Team Update

We've had a few meetings since the last post, so this a catch-up.

The project is going really well. The research is finished and the boys are well into their presentation, which is a puppet show. They've built a web site, written a script for the show and have started to rehearse.

During the Teamwork part of the meeting, they are working on anything that helps the team. Bios, presentation boards, building props for the project, or doing general robot work. It's working great.

The boys have been doing extra robot work on the side after school and on weekends to get their missions finished. They are testing 2 robots and most of the missions are working. They're finding them to be more difficult than last year.

Videos will be posted as missions are completed.

Go Supernova!

Meeting Minutes, 9/14/2008

Project:
Michael and Nate led a vote on the project topic. Droughts and floods were chosen and then extreme weather. The challenge project was re-read and the team realized that it's not the climate, or future climate, but rather problems due to current climate. So, extreme weather is the cause, but are drought and floods the main problems? Mrs. Naughton suggested that they do research to answer the following questions before the next meeting so that they can make informed decisions. The link below may help, but they should also explore other resources.
http://www.sws.uiuc.edu/atmos/statecli/General/Illinois-climate-narrative.pdf
1. What is the climate of IL/our area?
2. What are some of the problems we face due to our climate?

Robot Missions:
Please see the 2008 Mission Tracker in the links to the right. Each team member was able to pick their first or second choice of which of the 4 mission groups to work on based on their decision last meeting to assign 4, 2, 2 & 1 persons each. The coaches each took a team to mentor. The 1st group nominated Andrew to be the team lead.

Robot Design:
Paul, Patrick, Michael, Andrew, Danny and Nate worked on the robot design. The rest of the team was content to work on their missions and let this sub-team make the design decisions. Below are the details, but they decided to use the new design.

• New arm is better but they will stiffen by triangulation.
• Light sensor needs to be tested and Paul volunteered. The issue is line following, straight and 90-degree turns. They think straight lines are OK and but sharp turns may be a problem. If no sharp turns are needed, then this is OK but Paul will work out the performance.
• They think the small wheels will be OK if they use a ramp to get into the research area. Paul had a prototype ramp with magnetic Lego's. Looked cool but needs some work. Paul will also continue work on a ramp.
• Final issue was repeatability of straight lines with the small wheels. Andrew volunteered to test this.

Miscellaneous:

• Still need display mission printouts
• Need to display project challenge for reference.
• Need soft copy of Alex's schedule for the web site.
• Mission tracker is updated with assignments and coach mentors

Meeting Minutes, 9/11/2008

1. Alex presented his schedule. He will email it to Mr. Emge, it is in word format.

2. Vote for a topic for research project.
From last weeks brainstorming session, the 4 topics of choice were
-agriculture (how it changes with expected climate changes)
-water level and transportation (lake MI, canals, rivers, dredging, etc)
-Drought
-impact on any particular eco system

None of the ideas triggered much enthusiasm. Votes came in for water level and transportation.

3. Small group brainstorming
3 groups of 3.
Brainstorm ideas to for internet search topics/words.
Brainstorm ideas for who we can get to come speak/we can visit.
Goal was each group come up with 10-15 search topics, and a few ideas for people/field trips.

4. Small group breakout
4a. Paul, Danny, Trevor - Characterize light sensors. Progress made. Chart online?
4b. Michael, Nate - research topics, do the googling. They were not finding enough interesting info, but maybe have some different, cooler, ideas for project.
4c. Alex posted rules, missions next time
Alex and Mrs. Emge discussed software testing to understand
MyBlocks usage and implementation. Will try to do at home.
4d. Patrick, Andrew, Joey prepared and presented a mission tracker. (Pauls flash drive)

Minutes, 9/7/2008

A very exciting meeting today. We had a 10 minute kickoff of the challenge, followed by 30 minutes of project brainstorming and finishing with 30 minutes of robot.

Project: Andrew came with a lot of graphs on our climate. Most of the boys had done some research and described the climate changes expected, and how it depended on the model. They came up with many problems these changes cause. Next week they vote on which of these problems to do their research project.

Robot: There were 3 proposals already thought through! They all had similar themes. Michael and Andrew also brought a robot prototype, but we didn't have time to review it. The experience of last season is really showing in the depth of thought, and breadth of consideration, including tactical, timing and difficulty of implementation.

