Event

We won the website award! The judges said that this was the cleanest site that they had ever seen, and liked how our Twitter feed was integrated with a gallery!

Additionally, Paige Grody is a Dean's List finalist. She's now competing for the national Dean's list award, to be decided during the Nationals in St. Louis.

Other than those awards, the LigerBots fared decently. Neither our minibot arm nor our logo piece manipulator worked well, but we found that our robot excelled at defense. We're going to work on both arms in the month until Boston Universities' Regional. After all of the matches ended, we were ranked 17th (we won six matches but lost five).

The minibots often seem to decide the matches. A great alliance can score 30 points of tubes during the game, but most score only about ten points of tubes. Even with the racks packed, tubes score 2*(3*3+2*3+1*3) = 36 points. The first two minibots score 30 and 20 points, respectively. A good minibot can easily make an alliance.

Yesturday was the first day of the WPI regional. As always, Thursdays are reserved for unpacking, setup, and troubleshooting. We worked through all of our mechanical troubles yesturday - at the end of the day, our robot moved! It's always impressive to see what everyone is able to design and create in six short weeks of building.

Yesturday afternoon, the LigerBots recruited several other teams for a giant outdoor game of Capture the Flag. The game started with a few members of our team. We invited a few other teams to join and soon had a massive game running, with thirty people on each team. The sort of people who join FIRST teams are awesome.

Qualifying matches began at 9:00 this morning. We lost in the third match after opening ceremonies, but only by a few points (3-11). (A stream is accessable at mms://media.wpi.edu/firstregional. Scores are from http://www2.usfirst.org/2011comp/events/WOR/matchresults.html)

Our Friday matches:
#11 - 10:48 am (Blue)
#15 - 11:16 am (Red)
#19 - 11:44 am (Blue)
#29 - 2:03 pm (Blue)
#34 - 2:38 pm (Blue)
#37 - 2:59 pm (Blue)
#43 - 3:41 pm (Blue)

Saturday matches:
#51 - 9:37 am (Blue)
#60 - 10:40 am (Red)
#65 - 11:15 am (Blue)

Hey everyone!

We did it! The robot is off! It can drive! But we still have a lot to do before competition. We will be scheduling post-build meetings to train team members how to speak to judges in the pit, look on the calendar for these meetings, and we will probably send out an email too. We will just be telling you what they usually want to know about the team. We will also be assembling the chairman's award video for the Boston regional, so if any of you want to help out with that let us know at the next meeting. There is also the part of completeing the equiptment that we held back... But this week is all about vacation and relaxing.

Speaking of relaxing, I will be hosting the first Ligerbot student movie night tomorrow night (Wednesday). If you missed my email it will be at my house (look in the directory for directions or email me) from 7:30-10:30pm. The movie will be decided there, but there will be other activities going on. I hope you all can come because there will be cake!

Hello All!

The Dexter School FLL Competition is this Saturday! The calendar has details. If you click on the event, then "more" (at the bottom of the popup) you will find a lovely map! (It'll even give you directions, if you ask nicely!) Please come and help - Greg Koker needs all the volunteers he can get! It will be a lot of fun and you might be working with some of these kids when they come to North or South. Note: this will count towards the required two hours of volunteering. Make sure to sign in (and out) with Evan.

GO FIRST!

Hello members, parents, coaches, mentors, and sponsors,

As some of you may be aware, the Ligerbots will be present for the opening of the Newton North's Innovation lab on Tuesday, December 7th. The Innovation lab is a place where people can recieve help in developing their ideas. For example, if someone wanted to start a business that promoted STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) he or she could come to the Innovation lab for suggestions and aid.
Please come and show your support for NNHS, PTC, and the LigerBots! Our team is a perfect example of what we expect the Innovation lab to produce!

    Hope to see you there,
        Team 2877, the Ligerbots

Pictures are up! I have put up the pictures taken at the Ice Cream Social that Whole Foods hosted for us. If you took pictures it would be great if you could add them to the gallery.

The fundraiser was a lot of fun and we will hopefully do something like it in the fall.

I'd like to thank Whole Foods for donating their time, part of their parking lot, the front of their store, and lots of yummy ice cream! I'd also like to thank Clarence, his dad, and Ava Fantasia for making the whole fundraiser possible.
^{Note: Most people can't upload images. Email them to Ruthy or a member of the web team for posting. Thanks!}

The Ligerbots will be running an ice cream fundraiser courtesy of Whole Foods Market in Newton Highlands.  This event will happen on Friday July 30th from 4-8pm.  We will have the robot, promotional materials and are working on getting entertainment.  We encourage everyone to come by to support the team and have some ice cream!

There will be food, LigerBots, and a pretty cool robot. It should prove interesting so come on down!!.

Ligerbots,

Today, Friday, June 25, at 3:00 we are hosting a party in room 118 at North.  There will  be yummy food and we can all hang out in 118 for the last time ever!  Also, we will be pulling the raffle.  If anyone has sold any more tickets please bring the ballots to the party. 

Hope to see you all there!

The Beantown Blitz is coming up (the 22nd)! In preparation, we have decided to fix the robot and get it into good working condition. First, one of our gearboxes lost its key. The motor itself spun happily, but none of the gears did. We ordered 10 keys: one to fix the gearbox, and nine to stave off Murphy's Law. We're also working on fixing the arm. As it stands, the arm goes up quickly, but barely moves under the full weight of the robot. We're trying to fix that by adding bungees. They will add resistance to the arm as it rises, but provide a boost to reduce the effective weight of the robot as it pulls up.

The Blitz will be held at Matthews Arena (Building 22 44 on map).

