RoboDoves

It All Comes To An End...

2009-05-06T20:41:00.002-04:00

Dallas was a lot of fun, although we did not do as good as we hoped. The robot suffered from damages from the plane ride to Texas. It seemed as though once one problem was solved 5 more would appear. We still had a lot of fun and made a lot of new friends.

The new Vex game was released after the competition, so we are excited. We now have something to look forward to this summer. For some of us however, this may be the last competition we attend. Us seniors will try to pop in from time to time. Some of us have decided to try and create a robotics team at the college we are going to attend. Those of us who are a bit closer to home will still be there. Every. Single. Day.

As the co-captain joining the robotics team was probably the best decision I have ever made. I had the opportunity to meet so many new people and learn more about engineering. I think I speak for all of the seniors who were a part of this when I say, I'm going to miss this.

Ready? Set. Go!

2009-04-21T18:45:00.002-04:00

Next week is what we have been waiting for, basically all year. The VEX World Championship in
Dallas, Texas. So for the next 5 days we will be programming and practicing. Today we managed to score in 2 goals during autonomous mode. (Yay!) Tomorrow we will continue with programming and driving. There seems to be so many things that we have to do right now. Programming, packing,creating a bill of materials, and more. So many things to do in so little time.

Even though we are all excited to be able to go to Dallas, we will stay focus. We will do the beat that we possibly can while there and hope for the best.

Atlantic Coast Vex Competition

2009-04-04T21:11:00.002-04:00

For the last three days the RoboDoves have been participating in the Atlantic Coast Vex Championship. After all was said and done, we ended up ranked in 5th place and going all the way to the semi-finals. We were apart of a really great alliance, teams 1078 and 1894. It was a pleasure working with you guys and congratulations to team 1078 for the award they received today.

We are very glad that we had the chance to hang out with team 1078 before they returned to Sweden. We had a lot of fun and we hope to see 1078 in future VEX competitions.

Team 2528 at the Chesapeake Regionals

2009-04-01T17:53:00.000-04:00

We Turn A New Leaf

2009-03-22T12:15:00.005-04:00

Congratulations to all the alliance members of team 2528. It was a pleasure getting to know on the field, and in some cases, off the field.

It is just so very shocking as to how everything just went downhill in our last two matches. But what is very more disappointing, is that other teams did not think of considering how awesome the RoboDoves are. But when all's lost, we will still get up and fly.

Today we will turn a new leaf and move forward. We realize that building an outstanding robot, creating unique programs in autonomous, and putting forward a committed and exceptional drive team is not enough. We also have to play the politics. So we will be big. Watch us become what we strive to be. But let it be known that there is no negativity in our committment to be better. Together with other FIRST teams we will work hard in giving back to the community, advocating for legislation in recognition of robotics, recruiting new members, and many, many more possibilities. Together we'll think beyond the horizon!

Before I go, I must extend congratulations to the champions. Enjoy the plane ride to Atlanta, and kick butt for Maryland!

2 More Qualifications to go

2009-03-21T06:56:00.004-04:00

The heat is on. Top 20 teams are already strategizing about what to do, how to play, whom they should pick should they be, or become seated teams. As for the RoboDoves, there is some room for improvement that might land us in a seated position. Either way, the chance of us playing is decent enough. (:)

Last night the RoboDoves attended team 75's mixer at the Westin Hotel . It was very live and exciting. We had a very good time with the teams we met there. Among them were team 303, who we totally adore for being such lunatics for FIRST.

Of course we talked to teams about forming alliances. Yes, we mean business. Above all, we were pretty impressed that teams defferred to us. They tried to sell themselves to us since the RoboDoves are in a very good positioon, as what we would do in the same position as they.

With good strategy, and enthusiasm to succeed above all, let's keep our fingers crossed that we win both matches.

I must say that if we are or become seated alliances that the most important thing we look for in a team, is there dedication to commmunicate and support.

Finally, congratulations to all the teams that won awards yesterday. Next year, we hope that our own mentors, Trevor Lewis, Paul Atkinson and Ron Karpinski, receive awards for being outstanding in managing, mentoring, and projecting our team into the right direction.

on the eve of Lunacy at the Chesapeake Regionals

2009-03-18T20:20:00.007-04:00

Awesome FRC Drive Team

"Looneys!"

check out our new sweatshirts and the cool new logo.

bad huh?

(This photo was taken on the eve of the Chesapeake Regionals in Annapolis)

Vex Elevation in Carrol County.

2009-03-15T22:12:00.008-04:00

Yeah! We won two awards at the VEX competition in Carrol County on Saturday. The event was hosted by the 4h club. Much thanks to you guys for the invitation.

