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center000The Sensational SevenTeam 14785The Sensational SevenOnce upon a time, we were weird and unsocialized homeschoolers. Then we met each other by joining a homeschool group. We decided to start doing robotics because we liked robots and such. Our coach, Mr. Zack is awesome. He is an engineer so he knows more than we do. That helps us, but he makes us think for ourselves, which can be annoying sometimes. We are a rookie team this year so we are hoping for the best. We will definitely make a lot of daft mistakes, but we will do our best to learn from them. Please follow us on our twitter account which may or may not exist. #sensational7-3810025717500Ethan QuintonMy name is Ethan, and I am 11 years old. I am homeschooled by my awesome mother. My dad, who is also awesome, is our robotics coach. I sure do have awesome parents. They are the best! Apart from robotics, I play flag football with my friends. We just finished our season in second place! I also sing in two choirs, the Holy House Academy Choir and the First Colony Homeschool Ensemble. I enjoy video games, nerf wars, and playing outside with my friends and three brothers. This is my first year doing the FIRST Tech Challenge. Two years ago, I was on the VEX IQ robotics team called the InVEXibles. We won the world championship!! We decided to do FTC for a greater challenge. I am excited to see what will happen this year.center320675Benjamin VultaggioMy name is Benjamin Vultaggio and I am eleven years old. This is my first time doing FIRST robotics. I did one year of VEX robotics and we won the middle school world championship! I like to build Legos and listen to music. I hope that we have a good year of robotics and am looking forward to the rest of the year.center44450000Jack Jones● Has 6 siblings ● Not bad with computers and programming ● Not enthusiastic ● Always thinking ● Thought up the name “The Sensational Seven” Why I joined the Sensational Seven I enjoy competition if it’s for something I’m not terrible at, and robotics is one thing I’m fine with. And, many friends were also on the team, which provided no reason for me not to join. I also believed, and still believe, that I would be a great addition to any robotics team, because I can handle computers quite wellIan Zimmermann GREETINGSI AM IAN, CREATED TO BE A ROBOT PROTOTYPE AND TEST FOR TRUE ARTIFICIAL INTELLEGENCE. MY PROGRAM IS 12, ALMOST 13 YEARS OLD, BUT THIS FORM IS ONLY ONE YEAR OLD. I AM COMPLETELY UNLIKE ANY OTHER ROBOT, LOOKING AND ACTING AS A HUMAN. THERE ARE A FEW MALFUNCTIONS THOUGH: MY SENSE OF HUMOR IS TOO LOW, I AM TOO LITERAL, MY SENSE OF PERFECTION IS TOO HIGH, AND A FEW OTHER ERRORS NEED TO BE FIXED. SOME OF MY FAVORITE HUMAN THINGS ARE: LIGHTNING, DRAGONS SWORDS AND GAMES. IT WILL BE A LITTLE DIFFICULT TO TELL ME APART FROM THE OTHER MEMBERS OF THE SENSATIONAL SEVEN UNTILL YOU ASK ME TO CRACK A JOKE.HA! HA! HA!ALSO, BEWARE BECAUSE I AM WAY TOO LITERAL AND ROBOT-LIKE. BUT JUST BEWARE, SOME OF MY JOKES MAY KILL A FEW PEOPLE. BUT RIGHT NOW IT IS ONE OF MY CHARGING TIMES, SO GOODB…POWERDOOOWN…center762000Aiden Quintonleft762000My name is Aiden, and I am a homeschooled 13-year-old. This is my first year competing in the FIRST Tech Challenge. My very first experience with robotics was two years ago when I was on the VEX IQ team called the InVEXibles. We won the world championship that year so that’s going to be hard to beat! My dream is to become an astronaut, which is why this challenge is exciting for me. I also play football and sing in two choirs. I enjoy hanging out with my friends, playing video games and nerf wars, and learning about all things space.Liam JonesMy name is Liam Jones and I’m 14 years old, and I’m homeschooled. A few of my likes and dislikes are as follows: Likes: right5080001. Gaming, examples are: ARK: Survival evolved, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Minecraft, Antichamber, etc. 2. Drawing. 3. Hiking. 4. Failing to make things such as shelters and primitive tools… 5. My bow. 6. My other weapons. 7. My watch, which feels weird when I take off. 8. InGen. Dislikes: 1. Politics 2. Evil, which is the same thing as politics. 3. Coding, which still does not make me bad at robotics, I am good at building. 4. Video games involving bad things, such as Fallout series ect. 5. Phones. 