• Patrick presented a concept for combining 7 of the 18 missions in a single run.
• Andrew and Michael brought a color-coded mission sequence proposal, which they presented
• Joey presented an alternate mission sequence

We discussed the approach for distributing the mission work. Last year each mission was solved independently. This year they decided that they'd rather first determine the mission order and then assign teams to each robot run. The team agreed to have Joey, Patrick and Andrew do the first pass mission order for review with the group. This team agreed that they would be objective in their decisions.

Meeting Minutes, 9/4/2008

We followed the agenda pretty closely, so I'll only capture the highlights. The team did a great job going through the handouts from Mrs. Naughton and had a very good discussion.

Q: Is there enough room in the project schedule for field trips or visits from experts?
A: Yes - there is enough slack.

Q:(for both schedule teams) Does the schedule assume that 1/2 time is spent on project and robot?
A: Yes

Noted that if they change the robot schedule, then the design must be locked down by 9/14. Need to add this note to the schedule. They also clarified that the schedule assumes the same approach as last year: solve all the missions, then combine/cut.

Andrew suggested each person do a mini-project that they can have fun with and present to the group. The team agreed to table that idea and consider it when they find out the actual challenge to see if they think it will work.

A schedule gap was identified and Alex volunteered to schedule the miscellaneous jobs that don't fit under project and robot headings: technical presentation, putting together other presentation material, etc.

Michael and Andrew brought in a prototype robot design that they propose for this season. We had a short design review but agreed to hold off deciding whether or not to change the design until they understand the challenge. They would also need to test the perceived advantages of the new robot to verify that it delivers. Below are the results, but I'd like to congratulate Michael and Andrew on their initiative and the group in general for their thoughtful consideration of the impact of both changing and keeping the old design.

Pros:

• shorter - more maneuverable and can have larger implements in base
• easier to charge
• flatter wheels for more traction and less bounce
• rear sliders are the same width as marks in base to make it easier to align.

Cons:

• light sensor is now behind the front wheels (affects line follower algorithm)
• implements and/or attachments need to be re-designed
• arm motor was too tight to attach the arm (already fixed)
• it might be too slow with the smaller wheels
• re-designing and testing will take schedule time

Meeting Agenda, 9/4/2008

General:

• Come prepared with what they are interesed in doing for the team. For example, research, software, robot design, etc.

Project:

• Nate and Michael present their schedule.
• All - be prepared with handout answers from last meeting

Robot:

• Danny and Trevor present their schedule.
• Characterize sensors.
• Continue work on software organization effort

8/28/2008 Meeting Minutes

Last week, Mrs. McCurdy pointed out that the team's experience allows them to get a jump on the season by working on organization in advance of the the challenge announcement. We were able to set our agenda for this week based on that focus. In addition, Mrs. Naughton led a discussion on what was learned from the weather station tour and distributed a paper on climate. The team chose to read at home and answer the questions as opposed to doing it during the meeting.

Danny and Trevor came up with a robot schedule and reviewed with Mrs. Emge. Danny entered the data this week and it's posted on the blog to the right as "2008 Robot Schedule". Nice work!

Nate and Michael generated a project schedule and reviewed with Mrs. Naughton. The data will be posted once entered this week.

Patrick and Joey started attaching the mission items to the board while the coaches were busy working with the other boys.

Andrew, Paul and Alex had volunteered to work on organizing software. Andrew experimented with my-blocks to understand how they are stored and how we can be sure which version we're using. More work is ncessary to figure this out, but Andrew was diligent in his effort. The NXT software is quite confusing in this regard.

Paul and Alex helped Patrick and Joey on light sensor characterization. Last season we found that one sensor had a different response. The goal of this exercise is to determine the repeatability of the sensors with each robot for black, white and the colors available on the mat. As a reminder, the post-mortem identified repeatability of the robots as an important trait. Nate built a spreadsheet for documenting their results, which can be found in the links to the right under "Light Sensor Data". Nice job, Nate! Paul build a jig for mounting sensors that has a quick-change mount and keeps them at a fixed height from the mat.

Welcome Back, Supernova, 8/21/2008 Meeting

Today's meeting was primarily a postmortem of the 2007 season. We discussed what worked and what we can improve on from last year. Below are the results and action items for which they volunteered.

Vote results:

• They voted to keep the Supernova name, 5 to 3
• Regional preferences:

1. Batavia
2. Palatine
3. Lake Zurich

Action items and assignments. The organizational stuff we can do at the next meeting since we don't yet know the project or missions, but we have enough experience to know the fundamentals of what generally needs to be done.