So yes, on Saturday, we once again snagged the judges' award, and thanks to the programming team, we also received the programming award for the second time this season!! Go RoboDoves

Also thanks to team 748 and the team 948, for accepting our invitation to play on the alliance with the RoboDoves. Even though we didn't make it to the finals it was a pleasure having you aboard. Together we were bad...in a good way. (insider).

Team 748 congratulations on earning a pass to the Vex World Championship and we are looking forward to seeing you in Dallas.

Team 948, congratulations on coming this far in your rookie year. I hope you enjoy VEX just as much as we do.

Engineers Make The World Go Round

2009-02-24T19:21:00.004-05:00

So last Friday the RoboDoves went to the Baltimore Convention Center and gave a two presentations on FIRST and how it has affected us and our school. I think we did pretty well with presenting, we all had a chance to talk and we demonstrated last year's robot. We even got some people from the audience to try driving the robot.

The Convention itself was great. It was an engineering awards ceremony. We had the chance to meet with people from various companies and learn about what they do, various opportunities, and the need and want for engineers in their companies.

We are slowly making a shift from FIRST to Vex. Now I'm going to get to drive again!(Yay!) March will be a very busy month for both FIRST and Vex for us. Annapolis and Dallas being the highlights of the year.

RoboDOves take a FIELD trip

2009-02-21T15:57:00.007-05:00

Yesterday the RoboDoves spent the day at the Baltimore Convention Center, for the annual Black Engineering Conference.

The RoboDoves and the Woodlawn high school robotics team, TechnoWarriors hosted workshops about FIRST.

Overall, the day was loads of fun. We met lots of fun kids who were both middle school and high school age. It felt really good that we had the opportunity to inspire other teenagers to consider not only robotics, but a career in engineering and the other related fields of studies in math and science.

In the presentations, both RoboDoves and Technowarriors talked about their experience in FIRST robotics, the long hours they dedicate each week, and of course, the excitement it brings.

After our presentations, we went down to Conference room where there were many representives from colleges and companies that offered opportunites for aspiring engineers, or students who had potetntial of being great assets to their companies.

so long DIVAH

2009-02-17T19:56:00.006-05:00

Today we said goodbye to DIVAH!!!
HERE is a tribute I sing to DIVAH

so long farewell
to you my friend
goodbye FOr NOw
until we meet again!!!

Annapolis is just a few weeks away, but I'm not going luny yet for "Lunacy" .The anxiety will kick in around March 17. Just thinking about how close the competition is gives me gitters. I am so nervous about driving, but when the time comes I like all the other RoboDOves will overcome! (yay!!!:)

Almost Gone....So Long?

2009-02-12T19:22:00.002-05:00

The big day is almost here....shipping day. So right now we have been trying to get in as much practice as possible. We've also put the basket on the robot and covered all of the wires with a protective cover.

Today we tested out the various autonomous programs that we had created. For the most part they all seem to do what we wanted the programs to do, even though sometimes it was in the vaguest sense.

Although we will not be attending the practice on Saturday, we of course will be at competition and we can hardly wait.

Party In Robotics

2009-02-08T20:47:00.002-05:00

So I took the the song Party In Your Bedroom by Cash Cash and made it robotics related.:

Party In Robotics

There's a party in robotics all night long

There's alot of driving around

There's a party in robotics all night long

So here we go, drive around, and shoot into the goal

It feels like we'll win today

Rookies in our past, building up from where we were last

No one knew us, we had no history

We're about fun 'till we put our goggles on

Everyone will know us; the RoboDoves

The game in our head, a robot at our feet, us Doves will never scream defeat

There's a party in robotics all night long

There's alot of driving around

There's a party in robotics all night long

So here we go, drive around, and shoot into the goal

It feels like we'll win today

Screaming our chant, everyone knows where we are at

Check the ranks please and tell me where we are

We like who we are, we're unique, we're superstars

See that logo, The RoboDoves

The game in our head, a robot at our feet, us Doves will never scream defeat

There's a party in robotics all night long

There's alot of driving around

There's a party in robotics all night long

So here we go, drive around, and shoot into the goal

There's a party in robotics all night long

There's alot of driving around

There's a party in robotics all night long

So here we go, drive around, and shoot into the goal

It feels like we'll win today

We got a story made, PBS gave us fame

All girls team, that RoboDove speaks for itself

All we want, all we need, a trophy from a championship that we're gonna get this year

There's a party in robotics all night long

There's alot of driving around

There's a party in robotics all night long

So here we go, drive around, and shoot into the goal

There's a party in robotics all night long

There's alot of driving around

There's a party in robotics all night long

So here we go, drive around, and shoot into the goal

It feels like we'll win today

I love the DIVAH

2009-02-06T20:18:00.014-05:00

Driving DIVAH is totally awesome!!!