6. Computers in general. Why I joined robotics: I joined the Sensational Seven so I could spend more time with my friends.center42862500Jack VultaggioMy name is Jack Vultaggio. I am 14 years old, and this is my first year with FIRST. I used to be on a robotics team with VEX Robotics, and our team won the Middle School World Championship in 2017. I enjoy playing piano and basketball. I also enjoy playing video games and listening to music, especially Imagine Dragons and Twenty One Pilots. My first year with FIRST has been different and challenging, and I’m looking forward to the upcoming challenges and competitions this year has in store for our team!Engineering SectionRobot IterationsBasic Tetrix BotBuilt to understand the function of the controllers, phones, motors, and servos. Limited function besides driving around the field. Basic Bot with clawBuilt to incorporate a claw/forklift type of mechanismAddition of claw to original base. Basic Bot for Rover Ruckus Built to incorporate a tower with grabber and harvester. Removed the claw and added a tower. Harvester picks up minerals267970328295right347761Arm is rotated with DC motor32632652406015002680142406015 Custom Bot 1Built with Basic Bot chassis and linear slide with claw grabberRemoved all superstructure from chassis Added linear slide with DC motor to liftcenter350718Claw with limited movementCustom Bot 2Removed servo on arm and replaced with motor2815590598805640715617855Replaced regular tire with all terrain tires Custom Bot 3Removed flat tetrix arm and replaced with channel for greater support19094453714750Replaced basket type claw with dual servo pincher type clawCustom Bot 4Removed claw arm because it was taking too long to pick up elements and drop them in the lander.176085570040500Made a prototype scoop out of cardboard, later made out of plexiglass which kept cracking, so we removed itMade a latch on the same linear slide which was difficult to align with the lander support bracketCustom Bot 5center516255Widened latch to allow for easier latchingcenter2733675Removed scoop, added plexiglass “flickers” to the front of the robot2747645314706000885825316611000Added wheels to the bottom of linear slide to help robot out of crater. Initially we just used electrical tape around some gears, and later bought more wheels to use instead.270446554673500116205053911500Added a 3 in. metal piece and servo motor to flick the marker.NEW STRATEGY: flick/push elements into depot instead of lifting and dropping into the landerCustom Bot 6:Took monster wheels off, replaced with omni wheelsMounted RC phone near top of lift to detect gold and silver29146571818500198183574676000374459573342500Added strafing wheel in middle of robot for autonomous to strafe and detect minerals, and ease of maneuvering during TeleOpCustom Bot 7a:right42229600216090556261000583281346644Used plastic phone mount to attach phone near top of slidePlastic prongs broke so used rubber bands to attach phone: not secure enoughCustom Bot 7b:139636560833000282003559245500Make an X metal mount for the phone. Attached phone with rubber bandsMounted lower on the slide, below slide motorcenter950300Custom Bot 8Added second expansion hub because we needed more motors.Changed wheel configuration: removed strafing wheel in center, now one wheel on front, back, and sides, each with their own motor.347916525336500146685023812500Custom Bot 9Used one drawer slide, hoping we could use it to get minerals out of crater155804244281600Was not long enoughCustom Bot 108585201080135039532871235693252031511861800Attached another drawer slide to existing one under the latch parallel to the flickers with a claw on the end. We attached parts of a plastic cup to help scoop minerals faster. It extends 3ft from the side of the robot into the crater. center3097931Added a wench and pulley system using paracord and an additional servo to power it in order to get it to extend. Attaching it to the moving part of the linear slide allowed it to lift high enough to reach the lander. center2444115We got it to extend from the robot to the crater and lift into the landerProblemsArm interfered with latchingWas hard to control: worried about damaging lander or other robots.Arm was heavy: worried about our robot tipping over Claw position made it difficult to accurately place minerals in landerServo on claw got stuck on landerCustom Bot 11Moved to arm to stationary part of linear slide, perpendicular to the flickers. Now the arm extends from the front of the robot.Wench and pulley system string interfered with the linear slide and latchArm kept hitting the phone mount14192255539213456940798830Arm was too long when it was