the build season ended and often heard teachers telling students they need to go home when the meeting time has finished. Usually it took several more times before they would actually  go home.

I have witnessed some amazing transformations in students just over the three days of a regional competition. During Winnetonka’s trip to the 2006 regional in Denver I saw some quiet and reserved students really open up and become more outgoing and confident. Talking to their parents a few weeks later they said it was unbelievable how much their child changed.

Teachers Need Our Help Finding Resources.

I have a lot of respect for the teachers involved with FIRST. This is a huge commitment of their time, often with little additional financial compensation. More than once I hear about teachers buying tools and parts out of their own pocket. During the six week build period their families pay the price as they spend long hours keeping the school open for students working on their projects.

What does it take to build a successful robotics program at school?

Shaping a Robotics Team

FIRST provides a growth path up to the FRC varsity level activity. The FIRST Technical Challenge (FTC) offers a way of building robots on a smaller scale and using simpler technologies. Some teams think of FTC as a junior varsity level activity. It is less expensive to get started but competitions are not currently offered in the Kansas City area so travel expenses drive up the cost for teams participating at this level.

FIRST LEGO League

At the middle school age group the FIRST Lego League (FLL) is becoming popular. It is an affordable activity based on the LEGO Mindstorm NXT robot kit. A retail version of the robot costs around $250 which is within reach of parents wanting to encourage their child’s experimentation. This robot controller is currently supported at the FTC level too making the use of these kits even more attractive.

Opportunities For College and University Recruiters

Participation in FIRST provides important opportunities for students in the form of scholarships. When you attend a regional competition you’ll find information booths with recruiters from a variety of colleges and universities. There are over $9 million available for FIRST students.

University of Kansas

UMKC – University of Missouri, Kansas City

A Regional Competition Is About Having Fun

This is a great time to let loose and have fun.

You’ll find adults enjoying this experience as much as the students.

There is so much to see and experience at a regional competition. Of course it is the robots that everyone wants to see and getting up close on the action is a privilege these students earn.

Greater Kansas City Regional Championship Rounds.

First round of the championship competition.

When a time out get called a party breaks out too.

Second and final round of the championship.

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The Labyrinth Of Others Revealed – Day 22

2.12.2009 (Thursday) –  Day 22 –

John Bergin's video From Inside

A couple of months ago I taught a Lego Robotics workshop at the HMS Beagle Science Store. This was a half day session during the week between Christmas and New Year holidays. I am always encouraging kids to create their own robotics lab at home and part of my discussion is to encourage a partnership with their parents. It helps to keep parents involved particularly when you may need a credit card for robot parts or tools and things like that. I like to invite parents to stay and participate in the workshops so several parents stayed as we built robots, had fun, and learned some programming. That was the first time I met John Bergin and his son Henry. You may remember Henry from my blog post on Day 10 as “Henry’s Design“.

Since then John and Henry have been to our Kansas City Robotics Society (KCRS) and Cowtown Computer Congress (CCCKC) meetings. They also built a MintyBoost at the CCCKC Soldering Workshop. It seems I learn just a little more about them each time we meet. John has offered some assistance with the Robotic Labyrinth for Science City and has initiated some other interesting opportunities.

Recently in one of his emails John revealed this interesting bit of information. A friend of his wrote in Boing Boing describing his award winning feature-length movie, “From Inside“. From the movie’s web site I learned about his web site Grinder Tool & Die which is a labyrinth itself rich with art, videos, music, talent, and more.

Read on, check out: Day[23] = 2.13.2009
Yesterday, check out: Day[21] = 2.11.2009
Or start from the beginning: Day[0] = 1.21.2009

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Science City’s Robotic Labyrinth Project

We are three weeks into designing the interactive Robotic Labyrinth Game for Science City This ten foot by twelve foot (10′ x 12′) game is being built by volunteers with donations from our growing list of sponsors.

Science City is host to over 30,000 school kids and 170,000 family members per year. It is located inside Kansas City’s historic Union Station which sees approximately 2 Million visitors per year.

Twists and Turns

Who would have thought a little wooden labyrinth game could take us in so many directions. What started out as an idea to modify this toy into a party game is turning into an educational journey. This simple game modification is an inexpensive way of introducing kids to concepts used in robotics. The game is controlled by standing on a Nintendo WiiFit balance board. A computer is used to interpret your movements when you shift your weight around. The computer sends commands to the popular Arduino microcontroller that tells servo motors how much to turn the knobs on the game. The Arduino is a great way to introduce kids and adults to the world of microcontroller programming for their own inventions. If you haven’t already seen it, this video on YouTube shows how the game works.

