Star%ng a WI FTC Team By FTC 4106 Supposable Thumbs 6/12/2017

Transcription

1 Star%ng a WI FTC Team By FTC 4106 Supposable Thumbs 6/12/2017

2 What is FIRST Tech Challenge Youth robo<cs program aimed at teaching 7 th -12 th grade students realworld engineering, business and interpersonal skills. A judged compe<<on involving a range of technical and non-technical areas. A sports-like compe<<on where robots bakle with and against each other with the goal to winning a championship. A hands-on opportunity for students to develop skills in mechanics, electronics, solware programming and a variety of business skills. Coaches and mentors teach teach concepts and real-world skills and bring perspec<ve from Industry. Students design, build, plan, compete, win, lose, succeed, fail, learn.

3 Flow of a season (Wisconsin) Timeframe September to November/December December/January Ac+vity Kickoff, start designing, building, programming Regional compe<<ons (1-3), possibly advance to state championship 1 st Weekend of February State Championship (UW-Milwaukee), 2 teams advance to Super Regionals 1 st Weekend of April Super Regionals (Cedar Rapids, IA) Possible advancement to World Championship 3 rd or 4 th weekend of April World Championship (Detroit) Year Round Year Round Year Round Improve Skills Make connec<ons with academia, industry professionals, other teams Do outreach ac<vi<es to spread FIRST and STEM in the community

4 Time Commitment Regional Level: 4-6 hours per week State Level: 6-10 hours per week Super Regionals Level: hours per week Worlds Level: 15+ hours per week There is significant value in the program at any of these engagement levels.

5 First Year Startup Costs ($6,500-$9,000) FIRST Registra<on ($275) Tools ($1,500) Alan Wrenches, screwdrivers, hammers Dremel Tool Metal cubng saw (recommend DeWalt DW872) Corded or Cordless Tool set (Drill, sawzall) Drills, blades, etc. Op<onal Tools Band Saw, Lathe, Mill, CNC router, logic analyzer, voltage meter, 3D Printer Ini<al Mechanical Kit of Parts ($1,000+) Need to decide on which part vendor to start Ini<al Electronics Set, incl. 2 sets of phones ($1,500+) New op<ons available (but unproven) Get enough bakeries and chargers to handle long prac<ces. (min 4) Consumable Materials ($200-$500) Lexan, sheet aluminum, paint, tape, etc. Computers x2, printer ($1200) Laptop for Programming, anything from tablet to desktop to do Engineering Notebook, prin<ng of team materials, social media, hun<ng for answers, etc. Relic Recovery Game Field Elements can purchase ¼, ½ or whole this year ($150-$600) Field Perimeter and <le ($100-$900) About $650 for the perimeter and $250 for the <le. Many teams do not buy the field perimeter in their early years. It can be made from PVC or wood, too. Many teams buy ½ field and some <le and work from that NOTE: We are selling our older (nicer) field Supplies ($250) Team T-Shirts ($150) Tournament Registra<ons ($175/regional, $250/state) Look for crea+ve ways to cut costs! FIRST sponsorship of registra<on Does your school already have a metals shop? That is huge! Rummage sales for tools or put an announcement out at school to have people bring unused tools in Can the school provide the computers? Can you use the computer lab for business ac<vi<es? Can a parent get a gently used laptop from a parent s workplace? Not everyone starts with a full field of game elements and many teams go without the perimeter or simulate it with wood or PVC for their first season.

6 A place to meet Ideally, a dedicated >25 x25 space But almost nobody gets that! Usually, some temporary space to setup, prac<ce, tear down The field is the primary space eater at 12 x12 If you do a par<al field, this can be easily set up and torn down each prac<ce Many teams work from mentor s/parent s homes Probably over 50% Provides more ready access to facility any <me Basement, Garage, Unused room OLen mentors have some preky nice shops sibng doing nothing

7 Mentors Two minimum at every prac<ce Strictly speaking, no special skills needed. Students do the work. To maximize learning, it can be good to have mentors with training in Programming (FTC uses Java on Android phones) Machine Shop Tool usage CAD (if you will have mill or 3D print) Marke<ng / Business / Finance It can be a good arrangement to have one coach work with robot students and one work with business students. Recommend that every student have ac<vity in both areas

8 Engineering Notebook This an essen<al ar<fact of the team s journey in FTC. If you want to be nominated for an award, it is a minimum requirement for all of them. Document everything you do as a team Outreach, akend kickoff, design, brainstorming, build, test, compe<<ons, etc. There is no standard. There is no best way has created a way for new teams to get started (we use it too) It is not intended to be a tradi<onal engineering notebook that tracks inven<on for patents. It is meant to be a story of the team s journey.

9 FTC Landscape (North Region, Global) Last year there were about 5,400 FTC teams in the world. This is split almost perfectly between West, East, North and South regions About 1400 teams in the Midwest (North) region. Iowa & Michigan are the biggest states in the region due to government support North Super Regional (NSR) held in Cedar Rapids Iowa 72 teams from 13 states make NSR Spots allocated by state team count, not compe<<veness MI gets 14 teams, IA gets 16 teams. MI is only middle school. WI=2, IN=3, OH=5, MN=6 many top teams for Inspire and World Champion come from these states

10 FTC Landscape (Wisconsin) Last year Wisconsin had ~40 teams that competed. Down a bit from the previous years Held 2 regionals, needs more. Wisconsin s compe<<veness at the top is very high 9956 didn t win an award at WI state, but won Inspire 1 st at regional and state level in Missouri MO is considered a strong state. The WI championship doubled the number of high RP scores in the Midwest when it was played and accounted for ~¼ of them overall. Every year, every team that advanced past state has done well Last year, for example: 4106 and 9956 made finals at super regionals and was highly ranked was NSR Rockwell Collins Innovate Award 3 rd at NSR was World Edison Division Finalist Captain was World Mo<vate Award Finalist 4106 Member (Tim) won World Dean s List Award 75% of teams are in Southeast Wisconsin.