pushed all the way in.Custom Bot 12center285446Bolted the arm to the side of the robot under the phone mount3300730243014517794362262892Took off claw, added a plow made of cut plastic cups to the end with a servo to move it giving us the ability to “rake” minerals from the crater33388302765425Used wench and pulley system with a motor to extend the arm straight out in front after landing. Replaced flickers with metal bars to push minerals into depot1494790265965Lessons LearnedThe screws and nuts attached to the gears easily vibrate loose. It is necessary to add Loctite to the threads to make sure they do not back out. The structural components will fail if the screws become loose. Zipties are required to make sure that parts stay together if the screws fail. The crater requires close wheel configuration. Too much space between the wheels will make the robot become stuck on the crater. We shouldn’t work or walk on the field with shoes. This causes divots, which effect the wheel traction Keep plastic parts off the ground because people could step on them and break them (phone mount)Having a practice meeting the night before a competition is risky. If anything breaks or fails, you don’t have much time to fix it.Be careful when pulling wires out of the expansion hub. They can break pretty easily. TensorFlow program works best when the phone’s power button is up.Latching and maneuvering is much easier with the strafe petitions and Scrimmages45656525466130League Competition: November 17, 201833576612367013373755235801800457200181610In the first league competition, November 17, 2018 the Sensational Seven had many failures, but many more successes and learning experiences. Our autonomous was slightly superior to the other teams, but much work was needed anyway. The only time we scored any points was the driver period, and even that was difficult at best. The teams of drivers that worked well together were Ian and Liam, and Jack and Jack.WHAT WENT RIGHTAdding large wheels added traction, helped us move out of crater.Our autonomous was superior.We had adequate drivers.Most other robots were immobilized by bad autonomous or failed driver period.We got 4 qualification points.WHAT WENT WRONGOur autonomous may have been superior, but it still scored no points.Our claw was difficult to work with.Our robot, the Turtle, barely passed size inspection.We landed in the crater almost every time at the end of the matches.WHAT WE CHANGEDWe added a latch.Time-based autonomous instead of sensorsright2444466right242658429457258488Scrimmage: December 1, 20183972912234127The teams from Alief Early College invited us to their school for a scrimmage. This was our first opportunity to use our latch with an alliance. The latch worked well. We tried to push the minerals into the depot, but they kept getting stuck under the robot. We decided to add the plexiglass flickers afterwards to prevent this. We used our new time-based program but it kept failing. Tweaks need to be done before next competition. League Competition: January 12, 2019In the second league competition, January 12, 2019, the Sensational Seven was significantly more adept. All of the drivers worked well together, and autonomous succeeded most times, putting the Seven in sixth place overall.WHAT WENT RIGHTAll drivers worked together well.Alliance members also worked with us by pushing us off minerals we were stuck on.We were almost never stolen from.We got 4 more qualification points, totaling 8.We found out that using the smaller wheels first gets us out of craters.WHAT WENT WRONGWe lost 3 out of 5 matches.Our autonomous failed twice.Our alliance team failed to show up for the first match.We almost got stuck in the crater.We got a penalty for running into a robot during autonomous.We got a penalty for blocking our depot.WHAT WE CHANGEDTook off big wheels, added omniwheels instead.Added strafe wheel in the center for sideways movement.Using TensorFlow to detect minerals for sampling during autonomous.2522242383780left360045Scrimmage: January 19, 20192499579215435806854We were invited to a second scrimmage with Alief Early College. We had 4 teams this time so we were able to have real matches. We came in second place after 6 matches. Our flickers and latch worked well. Our TensorFlow programming didn’t work because other robots were jostling us on the way down off the lander. This caused us to be off center on the ground, and the phone could not detect any minerals. We worked on writing code to tell the robot to