We're working on planning Meet the Robots again, too. We may set up a small field and demo our robot above the floor. We're still working on planning, so more details will be posted as they emerge.

Benji

P.S. Sorry for the long break in updates, but we had little to report after Boston, then I had AP bio finals. They were great fun!

Our annual event "Meet the Robot" held at the Hyde Community Center will be held on Sunday, June 12 from 1:00PM to 4:00PM.  This is a fun filled day for people of all ages with activities related to science and engineering.  There will also be snacks, games, activities and an exciting raffle!  "Meet the Robots" is a fundraiser for the LigerBots.  We hope to see you there!

The Team Spirit Award sponsored by Chrysler recognizes extraordinary enthusiasm and spirit through an exceptional partnership and teamwork.  The dynamic mixture of a positive attitude, camaraderie, and motivation lifts this spirited team above the rest of this large group of energenic competitors!

A Poem:

East is East and West is West

And never the twain shall never meet

But when it comes to spirit in the team

It's North and South that Meet!

Go LigerBots!

Congratulations Team #2877

Well, BU starts today! You can watch a stream from the competion via NASA and Bluealliance. Carpooling data is attached (at the bottom). Print one! Print five and give them to friends! At least know where you need to be, okay?
Good luck, everyone!

Schedule:

Thursday, March 25, 2010

7:45AM 3 Team Reps to uncrate
8:30AM Pits and Machine Shop open
8:30AM-12:00PM Registration and inspection
10:00AM-4:30PM Practice rounds
12:00PM – 1:00PM Lunch
8:00PM Pits and Machine Shop close

Friday, March 26, 2010

8:00AM Pits and Machine Shop open
9:00AM Opening ceremonies
9:30AM-5:00PM Seeding matches
12:00PM-1:00PM Lunch
5:15PM Awards ceremony
6:30PM Pits and Machine Shop close

Saturday, March 27, 2010

8:00AM Pits and machine shop open
9:00AM Opening ceremonies
9:30AM-12:15AM Seeding matches
12:15AM-12:30PM Alliance Selections
12:30PM-1:30PM Lunch
1:30PM-4:30PM Final rounds
4:45PM Awards ceremony
6:30PM Pits close, crates packed for shipping

Dear Friends of the Ligerbots and FIRST,

Team 2877, the Ligerbots wish to maintains its pledge to the values of the FIRST by expressing its commitment to gracious professionalism and coopertition. The Ligerbots family wishes to commend FIRST and the WPI Regional volunteers for a professional job well done and thank them for the enormous time and effort committed. We hope that everyone who attended the regional had as much fun as we did, and we hope the rest of your season goes well.

Today was our first competition day this year.  It was at WPI in Worcester.  We finished the qualifying rounds in 6th place out of 29 teams.  We won the Image Award for looking pretty awesome overall, great job everybody.  Our robot died a couple of times on the field. We started the day with a defective router, and replaced that. Next, another communication broke down (cat5 cable, perhaps)? After that, another team hit us and our battery cable severed right at the crimp.  On the last match, our wheels wouldn't move, but the kicker worked.  The pit crew did a great job fixing everything when it broke, and the whole team ran incredibly smoothly during the competition.  When the robot was working, it was fantastic! The kicker kicks a fair distance and will kick over the bumps on the field, and the Lexan plow (soon to be replaced with metal) lets us push the ball and score into a goal with ease.

One last note: The arm was nearly complete at Worchester, but it needed a cable tensioner because there are two cables (one raises the arm, the other pulls the robot up). For the arm to work correctly, both cables must be tense. Otherwise, the cables will fall off of the pulleys, then bad things happen. Anyway, Rosie Robotics suggested a cool idea for a tensioner, but we needed access to our own machines to build it. Expect a working arm for Boston.

Good job guys, see you at Boston.

As you probably know, we'll be going to the Worcester competition Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of this week. Thursday only has practice rounds - no qualifying matches. That said, we'll be putting the arm on then, and attaching our repaired wheels. We now have longer bolts (and locktite) to prevent rollers from slipping off. Friday and Saturday will be competition days, and awards will be presented at the end of each day. If anyone is wondering, the Boston event is two weeks after Worcester. We'll be busy.
Finally, carpooling data, and a schedule, are available for download. As always, the FIRST website has plenty of data, as long as you can find it. Additionally, WPI has a website for the regional. It might be helpful. Isn't the internet a wonderful place?

WPI Schedule:

Thursday, March 11, 2010
 7:45AM   Robot Uncrating 
8:30AM      Pits and Machine Shop open
8:30AM-12:00PM   Registration and inspection
10:00AM-4:15PM   Practice rounds
12:00PM – 1:00PM  Lunch
8:00PM      Pits and Machine Shop close
 
Friday, March 12, 2010
8:00AM      Pits and Machine Shop open
9:00AM   Opening ceremonies
9:30AM-4:00PM   Seeding matches
12:00PM-1:00PM   Lunch 
4:30PM   Awards ceremony
6:00PM      Pits and Machine Shop close 
Saturday, March 13, 2010
8:00AM      Pits and machine shop open
9:00AM   Opening ceremonies
9:30AM-11:30AM   Seeding matches
11:45AM-12:00PM Alliance Selections
12:00PM-1:00PM   Lunch
1:00PM-4:15PM   Final rounds
4:30PM   Awards ceremony
5:00PM   Pits close, crates packed for shipping

See you there,
Benji

p.s. If anyone has a 3g connection for a computer, or something to display on the projector, bring it. The cooler it is, the better. As of now, we're showing photos. Video, or internet feeds would be really cool. Just saying.