Great Results from the GCS Qualifier

Sarah B. - OwlBot Researcher - 8th Grade

Sorry about the gap between recent posts; both teams were preparing for the qualifier last weekend. I am happy to announce that both the OwlBots and the Green Machine will be advancing to the state competition. In order to be eligable to advance, teams had to rank in the top 12 out of 24 teams in the robot game and be one of the top 6 overall across all categories. While our robot game results were not as good as we had been averaging in practice, our research projects and core value scores were excellent.

As well as advancing, the OwlBots won the Judges' Award for excellance in all categories, and Mr. O won the Adult Mentor Award. Both teams are looking forward to the competition at UMBC on January 19. We'd like to thank all of our mentors for listening to our project, and helping us improve it. 

The Face Scan App

Noah Montemarano - Owlbots Researcher - 8th grade

Instead of following our previous idea to create an automatic medication dispenser, the Woods Academy Owlbots have pursued a new, much more exciting idea - a facial recognition app. Our team wanted to invent something that would benefit early to mid-stage Alzheimer's patients by helping them to recognize and identify family and friends. By incorporating existing facial recognition software, we are developing an app for iPhone and iPad that, when has recognized a certain face, will say or play anything to help trigger a memory of that person. Whether it's a video, a recording, a song, or simply a name, this app could help countless numbers of patients have a comfortable sense of familiarity when approached.

To prepare for the presentation of this idea, the robotics team is using the judging rubric to create an outline for the new script. In addition, the scrimmage we attended at Greenbelt School helped us focus in on our areas of strength and areas of growth.  The advice from the scrimmage judges, as well as the discussion we had with Mrs. Tina Sandri and Mrs. Abby Smith, helped us get a clearer notion of the problem, and in turn our solution. Even though there are many unknowns about the presentation itself, the entire team is excited for the outcome (and hopefully success) of our final project. 

Learn from the Past Towards a Better Future

Gabe S. - Green Machine Programmer - 7th Grade

If there's one thing the Green Machine team gets right, it's learning from our mistakes to perfect our technique, both in the little things like missions and programs, to big things like teamwork. When a person makes a mistake on a mission, the whole group is immediately there to offer support and creative ideas. While in the beginning, we were a disjointed cluster of small coteries thrown into the same room, I feel we have really gotten to a point where we can call ourselves a team. We realized arguing and petty rivalries aren't going to help us win; it'll just end up with Mr.  Smith in a mental hospital.

It also struck us that laughing at another group's mistake is not getting us any medals, because in the end, you'll be working with those people to create a winning program, and those mistakes will come up. But our greatest accomplishment is the way we nearly perfected the art of working together, an aspect I feel was very much absent in at the start of our season. of course, pressure that comes with competition days away has helped this, but you can really see the Green Machine is a team that helps each other, learns from each other, and supports one another in all manners.

Judging Technical Design

Jack W. – OwlBots Programmer – 8^th  Grade

There are four areas in the FLL competition, one of these areas is technical design.  In this section you are judged on three main areas: Mechanical Design, Programming, and Strategy/Innovation.  Mechanical Design assesses your robot’s durability, mechanical efficiency, and mechanization. Our robot has a large box like frame which reinforces the robot, allows us to square up against walls, makes it easier to mount attachments, and gives it a balanced center of gravity.

Programming assesses the quality and efficiency of the software we designed to make our robot move and sense its environment.   Our robot has two light sensors, allowing us to straddle the black lines and a color sensor to identify uniquely colored areas on the board.  This allows our robot to make small corrections as it travels around the board making it more consistent as well as easier to program.

Finally, we are judged on Strategy and Innovation. We have some very innovative attachments:

• a spring-loaded device that shoots pegs at a ball, the ball then (hopefully) smashes into the bowling pins.
• a Y shaped attachment that squares up on the quilts which corrects for any steering errors.
• a ramp that allows us to climb a set of stairs onto the tilting table so that we do not have to drive to the far end of the board where a ramp already exists.

We have developed a script for the technical judging.  This means we will know ahead of time who will be talking about what missions and what exactly we are going to say.  This way we won’t forget to mention any of our design accomplishments.

Greenbelt Tune-Up

Ryon S - Green Machine Programmer - 5th Grade
 

On Saturday, November 17, 2012 the OwlBots and Green Machine went to Greenbelt Elementary School to do a practice competition to prepare for our qualifying competition on December 15. There were 7 teams that competed in the competition. The pratice compitition was a replica of the qualifying round exept there will be 22 teams at the real qualifier.
 

During the competition every team was judged one technical design and their project. We also did a couple of scrimmages against the other teams. Before the scrimmages, the teams got to practice a little and change some of the programs. At the end of the day the OwlBots were first and the Green Machine was second place in Robot Performance (the scrimmages).