straighten out before detecting. We ended up detecting the minerals while on the lander before landing.League Championship: January 26, 2019241935013970000-5080WHAT WENT RIGHTWe got the 2nd highest score.We got the Think Award because we had the best engineering section of our notebook.Our autonomous sampled the gold mineral when it was in the center position.WHAT WENT WRONGWe failed to put minerals in the lander, which was the ultimate reason we didn’t win in 1st place.Our autonomous was only half reliable.We got penalized for guarding our depot.WHAT WE CHANGEDWe repositioned the wheels to help us strafe.We are trying to add a harvesting arm.ProgrammingTeleOp mode 1:Claw operationLift operationMotor for wheels (2)TeleOp mode 2:Lift operationFront flicker operationMotor for wheels (2)TeleOp mode 3:Lift operationFront flicker operationMotor for wheels (2)Strafe wheel operation (1)TeleOp mode 4:Lift operationMotor for wheels (4)Harvesting slide operationServo for scoop Autononous 1- We used distance and color sensors, we tried to claim by using a distance sensor to avoid walls until it found the blue depot tape and placed the marker, then park partially in the craterProblems we had:The distance sensor didn’t work too well because its placement made it not able to avoid some walls. The best solution to that problem would have been to have two distance sensors, which we did not have time for at that point.The color sensor code was wrong and would not detect the right colors, but it worked with skin color.Autonomous 2 – we were having a hard time figuring out sensors before the first competition, so we decided to write 3 time-based programs for the next one. Depending on which side of the lander we are on, we will choose one of the 3 programs.Depot side: we can land, drive around the 3 minerals, claim depot, and drive into the craterCrater side: we can land, drive straight into craterProblems we encounteredNot consistent: battery power might have been a factorWe have different type of mat at home, maybe friction between the different mats and the wheels contributed to the inconsistency.Couldn’t sampleAutonomous 3- Using TensorFlow we were able to devise a program to detect and sample the gold mineral.Depot side: We can land, detect and sample gold, claim depot, and stop right before the crater (since changing our back wheels to omniwheels and adding a strafe wheel, we can’t easily get out of the crater.)Crater side: We can land, detect and sample gold.Problems we encountered with TensorFlowNeeds to detect all three mineralsHard to detect depending on lightingIt detects all the minerals in the crater, have to position the phone high and tilted downDriver Controlled Autonomous 1: Using distance and color sensorsAutonomous 2: Time BasedAutonmous 3: TensorFlow Based Table of ContentsTeam Member Bios……………………………………………………………………………………..Section 1Business Plan………………………………………………………………………………………………Section 2Engineering………………………………………………………………………………………………..Section 3Compeitions and Scrimmages…………………………………………………………………….Section 4Programming……………………………………………………………………………………………...Section 5Competition Scouting…………………………………………………………………………………Section 6Design meetings…………………………………………………………………………………………Section 7Appendix……………………………………………………………………………………………………Section 8Team GoalsMission StatementThe Sensational Seven seeks to learn science and engineering principles through research, design, building, and programming while participating in FIRST Tech Challenge this year. We also seek to meet other science and engineering minded people and prove ourselves to be worthy competitors in our first season.General GoalsDemonstrate and promote FIRST values of Gracious ProfessionalismLead as examples in safetyWork as a team in all manners of building and competitionCompete in all league matchesPractice between matches with a mentor team at scrimmagesBuilding GoalsUse PITSCO Tetrix set to build basic robotDetermine new parts that may help with robot movement and scoringLearn how robotic electronics work and use different power and communication methodsLearn how to use of gears to increase speed or powerProgamming Goals Develop a competition strategy for autonomous and driver controlled periods Develop programming skills in Block programmingUse sensors to help with autonomous periodLearn how different movement methods work best (time-based, encoder, IMU)Team OrganizationAiden QuintonTeam CaptainStudent CoachDriverProgrammingJack VultaggioTeam CaptainStudent CoachDriverNotebookJack