The video helped launch us into even more directions. The Kansas City Robotics Society (KCRS) donates interactive displays to Science City and we suggested including a robotic labyrinth game. Science City’s director liked this idea and suggested we scale it up to 12 feet. He wanted to use something kids are familiar with like a soccer ball to simulate the marble.

This project has us tackling some real world problems like building lighter weight structures. We are designing an aluminum skinned composite using rigid foam core just like the pink building insulation you get at the lumber yard. To build this game table we are working with Materials Science issues ranging from the selection of materials to finding ways of bonding them together at the molecular level. Key to this project is advice from 3M Engineers in their Aerospace Adhesive division about techniques needed to glue together our aluminum composite game table.

Henry's Design

One of the best examples of why we’re doing this comes from 12 year old Henry who submitted ideas on how we can put the table into motion using pneumatic cylinders. Hopefully this project will help stimulate the imagination and creativity of other young inventors, future scientists, and engineers.

We now have programmers curious about creating web applications so people from around the world can play the game over the Internet from their own home. Not satisfied with stopping there, we wondered, could we add a webcam and use motion detection to get a computer playing the game for us? So, we’ve also started an OpenCV Study Group to learn about image processing hoping to find a way to make this happen too.

Our completion date for the basic game was chosen to coincide with the March 2-7, 2009 opening of a new group called the Cowtown Computer Congress (CCCKC). This group is a grassroots organization of tinkerers, hackers, explorers, artists, inventors and technology enthusiasts in the Kansas City area.

Since the video hit, people who hear about this project are asking – “how can I help”? This project is made possible by donations of time, materials, workspace, expertise, and money from volunteers and sponsors. We are entering our building phase and still need materials to build with. For more information you can check the blog chronicling daily progress of the Robotic Labyrinth starting here.

If you would like to help you can contact us at:  LabyrinthProject@KansasCityRobotics.org

Science City and CCCKC are non-profit organizations.

Sponsor Organizations

Clayco Electric

ClayCo Electrical Contractors

Sheet Metal Workers Local Union 2

The apprentice and journeyman training

Barclay-Moore Piggyback & Warehousing

W. R. Meadows

W. R. Meadows

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KCRS Monthly Meeting – Day 17

2.7.2009 (Saturday) –  Day 17 –

KCRS Soldering Challenge

The topic presented at our monthly Kansas City Robotics Society meeting was about soldering irons.  The soldering tools on display ranged form inexpensive Radio Shack irons to variable wattage Weller soldering stations. Terry brought in his hot air soldering equipment used for surface mount components.

Tips for safety in handling the solder and hot soldering irons were discussed. Techniques for keeping your soldering irons up on top condition were explained too.

The soldering challenge was between Brian Turner, pictured in the red shirt, and one of our guests from Nebraska. They are trying different soldering irons to see which ones heat up the fastest and who can solder a wire first.

Weekly Labyrinth Build Meeting

Center pivot ball socket

Tom, Rich and I met Saturday morning to discuss more design issues. Tom brought steel pipe and plate to make a receiver section to support the labyrinth platform’s pivot point. Our current direction is to mill a ball shape out of a block of Delrin or similar acetal plastic. This plastic has a self lubricating property and is easy to fabricate. It is easy to work with using common power tools and normal milling methods.

Labyrinth platform center connection

I was explaining our concept for connecting the two halves of the labyrinth platform. We are building each half in 6′ by 10′ sections. The aluminum and extruded styrene foam will be glued together and allowed to cure. The assembly process will be to slide the two halves together and use a total of 80 flat head screws tightened into T-Nut fasteners as discussed on Day 9.

Soccer ball drop reinforcement

This segmented flange idea was discussed for a way to reinforce the holes cut through the labyrinth platform where soccer balls drop through. The idea with this approach is to have one side of the flanges left unfolded then once this collar is in place the remaining flanges can be folded into place. The flange will be glued in place against the foam and the flanges will be glued to the aluminum skins of the top and bottom platform surfaces.

Automated ball return.

Once the soccer ball drops through the game platform it needs a mechanism to return it into play for the next session. Today’s discussion was about using a conveyor system to return the ball. One trick we’ve seen at FIRST robotics competitions is using surgical tubing to grab the ball and pick it up. The idea pictured here is to build a conveyor belt with paddles to pick up the ball.