Mission Descriptions and Points

Antoś W. - Green Machine Programmer - 5th grade

The Woods robotics team has been working to program their robots to accomplish various missions on the FLL Senior Solutions board. The missions are designed to highlight this years theme - helping to keep seniors active and healthy.  Here are the descriptions of each mission and the number of points you earn by accomplishing them.

Mission 1: Wood Working

Take the chair, bring it back to base, and repair it. 15 points. If the robot brings it out of base and places it under the table, 25 points; if you do not have any part of the chair under the table, you lose the 15 points and you do not get the 25.

Mission 2: Medicine

Use a color sensor to find the green medicine bottle, which is placed randomly on the board by the referee at the beginning of the robot games. Bring the bottle back to base. 45 points.

Mission 3: Service Animals

Push the gray disc, and bring the service animal (dog) to base. The dog’s movement must be initiated by the robot pushing the gray disc, but then the robot may push the service animal directly the rest of the way to base. 25 points.

Mission 4: Bowling

Bring the ball from base to the bowling alley, and make the ball, in any way, hit the bowling pins. Each pin is worth 7 points, and if you hit all the pins, it is 60 points.

Mission 5: Quilting

There are four quilts, two blue and two orange. Bring the four quilts from base and push them together to the other quilts that are already attached to the board. The quilts must be touching the small black triangle in the center of the quilts affixed to the board. Each blue quilt is worth 15 points, and each orange quilt is worth 30. A total of 30 points is possible for blue and 60 for orange. Total: 90 points.

Mission 6: Gardening

Move the plants from base to the garden on the board. The plants’ base must be touching the bright area around the garden. 25 points.

Mission 7: Similarity Recognition

Make the red pointer attached to the board parallel to the pointer attached to the other team's board. This is a teamwork mission. 45 points if the pointers are parallel, and 0 if not.

Mission 8: Flexibility

There are two yellow loops on the far end of the board, away from the base. One loop is close to the ground, but the other one is high up. Bring both yellow loops back to base. 20 points each.

Mission 9: Video Call

Raise the two flags next to the TVs all the way up. You get 20 points for each flag, 40 total.

Mission 10: Ball game

If nothing is done on this mission and the ball rack is left alone, each team automatically earns 70 points. There is a rack mounted between two boards, with half of it over your board and half over the opposing team’s board. There are seven balls on the rack, and each ball that stays on the rack is worth 10 points. There are three blue balls, three red, and one yellow. Yellow is neutral. Red and blue balls belong to one of the two opposing teams. If you push the switch, it moves one of your balls, which are the ones closer to your base, to the middle and knocks out the ball that is currently in the middle. At the end of the game, if your ball is in the middle, it is worth an additional 60 points for your team.  If you time it right and your opponents don't knock out any balls you could earn up to 120 points for this mission.

Mission 11: Stove

Flip the stove switch so it turns off the burners. 25 points.

Mission 12: Strength Exercise

Push the little lever on the fork-lift to raise the weights (the weights are Lego wheels) as high as you can. If you lift the wheels above the red mark, you get 25 points, and if the wheels are within the red mark, you get 15. If they are below the red mark, it is 0 points.

Mission 13: Cardiovascular Exercise

There are arms attached to a contraption on which they rotate. If you rotate them, a pointer moves slightly and you gain 5 points per quarter turn up to a total of 118 points. But, after every quarter turn, you must go back to base and start over from there if you wish to earn more points on this mission. It is very time-consuming to earn the total, and doing it would make it impossible to complete every single mission within the allowed time.

Mission 14: Transitions

Go onto the bridge, and balance the robot on it. If the robot is on the bridge, but it is tilted, it is 45 points. If it is completely balanced, you earn 60 points, but if the robot is touching the ground, 0 points. 

Back to the Drawing Board

Catherine H. – Green Machine Researcher – 6^th Grade

The researchers from both teams have been going back and forth with on so many ideas.  The Green Machine researchers thought they had come up with a revolutionary idea, a GPS watch that helped Alzheimers patients find their way around the house.  We soon discovered that the idea had already been created – back to the drawing board...

The Owl Bots also suffered through the same disappointment.  They thought they had a great idea for a pill dispenser that made sure the right combinations of pills were dispensed at the right time and it notified caregivers when a patient forgot to take their medications.   But with some further research they discovered that a very similar solution had been thought of just a year ago – back to the drawing board…

Luckily, one member of their team came up with an awesome idea new idea – a facial recognition app for iPhone and iPad so that Alzheimers patients can easily identify friends and family members’ names.  After a lot of research we are confident no other app exists for this purpose.