JonesProgrammingDriverNotebookPresentationEthan QuintonLead BuilderDriverScoutNotebookBenny VultaggioBuilderDriverInspectorLiam JonesBuilderDriverNotebookScoutIan CalkinsBuilderDriverScoutInspectorTeam HistoryThe Sensational Seven was formed in August 2018. Rover Ruckus is our first challenge with FIRST. Four of our members were part of another robotics team in the 2017-2018 season, but decided to join FIRST with three other people from our home school co-op for the 2018-2019 season. We were not equipped to participate in every aspect of FIRST this season, but after learning more about what is expected of a champion team from our mentors, we are excited to improve our outreach, fundraising, and Engineering Notebook documentation next season. SWT AnalysisWe took some time to analyze the strengths, weaknesses, and threats we experieced as a team up to this point. We will use the following information to make decisions on our teams’ next steps for the remainder of the season. Most importantly, this analysis has helped us see where we need to make improvements for next season.123245210050StrengthsQuick to learnDedicatedCooperativeCreative00StrengthsQuick to learnDedicatedCooperativeCreative295788510050WeaknessesYoung teamInexperiencedShy00WeaknessesYoung teamInexperiencedShy20828004694ThreatsSponsorshipSchedulingFunding00ThreatsSponsorshipSchedulingFundingStrengthsQuick to learn: considering this was our first year, we picked up on block programming before our second league competition. We used resources available over the internet to teach ourselves programming and how the tetrix pieces fit together. We quickly realized that gears were important to the mechanics of our robot.Dedicated: one of our programmers stays awake until 10:00 working on the autonomous that now works extremely well. Our team felt the need to finish what we start and to make sure things are completed properly. We are also a relatively young team and we fared decently well at our previous competitions.WeaknessesYoung team: We are 6th-9th graders competing againts 11th-12th graders. Inexperienced: We are a rookie team this year and Shy: Fundraising PlanThis year, we did not do any fundraising or receive any grants. We were completely funded by our parents with all cost split between our four families. A big challenge we have experienced is most small and large companies won’t sponsor a team that does not have a tax I.D. number. This has been costly for each family, so next year we would like to incorporate fundraising. Some ideas we have are as follows:Bake sales at our home school co-op: need permission from the directorCarwarsh in HEB parking lot: need to write to or ask manager Combined family garage saleMow yards. Ask neighbors, post ad on Facebook, home school message boards (CHOK)Hold a workshop for students we know in the community on a Saturday this summer. Charge $10 a person. Teach simple block programming and how to follow simple building instructionsOutreach PlanWe were very fortunate to have Alief Early College mentor us during our rookie year this year. We have been trying hard to not feel overwhelmed, so we have not focused on outreach this season so far. Some ideas on how we will reach out to our community during the remainder of this season and into the 2019-2020 season are:Pay it forward by finding a rookie team to mentor next seasonHold a free workshop for our younger siblings (the next generation of FTC competitors) to give them a headstart on learning block programming and building with metal parts.Prepare a short video about the challenge and FTC and present it to our home school co-op during the end of the year programAttend our co-op’s academic fair to showcase our robot, any awards we received, and our completed engineering notebook.Building and Growing our TeamWe hope to add Liam and Jack’s sister to the team next year. She has been watching some of our meetings and practices and is very interested in participating with us next year. At our co-op’s end of the year program, part of our presentation will include encouraging others to either join our team or start their own. We are a very young FTC team of 6th-9th graders. We all have younger siblings, who will join the team as they get older. Within the next 3 years, 6 additional siblings (4 boys and 2 girls) will be old enough to participate on our team. They have already started in FLL Jr. this season. Cost Analysis and Budget2018-2019 Season ................
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