For the past few weeks Kayanna and I have been driving DIVAH. I feel that the design and programming is excellent. But I can't determine exactly how advantageous the robot design will be in the competition, considering the designs of other teams' robots.

From the videos I have seen on youtube, I found that there are teams who are using shooting mechanisms .However, I didn't see a wide variety of picking up mechanisms.

Being a driver takes concentration and practice. I can remember when I first tested out my driving skills on the robot in last year's game. BOy O BOy. I was terrible. I bumped the robot into lockers, sent shivers through everyone who thought I was going to knock them over, and worst yet, I thought I was capable of running the robot over a cliff. (really). Clearly I was afraid of the robot.
(I didn't run the robot over a cliff; just the thought of it popped into my head and sent shivers down my spine)

Now this year, my attitude and development of skill has changed for the better. I am no longer afraid as I was the first time. I am much more aggressive and confident. I feel as though I am the only one who really understands DIVAH for who she really is. This is what I know about DIVAH : She hates being bumped into walls, and so I am mindful of doing such things to hurt her. Another thing she hates is running on low power, so I make sure she is fuelled up just right.

It is also important that I as a driver develop good communication skills with the other robot operator (Kayanna). She directs DIVAH when she should pick up, spit out, elevate, and lauch the game pieces.

February 17 (shipping date to Annapolis) is slowly approaching and spending time with DIVAH is the number one priority of the drive team.

There may be teams at the competition with similar designs as the RoboDove "DIVAH", but the difference will be the operating team behind it.

D.I.V.A.H. Says " I Can Shoot, I Can Score"

2009-02-05T21:35:00.002-05:00

So today we finally got ourselves a trailer to practice with. Things are looking pretty good with D.I.V.A.H' s ability to score. We still have a few more things to do before the robot is done. Our drive teams also needs more practice.

Soon the shipping date will be upon us and like the rest of the world, we will have to part with our robot for a small amount of time until we go to regionals. Something that everyone is looking forward to.

...So The Robodoves Gave Birth To A D.I.V.A.H.

2009-02-04T21:29:00.003-05:00

It's officially! The new robot's name is D.I.V.A.H. Which stands for Doves Innovated Versatile Advanced Hardware. Lovely isn't it.

Not only do we have a name now, we also have a nearly complete robot! It picks up balls and shoots them, it is everything we wanted.

We now have a video of our robot in action. You can find it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrjDnqMm5Uw

-I even tried driving today! It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

na na na A DIVAH is a???

2009-02-04T20:02:00.012-05:00

Now that our robot is almost complete and already up and running, we have been thinking of promotional ideas for the team and also the robot.

Last year, Mr. karpinski (mentor) suggested that we name our robot "COLUMBA", which means dove in latin.

This year we are pulling our inspiration from Beyonce's hit "DIVA".
The idea is that the name of the song would be used as an acronym. Here are two of the many suggestions we brainstormed before finallizing the official name as of today:

Doves
In
Vigorous
Action

and

Doves' InnoVative Assembly

After three days of putting our creative juices together (and thanks to Johnai, also a RoboDove) , the official name of the RoboDove 2009 FRC robot is DIVAH, which is the acronym for
Doves' Innovative, Versatile and Advanced Hardware

Videos! Names! And Just Fun Games!

2009-02-02T20:47:00.003-05:00

So today we recoded the robot picking up game pieces and shooting them out. We intend to make a video of the robot showing its progress from day 1. We all pretty much agree that we like this year's robot more than last year's robot.

Also we began talking about what to name our robot. So far we have decided to to name the new robot Diva. We want to make an acronym but so far we have been hitting a dead wall with that. We also played a good game of soccer with robot. Testing Ashley's driving skills was never so much fun.

Our driver is doing extremely well. She has a lot of control over driving the robot. Although once we are on the actual playing field it will be much different from our practice.

NEW LOGO

2009-01-31T17:39:00.009-05:00

Yesterday we selected a new logo design for our team and it would most likely appear on our t-shirts, banner, website, buttons, and other promotional items for our team. We can even use our new official logo as a letter head . Sounds so cool and official!

This new season, the RoboDoves will be "rockin' " RoboDove sweat shirts or hoodies at our competitions. I like the idea because now we are presenting ourselves in a new look, and in the same way redefining ourselves as part of the hierarchy of veteran teams now that our rookie year is over!

I really like the new design for our logo. It is very rock and roll and attention grabbing.
My only suggestion for a change in the design would be some eyelashes. All it needs is a feminine touch considering that we are an all girls team. Thanks to our "graphic designer", we have a cool new logo to show off and even more importantly, to be recognized by.