The Green Machine researchers have been looking at music and memory.  We decided on a keyboard attachment for wheelchairs but now we think our solution is too limited – back to the drawing board…

Broken File Halloween Spooktacular!

JD M. - OwlBots Programmer - 7th grade

  Boooo!  The required file is broken!  This software error message repeatedly haunted Winston and I as we desperately tried to program our "lever" program.  The object of this mission is to have the robot lift up a tire to represent physical therapy on the mission board.  Our biggest fear was that the broken file error message meant we had to re-program everything we had done so far.  The scary thing was that it happened on every robot, and on every computer we tried.  Even when we made a completely different program, it still did not work.  Finally we came to a conclusion, get Darius, a member of the Owlbots and an excellent programmer.  Darius and several of the other of the programmers from the Owlbots and the Green Machine came over to help.  Eventually we had to re-install the Mindstorms software on to the computer and, finally, it worked.  

What this means is no matter what obstacle we face, as a team we will always find a solution!  And you can expect weird technical glitches on Halloween.

Music and Memory

Briana L - Green Machine Researcher - 6th Grade

The Green Machine researchers have come up with a topic for our research project.  We went through a lot of ideas that didn’t quite work out, but we came to our final idea last practice!  We have known from the beginning of the season that we wanted to do something to help Alzheimer's patients.  Our idea is to design a piano keyboard attachment for a motorized wheelchair. The attachment would be removable for when you don’t want to play the piano.  We chose to do the piano attachment because when people have Alzheimer’s, music is one of the last things that they remember.  The piano is a way for an Alzheimer's patient to use music to reconnect with their fading memories.  We have already started our script which takes a lot of thought.  I can’t wait until we are finished with everything and ready to present!

Robots in Triplicate

Darius K. - OwlBot Programmer - 7th Grade

For the past month or so, the OwlBot programmers have split up into 3 groups of 2 programmers to come up with, design, and build a robot that they see would perform the best in the competition. Each team also created some demo programs to show the capibilities of their robot. Last week all the programmers had a lengthy discussion about the pros and cons of each robot. We decided to go with Winston and my robot. A variety of things influenced the decision.  First, our robot had a square frame, meaning it can align itself with the walls of the compitition table. Also, our robot heavily uses sensors to  keep track of where it is on the table. The other option is to use odometry, which counts rotations of the wheels to go a certain distance. When you initially start your robot, if you use odometry, there is a very small margin for error. If you use sensors, the robot can easily align itself with fixed points on the table.

After we chose the robot we will use for the rest of the season, we still have 3 sub-teams of programmers programming different missions. This week our team built the 3 robots each sub-team needs to program. We had to built our robot to exacting standards derived from the original robot. Everything from the size of beams and axles to the location of all the wiring had to be exactly the same as the original robot to avoid distinctions which can affect preformance. With multiple people programming on the same robot design, programming will be more efficient throughout the season.

Design Competition

Jonah B. - OwlBot Programmer - Grade 8

Until today the OwlBots have been divided into 3 groups of programmers.  Each "mini team" built their own robot and programmed a few missions for their robot to complete.  Today all three robots were thoroughly reviewed and judged on their performance.  Two of the three robots performed very well.  Winston's and Darius' robot was sensor based and focused on the harder missions, while Anthony's and JD's robot was rotation based and did the easier missions. Both robots had many pros and cons, but in the end we decided to go with Winston and Darius' robot with some of Anthony and JD's attachments, thus making the new robot capable of both easy and hard missions.

From there we proceeded to dissasemble the old robots and start copying the new one, so that we could have multiple copies of it for backup and so people could work on different missions at the same time. We are now unifying our efforts and moving towards the same idea. We now look towards the competition with more confidence, because we are that much closer to our goal of building a winning robot.

Building a Team

Molly O. - Green Machine Researcher - 6th grade 

 

The last couple of weeks we have been working on ideas for the senior solutions and the programers are building and programing their robots. But the last two Fridays we have worked on building our team. 

Last Friday we all were in Mr.O's room and we worked on teamwork. The first activity we did was that Mr.O gave us one sheet of paper and we had to cut it into a unbroken loop that at least two of the people on our team could fit inside. It was really difficult, but fun at the same time. My team figured it out and we could fit six people inside before it broke. We also did something when one team stayed in the room and built a model while the other team was out in the hallway. Then the people in the hallway sent in two or three people in the closet looking at the model while there was the rest of the team waiting for otal directions from their teamates to help them make an identical model.

Today we did an exersise in which Mr.O would give you a subject and you would have to speak fluently in front of the team without saying um, but, or like. It was really, really hard to do but funny to watch. Teamwork is very important to us.

