The Olympia Robotics Federation (ORF), team 4450,  represented Olympia well at the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC)  Auburn meet, ending up 5th overall (out of 40 teams) and bringing home the Spirit Award. ORF’s robot (called USS Kelvin), an Einstein class starship, was designed to cross several defenses, pick up “boulders”, shoot boulders into castle windows and scale the castle walls. This year’s robot has more complicated functions than previous ORF robots, including a pneumatic gear shift which could also shift power to the climbing motors from the drive base. So, naturally more things can also go wrong.

ORR’s first trials came when the robot inspector pointed out that the robot had several issues.  It was 1/2 pound overweight, 1″ to tall and had a pneumatic valve with an illegal part number. The ORF pit crew had to remove a set of arms that were created to manipulate defenses (portcullis and cheval de frise) and then take the robot apart to extract the valve. This brought the robot into compliance, but left no time for testing and calibration of the robot before the matches.

In the first qualifying matches, the team had an excellent start with accurate shooting making a strong impact.  ORF’s robot, the USS Kelvin,  was the first robot to scale castle wall, (after our alliance defeated the castle with 8 boulders).  This made team 4450 jump to 3rd place. Then the trials and tribulations started:

1. The robot was knocked over by another robot accidentally, finishing the match on its side.
2. After scaling the castle wall, the judges declared our kickstand that placed the robot in climbing position was not legal as it raised the rear bumper off the ground too far.
3. A wire came loose at the beginning of the game and our robot sat out that match.
4. The router fell off the robot and did not work for the rest of the match.
5. The autonomous program (first 15 seconds) was not functioning.
6. And to top it off…  a screw came off our gear shift and the robot could only move in a circle.

The pit crew along with the drive team repaired each of these problems except the kickstand between matches, so ORF lost 3 out of 9 games in the process and ended the first day in 18th place.

On the second day of the FRC Auburn competition, ORF had three more qualifying matches and they won all three, including one where their alliance defeated four defenses and the castle so that they gained the maximum of four ranking points for that match and three in our other two matches. These three wins catapulted ORF into 5th place at the end of qualifying matches in which ORF became an alliance captain, so they could select partner teams for the finals.  During alliance selection, team 4450 was then selected by the 3rd seeded and became part of the third seed alliance. The  alliance won the first quarterfinal match, but lost the next two matches by only a few points and a penalty and just missed the semifinals.

The day was capped by ORF winning the Spirit Award for team cheering, the Star Trek fun theme and the presentation to the judges. The team members of ORF also nominated Peter Cook (Head ORF mentor) for the Outstanding Mentor also known as the “Woodie Flowers Award”.

Next, ORF heads to Ellensburg to compete at their next FRC competition on March 18 and 19. We expect them to again finish in the top of the division!  

To check out the FRC game, Strong Hold, follow this link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqOKzoHJDjA
Go ORF!!!

Team 4450 at FIRST Day in the Washington State Legislature

Team 4450 participated in FIRST Day in the Washington State Legislature with several other teams from around the State on January 18, 2016. The Team brought a robot (Ibex) and a tri-board of information about the team. The students explained the FIRST program and their activities to legislative staff members and legislators who came by the teams in the hallways of the State Capitol Building Then the students met with the two Representatives of District 22, Chris Reykdal and Sam Hunt, and their staffs to explain what we do with robotics and in the community.

The messages we focused on were: (i) FIRST = STEM, (ii) robotics is a sport where anyone can go Pro, and (iii) we would like to see robotics taught in all of Washington State Schools. We asked if they would like a list of the schools in their District where there is currently a robotics program. They said yes and we provided that list to them as a follow-up later.

Team 4450 Mentors meet Representative Reykdal to Support Statewide STEM Robotics

On February 1, 2016, Peter Cook and Randy Steele met with Representative Chris Reykdal of District 22 as a follow-up to the Team 4450 meeting with him on MLK day (FIRST day at the legislature). The point of this meeting was to support an initiative by Washington First Robotics and the Olympia School District to train teachers state-wide in STEM Robotics 101 as an intro to computer science (among other things).

Rep. Reykdal was highly enthusiastic and agreed to write a letter of support for this proposal to Office of the Superintendent of Instruction which has issued a request for proposals on this topic. (see attached letter). This is a major step toward expanding STEM Robotics teaching in the State.

This past Sunday, the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) South Sound Inter-District Championship was held at Wilson High School in Tacoma, WA.  The Olympia School District (OSD) fielded ten competitive teams out of 30 teams from around the South Sound.  The competition was very strong and teams gave it their all.

Team 9877, the Olympia High School Care Bears, earned their way into the semifinals as the 3th seed alliance captain and Capital’s team 9876 The Countdown, was the 4th seed alliance captain.  Team 8546, from CHS, Ultra Violet Catastrophe was picked to join the 2nd place alliance.  All in all, three Olympia School district teams made it into the semifinals at the South Sound inter-district championship.  When all was said and done, the Quality bears from Olympia High School made it into the finals where they lost, but still move on to FTC Washington state championship because they were the 2nd place finisher alliance captain.

There are other ways for teams to  move on to the state championships and that is through judging and awards.  And two of the Olympia School District teams did that!  The Avanti Mutants earned a berth at the state competition through the Inspire award as did 8548 “The Refs” from Olympia high school.

Congratulations to team 9877, the OHS Care Bears, team 9814, the Avanti Mutants and OHS team, 8548, The Refs. making it to the FTC Washington State Championship.  Good Luck!

The Washington State FTC Championship is going to be held Saturday, January 30 at the ShowWare center in Renton.  Robot competition will start sometime after 11:00.

If you would like to see a video of this year’s FTC competition, follow this link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inwQ_ykNKQI

This Sunday, Jan. 17, ten teams from Avanti High School, Capital High School and Olympia High School will head to Wilson High School in Tacoma to compete in the FTC Inter District championship.  All together, around 20 teams will be competing for a birth at the FTC Washington State Championship. In past years, teams from the Olympia School District have proven to be a “Power House” and we expect that many these team will move on to the FTC State Championship on Jan 30, at the ShoWare Center in Renton, WA.

The name of this year’s FTC challenge is FIRST ResQ and this game is quite challenging. Robots have to pick up debris, climb mountains and rescue climbers.  If you would like to learn more about the game, here is the link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inwQ_ykNKQI

Team 4450, The Olympia Robotics Federation (ORF) went Saturday, Jan. 9,  to the Kickoff event of the 2016 FIRST FRC season and received the challenge called FIRST Stronghold for teams around the world. This year the game is about storming a castle, which involves breaching outer defenses, throwing “boulders” into the opponent’s castle and scaling the walls if the castle is weakened. This looks very challenging and a lot of fun!

As usual, the team has 6 weeks to design and build our robot.

Team 4450’s competition dates are:
Auburn Mountainview – Mar 4-5
Cental WA Univ – Mar 18-19
Portland PNW Championships – April 7-9 (if we qualify)
World Championships in St Louis – April 28-30 (if we qualify)

To see an animated version explaining the challenge go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqOKzoHJDjA.

Go ORF!!!