So this is how I would describe the logo: It has this mascot look. There are wings, a beak, and a cool squarebot head with eyes that say "u betta watch out, they'll slam u", (lol) .
The colors are red, black and white (our school colors). Sounds pretty bad huh? ("bad" in a cool and exciting way!)

In a few days the new RoboDove logo will be up and ready on the website so check it out ASAP!!!

meeting today

2009-01-29T10:49:00.004-05:00

This is for all the RoboDoves who might happen to view this post today. We have a meeting today. Try to make it to school between 12 and 1 o'clock. Mr. Karpinski is already there. There's work to do in so little time, so chop chop! (lol) See you there!

Hey I am Ashv-v, Co-Captain of the RoboDOves

2009-01-29T10:19:00.006-05:00

O yea maybe I should introduce myself too. Hello readers I'm Ashley or (Ashv-v), a RoboDove. I am team Captain (well co-captainwith Rian, who by the way is totally awesome), and I also manage the website (paste this into your browser and check it out: robotics.westernhighschool.org ).
I love robotics because it's something fun to do. My favorite robotics team is team 2528 (the RoboDoves) well of course;it's my team. I love travelling and can't wait for Dallas, Texas this spring for VEX, and Annapolis for FRC this March.
Thanks to our wonderful VEX drivers Rian and Amber, the team has earned an invitiation to Dallas, Texas for the VEX world championship.
Last year it was in California and boy was that fun. This year its in Texas, and I can't wait to meet new and old international teams.
My favorite international teams we met last year in California were the Brazilian teams, the British teams, the Chinese teams, and of course the Hawiians. I love their fun personlaities!
Just imagine how chaotic it was when we found out that the Bteam was on our alliance for a match. So we speak English and they Portuguese. I remember the driver looked at me and said in english, "speak spanish!". Thank goodness that I really do pay attention in spanish class, because our alliance actually did win the match!
Being on an alliance with the Chinese team was funnier. We ask them a question and they answered, "yes". We asked them another question and they replied "yes" again. That was funny because the second, "yes" contradicted the first "yes". In the end the alliance won the match!!! hooray!
Lets just say we are very fortunate to have team members who pay attention in their foreign language classes!

Robotics Documentary

2009-01-23T16:45:00.006-05:00

So, the Western RoboDoves, were selected as one of the teams to participate in KETC's FIRST Robotics Documentary.

The documentary should be out sometime soon, the RoboDoves, are showed periodically throughout the vid, we're usually the one's in red--or the group of all girls. lol.

Go RoboDoves!

Here is a Sneak Preview of it:

2 Steps Forward...3 Steps Back

2009-01-22T19:09:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, Cynthia L. Jones and Sandi Austin from Eagle Alliance came to meet us. Eagle Alliance is a possible future sponsor for us(hopefully). They seemed to be very interested in us the robot and what we do. The two of them were unfamiliar with the game so we gave them a quick run down of the new game.

Today there seemed to be a couple of mishaps. Two of us (wouldn't know who *cough*) made the bumpers wrong. So we had to take them apart and redo them. Today we began to play good old PS2 game to practice simulated driving. However, our official driver lost nearly every game she played. It made us all have such great faith in her...not.

-Oh and instead of constantly eating pizza we got chinese food!

So much to do--So little time

2009-01-21T19:20:00.002-05:00

Well, today was a busy day. Not only were the students of Western taking their Math and Science mid-terms, but after the exams, the robotics students gathered for a full-day of work.

We built the side and back bumpers for the robot, and the driver(s) practiced working with the robot, and maneuvering around obstacles. Also, we figured out how we wanted our acquiring "apparatus" to be controlled. The programming team, Amber (my apprentice) and I, worked on the program, and uploaded the new code onto the robot.

Today wasn't just a day of work though, it was a time to relax, and just hang out. We splurged and bought some pizza (with money we barely have).

Soon the team is going to have to work more with the party that we're planning to throw in order to gain some money so that we good afford to go on all the trips that we want to.

Also, our sponsors visited today. But, one of the other team members will be writing more on that.

♥ Thalida

Welcome...welcome.

2009-01-17T23:59:00.009-05:00

Hi! So, I just created the blog, and I figured it'd be good to introduce myself. My name is Thalida, and I am the programmer, for my robotics team, the RoboDoves.

So, anywho, the team's been working hard these past couple of weeks with the new robot, that we will be competing with in the First Robotics Competition (FRC). We only have 6 weeks, to build and test and program, so we're working on over-drive right now.

Thanks for reading, and we'll be posting more soon.

p.s. Check out my personal blog: Girl Half-Full

Also, soon I'm hoping that each member of the club, will have their own personal blog, if you would like to follow the goings on of them individually.