We need a "lawyer" at each tournament run to respectfully discuss with the judge any scoring issues. Also responsible for the mission tracker and working with the rest of the team to make tradeoffs. Needed 2 team members so there is a backup.

• Joey and Patrick

Robot Run Organization: We should have a binder for the missions: robot alignment, implements, etc. Need a solution for quickly accessing programs.

• Michael and Andrew

Software organization - process for keeping computers synchronized, understanding my-blocks and how they are stored. Robot download before meetings and tournaments. Integration of Andrew's program access. Includes SW part of the technical presentation and board.

• Paul, Alex and Andrew (related to program access)

Project Schedule - work out the steps for completion and when they need to be complete, with enough time left at the end for practice before regional tournament. Assume 2 meetings per week starting 9/4.

• Nate and Michael

Robot Schedule - work out the steps for completion and when they need to be complete, with enough time lef at the end for optimization and practice before regional tournament. Assume 2 meetings per week starting 9/4.

• Danny and Trevor

Tournament tri-fold information boards. Everyone contributes but we need an owner for each.

• Joey: Bios
• ?: Technical
• ?: Project

Robot Re-design and testing. Think about improvements, build and test solutions and present to the group. Finish this in the next couple weeks so that we know the robot platform, making it easier to design implements and approach a final design sooner.

• Nate, Michael, Andrew, Paul and Danny

Other topics discussed:

• The team liked solving all missions last year and then optimizing for points. They think they can move quicker to multi-missions from the beginning now by doing more up-front thinking about the implements and what missions can be combined.
• Helper charts might be useful, like wheel rotations vs. degrees robot rotation (single wheel turns).
• Test all missions on at least 2 robots. If they do not behave the same, find out why so that we may learn and also to make the missions more robust.
  

10/21 Meeting Minutes

Today was all robots. We had some down time with some team members as they vied for robot and table time. Mr. Emge spent some time talking about simple vs complex designs with some team members to take advantage of some of the down time. Mrs. Naughton will be back for Thursday's meeting to continue the project work.

Alex tallied another 25 points by placing the hydro dam. He built a rig for pushing it out and programmed the robot to make it happen.

Michael is making progress on the solar sattelite and truck, but his design depends on an arm, and the arm used on the oil rig may change. He does have a nice claw for grabbing the truck that can be used once the main robot design is locked down. Joey was out so Andrew continued working on the oil rig, which is turning out to be challenging. Mr. Emge discussed lever arms and force direction to help him analyze problems with deploying the arm. The simple-vs-complex session also discussed the oil rig problem. He was encouraged to discuss with other team members to get ideas. Paul suggested an attached container, for example. Andrew also tried pulling the barrels out instead of pushing the arm. He is learning a lot, even if it's a bit frustrating working on one of the more difficult missions. No doubt he will succeed!

Danny built a new container for power plant power and worked with Paul to shorten the implement used on the 2nd mission set. Paul and sam worked on harvesting Uranium. They're almost there, but their mission also includes getting corn and coal, so they have a way to go.

10/18 Meeting Minutes

The team worked on their missions and are getting comfortable with the robot and software. Mrs. Naughton and Patrick were out of town, so Sam paired up with Paul to work on harvesting corn and mining Uranium and Danny worked with Alex on a container for power-plant fuel. Paul and Sam use the same implement as Danny, so they decided to continue his mission without returning to base, saving time.

Joey and Andrew continued to make progress on getting oil from the oil-rig. Mr. Emge got an answer on whether or not they could lose contact with their container during the mission and the answer was "yes". Joey also brought in an RCX mock-up of a front-steer robot to show the group, but it was too fragile so he decided to put that off. Michael is now doing the solar sattelite before getting the truck, so he started working on the combined missions.

Nate had a design worked out for installing the solar panel, but found out that it violated the rules by attaching it to his implement. He worked on other ideas that do not require attachment.

At the end of the meeting, Mr. Emge introduced the "KISS" design principle: "Keep It Simple, Supernova" - make the design as simple as you can while still getting the job done. Time was almost out, so we'll continue that next time.

We also discussed the mission order and the team agreed to Sam and Paul's recommendation that Wind Turbines and Tree Planting should be combined with Corn Harvest and Uranium Mining, with the new combined missions being performed second. Joey suggested that steps 4 and 5 be swapped so that while the Solar Panel and Wave Turbine are being deployed, they can fill the fuel container for the Power Plant mission. The team agreed and the new order is published at the right.