 



Programming with My Blocks

Winston G. - OwlBot Programmer - 8^th Grade

Subroutines are a collection of programming commands that are used over and over again within the same program or set of programs. In the Lego Mindstorm software subroutines are called My Blocks. My Blocks not only save a lot of time when programming, they can simplify software design by automatically performing the mathematical calculations that are necessary to convert distances on the field of play into rotations on the robots motors. Here is an example of a MyBlock that allows the robot to follow a line that is printed on the field of play:

This block uses two light sensors straddling the line. It subtracts one brightness value from the other, divides it to make less violent changes, and passes it to the steering control of the move block.

The My Blocks are in blue. They each represent a frequently used combination of regular programming blocks.  Each blue block is really just a shortcut for ten or more regular blocks.  This program uses a My Block to follow a line until the robot detects a green object near the line.  The program then tells the robot to turn, pickup the green object, and follow the line back to base.

The idea for using My Blocks and our dual light sensor line following program came from the book Winning Design! Lego Mindstorms NXT Design Patterns for Fun and Competition, by James J. Trobaugh. This book is a must read for serious FLL teams.

Practical Attachments

Nicholas M. - Green Machine Programmer - 7th grade

 

Today in robotics, while it was pouring outside, three pairs of programming teams from The Green Machine were still building their robots.  Gabe Schneider and I were tweaking a program that uses a very practical attachment. The attachment flips up and down so when we don't need to use it, we flip it up. When we need to use it on a mission, we lower it before activating the mission. This helps save critical seconds of time when the robot is in base; when the robot comes back from the mission, we can either flip it up or down depending on the objective of the next mission.

The picture to the left is showing the attachment down. The picture to the left, shows the attachment flipped up so it won't interfere with the mission that doesn't need that certain part of the robot. The cords are cleverly tucked in so they also won't interfere.  

Tornado Warning

Chris M. - Owlbot Researcher - 7th Grade

This week's robotics practice started off with a tornado warning. We had to evacuate the classroom and moved into the front hallway. But that didn't stop us from having practice!! About 30 seconds later, they cancelled the warning and let us back into our classrooms. So lets now get to business!!

The Green Machine researchers have selected to research memory loss. Their subject was influenced by the visit of our senior mentor, Mrs. Smith.

The Owlbots have decided to research something related to medical problems for seniors. One idea we are focusing on is an automated medicine dispenser. An automated dispenser would distribute a pill at the selected time so seniors wouldn't forgot their medication. We are now going to do market research to see if there is a dispenser of this type already available. If not, we intend to speak with members of the medical community and seniors if this is something we should pursue as a viable senior solution. As a team, we need to encourage each other to stay on schedule so we can be prepared for our presentation deadline. We'll update you on our progress!!!

The Research Process

                                     
                                             Sarah B. - OwlBots Researcher - 8th Grade

       
Today is the researchers' 5th practice of the season; we have been busy coming up with challenges we can solve for this year's theme, senior solutions. The researchers' goal this season is to identify a struggle that senior citizens face, and find a creative solution to try and help.  We have several ideas, most of which are aimed at helping people with Alzheimer's and Dementia. Our first mentor, Mrs. Smith helped to steer us in that direction during her visit, and gave us some great ideas on some of the problems she has as a caretaker for her husband. Once we decide on a solution, we have to make a creative presentation; in the past we have done PowerPoints, skits, and even a mock- infomercial. We'll keep you posted on all of our ideas.

Woods Robotics Teams Welcome First Mentor

Noah M.-OwlBots Researcher - 8th Grade

Today was a lively day in robotics practice. Both Woods Academy Robotics Teams, The Owlbots and The Green Machine, met in Mr. O’s classroom after school. After a hearty meal of Ledo’s pizza and Gatorade (probably not the healthiest choice), the programmers quickly went to work on building their robots. Throughout the room, programmers were fidgeting with Lego pieces, discussing how to do the missions, and then going back to make adjustments to the robots. Meanwhile, the research teams were preparing for the upcoming presentation by their first mentor, as well as giving the programmers creative suggestions not yet thought of. Soon the teams first mentor was ready to speak. She was the grandmother of a member of the team and a caretaker of an Alzheimer’s patient, her husband. The mentor, Mrs. Smith, spoke about the heartbreaking difficulties of caring for a loved one 24/7, which means giving up almost all of your own social life. The researchers took notes on small possible problems that could be solved. After a few more questions the programmers and researchers went separate ways for the remainder of practice, researchers going to Mrs. Cunnane's room while programmers stayed in Mr. O’s. The rest of the practice the researchers jotted down problems they could take on later, while the programmers continued feverishly working on the robots.

Programmer Winston Grenier explaining game board 

to new mentor Mrs. Abigail Smith