11 Where to get Help Gracious Professionalism is strong in WI. Many strong programs are willing to help new teams Some tradi<onally strong programs to ask for help: 4106 Supposable Thumbs (New Berlin) 4605 RoboHackerz (Beaver Dam) 4116/8680/4115/etc. (Mequon Homestead) 265/5650 Viking Robo<cs and Viking II (Milwaukee) Phoenix (Madison BadgerBots) 6981 Hortonville Robo<cs (Hortonville) Web Resources FTC Forums are the best place hkps://lcforum.usfirst.org/ Reddit community is growing hkps:// Chief Delphi is weak TwiKer is very useful for keeping up with teams (search FTC)

12 State FTC Informa%on State FTC partner is UW-Milwaukee Contact is Juli Pickering ) State web site is super weak hkps://uwm.edu/engineering/our-people/community/ first-techchallenge/

13 What happens at a Tournament Early Morning: Hardware Inspec<on SoLware/ Field Inspec<on Inspec<ons & Interviews Judging Panel Interview might happen the night before at 2 day tournaments. Late Morning Opening Ceremony Qualifica<on Matches begin Randomly assigned partner, randomly assigned opponents ALernoon In-Pit Judging for Awards Qualifica<on matches con<nue un<l complete (usually 5 matches) Alliance Selec<ons (generally 3 team alliances unless <24 teams at event) Championship Rounds Awards Ceremony

14 Inspec%ons Hardware: 18 Box. Make sure build is legal, power s<ckers and safety s<ckers are in place. SoCware: Ensure all proper solware is on phones and that they are named properly Field: Brief test to ensure robot behaves properly in all game modes. Must pass all 3 tests to be eligible to compete

15 Judging Usually a panel of two to three professionals. 15 min with team, 5 min to score Can break up 15 min any way team wants Presenta<ons Videos Robot Demos Q&A <me Best teams in each category per panel are then judged for each award.

16 Robot Game 30 Sec Autonomous 2:00 Driver Controlled Last 30 Sec is End Game 2 Points for Win, 1 for Tie RP = bucket of points scored by losing team in your matches. RP Breaks <es in QP. Points are based on rules announced at Kickoff

17 Alliance Selec%ons Top 4 seeds are captains Each picks a partner team Then if 24+ teams, they pick a 2 nd partner Can pick each other

18 Championship (Elimina%on) Matches Must win twice regardless of <es All 3 robots must play in 1 st two matches Can call 1 <meout

19 Awards & Advancement Inspire goes to the top overall team Think = Engineering Notebook PTC Design = robot design and process Rockwell Collins Innovate = most innova<ve and crea<ve robot Control = most impressive control algorithms in auto and Teleop Connect = How you connected with professionals Mo<vate = How you keep yoru team going and how your reach out to share FIRST with other teams, get more teams going, etc. 3 nomina<ons per award Trophies for 1 st Awards FTC Values community engagement VERY heavily, so Inspire 1 st, 2 nd, 3 rd all are top advancement spots Inspire 1 st Winning Captain Inspire 2 nd Winning 1 st Pick Inspire 3 rd Advancement Winning 2 nd Pick (if made) Think Winner Finalist Captain Connect Winner

20 The Dean s List Named for Dean Kamen, FIRST s founder Individual MVP type award given to top students in every state Nominated by team and coaches as semi-finalists from their team Semi-Finalists interview with judging panels at the Regional tournaments. Different judges then review all interview notes at the state tournament to select 2-4 state-level Finalists. Considered the superstars of FTC in the region. These students are all entered into the Na<onal compe<<on and are invited to FIRST Championship for an awards event 10 of the students are selected as Dean s List Winners.

21 Random Thoughts Custom designing all the metal will cut costs, but you need a lot of mentor exper<se in machining and the right tools or connec<ons to a metal fab shop that will do it to your CAD design. There is no Right decision on which building system to use. We chose Actobo<cs, but REV and Modern Robo<cs are catching up in product offerings and TETRIX has more parts than ever and was the only allowed system up to 3 years ago. The system with the most parts will be the most expensive. You will want to use all the parts! Servos can be expensive if you burn them up! We recommend the REV smart servo. Can be both con<nuous and fixed rota<on and can be programmed to limit travel. NeverRest motors over Tetrix motors, but others are catching up! FTC is best when you take advantage of the fact that it has a long <me to learn before you get to compe<<on. Compete as much as you can. This is where the most fun and the most learning occurs.

22 A few notable differences from FRC Mentors are expected to be much less involved in design and decision making It s a different engineering problem to cram a complex robot into an 18 box Much smaller teams means much more hands-on learning by everyone who comes. Disengaged students will really stand out There is much more <me to teach, more <me to connect with industry while the season is in progress. Longer season encourages design refactoring. Embrace it! But resist the tempta<on to watch YouTube and copy. FRC teams sustainability models are different with bigger sponsors, longer team histories and many teams that are mentor dependent for existence. FTC teams have fewer sponsors and life<mes (sadly) are olen driven by the gradua<on of the founding members.

23 Resources hkps:// hkps:// resource_library/lc/rookie-mentors.pdf