Next meeting is Sunday, 10/21 from 3:00-4:30.

10/11, 10/14 Meeting Minutes

On 10/11, Mr. Eric Militz took our team on a tour of Highlands chool and answered the audit questions generated at the 9/27 meeting. A big thanks to Mr. Militz for sharing his time with us and to Mrs. Naughton for setting it up. After this meeting, the team met back at the Emge's to discuss what they saw and work on their missions.

10/14 was our first Sunday meeting. The team concentrated on their mission work. We're now tracking our progress on the white board by points we've accomplished individually. Danny and Sam brought in our first 50 points!

Mr. Emge was out of town for both of these meetings.

10/3 Coaches Meeting Minutes

On Tuesday, Mrs. McCurdy and Mr. Emge attended a coaches' meeting on team dynamics. On Wed morning, all the Supernova coaches attended a meeting to discuss our team's meeting organization. We, the coaches welcome your input and want to keep everyone informed on what's going on.

The main results are:

• Agreement to add a second meeting on Sundays at 3-4:30, starting 10/14. Mrs. McCurdy will send out an email to formally inform the parents. We can adjust the day and time if there are too many conflicts. We're hoping most of the team can make it most meetings.
• Consensus that a second robot kit will help by giving us more building pieces and allow the kids to break up into more groups to design and test their missions. This will pretty much consume the rest of the money collected at the season start. We discussed using the highlands tie-die shirts for team shirts since most kids have them and there are a couple spares among the coaches families.
• There are many ways to organize a group. Supernova is among the youngest and largest groups allowed by FIRST Lego League. We are lucky to have so many talented kids and we want them to be in an environment that feeds their amazing creativity. Long term, we decided on having 4 work stations going at a time. 2 for programming, 1 for robot hardware design and 1 for project work (adjust as necessary). We will rotate the kids every 15 to 20 minutes so they don't get bored. We'll try to keep groups to 2 kids, 3 as necessary. Depending on progress being made, we will adjust on the fly if it makes sense to let a group continue to focus.
• Meeting structure will be:

- Summary of last meeting and state agenda for this one. Mr. Emge and Mrs. Naughton will plan the meeting agenda by email on Tuesdays before each meeting.

- 10 minutes of "engineering secrets"

- work on challenge at the stations

- last 10 minutes each group summarizes what they did during this session as practice for the technical presentation

9/27 Meeting Minutes

We had a busy meeting last week.

Mr. Emge and attended the IL coaches' kickoff meeting and Mrs. McCurdy attended via conference call. We got a lot of good information about the rules and rubrics for tournaments, which was conveyed to the team. Mr. Emge also reviewed "TrialBot1" and the team discussed its design.

Mrs. Naughton worked with the kids to generate a list of questions for the Highlands contact that is helping us with our building survey. Those questions have been delivered.

Mrs. Emge is going to put up a poster of the rules, and insert the rules and Q&A into a binder for easy access without disturbing those using computers for robot or project work.

Trib-bot was back for practice and the boys worked in groups to work on designing their missions.
Patrick brought in a new mission order and discussed with Mr. Emge. It's now posted on the white board.

Action items:
Mrs. Emge: put up poster and put rules & Q&A into binder.
Mr. Emge: 1) Send window ratings information to Alex from a magazine he has. 2) Answer question: can we intentionally lose contact with an item, like a container, as long as we regain contact and return to base, or is it a stray object immediately?
Mrs. Naughton: send questions to highlands
All Coaches: coaches meeting before next Thursday.
Team: Continue their mission designs.

Meeting Minutes, 8/23/2007

The meeting flew by today. The team tried to put together the puzzle pieces on the map but we decided to defer that to work on some challenges.

The team populated the table with the challenge pieces that they built during the last two meetings. We discussed what we might need to do for the challenge and some strategy.

Paul was modifying the robot for moving uranium and corn.
Joey was working with Paul to also deploy the satellite solar panel with the same robot.
Paul, Nate and Alex were programming the robot to move corn.
Michael and Joey were programming it for the satellite.
Danny, Patrick and Andrew were programming it to move uranium.

With only 1 robot, Joey and Michael had some down time and went through a hands-on discussion of gear types and ratios.