Read on, check out: Day[18] = 2.08.2009
Yesterday, check out: Day[16] = 2.6.2009
Or start from the beginning: Day[0] = 1.21.2009

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Logistics – Day 7

1.28.2009 (Wednesday) –  Day 7  –

Kansas City Union Station Web Page

Working on a daily blog actually works better if you start blogging from the first day instead of deciding to do it a few days later then catching up. Its a lot of work going through emails and notes from phone calls and I’m still not caught up. When I’m not working on writing and documenting I’m spending time talking to Bob about how we’re constructing the game platform and other behind the scene details with members of the team.

The whole robotic labyrinth needs to be transportable if it gets moved to other locations within Science City or other places around Union Station. I heard somewhere that Union Station gets around 2 million visitors per year.

I think we have an incredible opportunity to help Kansas City’s Union Station, Science City and the Kansas City Robotics Society (KCRS) as we also introduce the Cowtown Computer Congress (CCCKC) to the community. The CCCKC grand opening scheduled for the first week in March is attracting a number of people from around the country as well as rumors of a popular magazine among the Make(r) community.

This is a big project and in many ways it parallels what is going on in high schools around the world today. FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) announces their annual competition the first Saturday in January. From that point on students have six weeks to design, build, and deliver their robot.

To take on this project we have a very similar time frame, of designing, building, and delivering the giant robotic labyrinth to Science City by the end of February. This date was picked to coincide with CCCKC’s upcoming grand opening festivities. Much like these high school students, we have our own homework to do in getting our space designed and built out in time for the grand opening. It is going to take some hard work and long hours for many of us. Like the kids on FIRST teams say, its the hardest fun you’ll ever have.

Things That Keep Me Up At Night

Like so many FIRST Robotics high school students in Kansas City right now, I’m loosing sleep over how we’re going to get this project accomplished. This is a big project with several challenges from technical to logistics and budgets. It would help if our budget was larger than $0. We started this project with a few pledges for materials from KCRS members.

Some of the things keeping me up at night:

• WiiFit Balance Boards are backordered (anyone know where to get one)?
• Money for materials and WiiFit
• Finding space for team members to work
• 4 Weeks left to meet our deadline
• All the other details I don’t have listed here

For some reason I’ve been listening to Leon Russell’s Tight Rope a lot recently. I wonder where my old 8 track tape is right now. More on Leon Russell here.

Leon Russell's Tight Rope

Read on, check out: Day[8] = 1.29.2009
Yesterday, check out: Day[6] = 1.27.2009
Or start from the beginning: Day[0] = 1.21.2009

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Open Design, Open Collaboration – Day 2

1.23.2009 (Friday) –  Day 2  –

A Social Media Experiment -
Building Our Infrastructure

Social media is an important part of building the Robotic Labyrinth project for Science City.

So, what is Social Media?

It’s some of the newest technology to hit the Internet, it’s also some the oldest we’ve used for years. It’s your web presence, a way of telling others the who, what, when, and where of your physical and virtual existence. It’s a way of getting our news and a way of becoming the news. It’s being used for marketing and analyzing market trends.

Why is Social Media important to this project?

It provides a central location for widely dispersed team members. It works equally well if we’re spread out across a campus, city, country, or around the world. I’m hoping to take this social media experiment further by encouraging an Open Design and Open Collaboration experience.

Passing design information by email has its benefits and limitations. We need to get away from email only as much as possible, it doesn’t allow others to participate. We’ve started a section on the KCRS forum to share ideas, ask and answer questions, or to become a placeholder for notes and information we want to keep track of.  I noticed some grumbling by email that the forum is not easy to subscribe to for RSS feeds, we’ll have to look into this.

CCCKC Meeting Notes.

Last night’s CCCKC meeting provided some good ideas for the project. One suggestion for the labyrinth maze layout is to include images representing various locations around Science City.

Map of Science City

Check out this interactive map showing their upper and lower level exhibits, Some stylized images depicting these locations would be interesting. If you have some ideas then jump in and lets hear them.

We had a couple of suggestions to make the game accessible over the Internet. Check out our forum thread, Web Based Access to Robotic Labyrinth and lets see your thoughts.

Game Platform Composite Design.

We have a new member on the team interested in the idea of using a composite design for the game platform. A friend called last night to chat about his project and I told him the news about this one. This morning he called and said, “I hate you for telling me about your project, I couldn’t sleep last night thinking about it”. Bob is joining us to help conceptualize, design and build this platform.

A Call for Volunteers.

We have many things to be developed, tools to build, and parts to design. Your comments are welcome and hope you’ll want to get involved.

Read on, check out: Day[3] = 1.23.2009
Yesterday, check out: Day[1] = 1.23.2009
Or start from the beginning: Day[0] = 1.21.2009

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